A sad day :(

[treeman82]

This morning I went up to the Godzilla people to take down a good size maple tree and remove a few misc branches near the house. I tell my new guy Mario to fill up my saws (020T / 044) with gas and oil. Well he goes and does like he is told. I take the 020 up into the maple with me and get a couple of leaders done. When I am blowing out the last branch in the top of that half of the tree... my saw shuts down. I can't get it started again and had to send it down. I had the cut far along enough where it broke on its own. However I had to finish off the spar with my 044. I tell Mario to clean up while I bring the saw to a buddy of mine to check out. He looked at it and diagnosed it with a scored cylinder. We finished cleaning up the maple tree and called it a day. I went down to the lawn mower shop and asked for a new saw instead of the trailer we had agreed on. My customer said "I have no money blah blah blah" I found out that parts alone for the repair are $200.00 I took off without a new MS200. So now I have no climbing saw. On the way back home I checked out my gas can which we had been using for ALL of my 2 cycle stuff this week. REGULAR GAS!!!! We ran about 1/2 a tank through my 044, probably a full tank through my 020, and a bit through my Shindiawa back pack blower. I ALWAYS keep that tank mixed. I would LOVE to know how it got to be regular. I leave my gas tank unattended a lot over at the deli, so possibly they did something with it? I am PISSED right now. I think that damage has already started to occur in the 044.

 

[DDM]

Darn Matt I hate to Hear that. Someone probably used up Your gas and refilled the can for you.

 

[treeman82]

Honestly Dave, that's what I am thinkin too. I remember I used the stuff on Saturday and everything was fine, had that nice reddish tint to it. Opened the can today... CLEAR. I figure it was either the deli people.. or I took the car to the mechanic to be inspected... possibly they used it?

 

[DDM]

Whos Mario? Maybe He sabotaged ya.

 

[treeclimber165]

I worked with an outfit for 4 days once. On my first day I had to block up some wood to load in the truck. Saw ran out of gas, so I went back to the truck to fuel it. The mix can I had seen others using was empty. Being 9:00AM, I assumed there would be more mix gas on the site (what idiots don't bring fuel to a big removal job?). I asked another guy where there was more mix gas. He told me to use the big 5 gallon can in the pickup. I looked at and smelled the gas, it looked like regular. I asked him again, he said it was mix. Several guys used it all day, the Husky I was using seized up on the second tank. 2 other saws seized up that day.

Seeing that this was a well-managed organization, I decided I would probably fit in better somewhere else after a week of similar mishaps.

 

[SpikedSupra]

If you want something done right....

...you have to do it yourself it seems. What kind of groundman puts gas in the saws w/o checking the fuel first. When my boss asks me to fill the saws I ALWAYS make sure that the saw has plenty of oil and that the gas I am filling is mixed(and its mixed properly almost always because I am almost always the one doing it.) It may not have been Marios fault ultimately but I consider that to be a groundman's unwritten job to make sure that all the equipment is properly maintained and stored. I always make sure my boss' equipment is running top notch and stored correctly. I'm such a good employee.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

Dump a little two stroke oil in the spark plug hole and pull it over about 30 times with the plug out. Re-insert plug and go.
That'll be $75.

 

[Jumper]

Sorry to hear

Sorry to hear about the saws and the gas. Really sounds like someone "borrowed" your gas and replaced it with unmixed. You mentioned red tint re mix-around here the tint in 2 cycle oil is green/black, and you really can not miss knowing if the gas has oil or not. Try the suggestion with the oil in the cylinder, I have a four cycle lawn mower that was totally seized two years ago, did this and it has run fine for the past two seasons.

 

[TREETX]

Sad to hear about the saw. I know what it is like when your work horse is down. I have a few echo 3400's around just in case my 020T goes down. The are not the same quality or power by far but the are good to have around especially if you use day labor or labor from south of the rio grande. The 3400's fall apart fast.

If someone is getting in the habit of "borrowing" your gas, you should just leave a can of gas with sugar in it where you keep your gear. My top hand did that because his gas can was missing from the bed of his truck every other day. After mixing his gas with sugar, he knew which neighbor it was when they were pushing their car down the street.

 

[o0_TreeMan_0o]

We used a 5 gal can to refill the saw gas can but the mix went into the can BEFORE the gas. I will sometimes poor a little in my hand to see if the color is green (stihl mix).

 

[treeman82]

Mike I am going to try your thing tonight.
This morning when I got to my garage I dumped the gas out of all my 2 cycle gear and loaded my gas can with extra oil in order to hopefully make up for any damage.
A friend of mine loaned me one of his old 020's so I was ok for saws.
I get up to the job and get the top blown out of the other half of the tree. I then sent for my 044 which I told my guy to fill with the gas and oil. I get it up there with me and it does the same thing the 020 did yesterday. I ask my guy if he filled it with gas and oil to which his reply was "yes" At that time I began to cry. I stopped myself after a few seconds. Well anyways, I get down to the ground and check out what's goin on. NO GAS IN THE TANK! That dumb bugger never filled my tanks, so I was simply out of gas. Machine ran fine all day today.

 

[treeman82]

Oh. I forgot to say a public thank you tonight. I got a call this morning I guess? From Lync on this site who lives down county (I live in Northern Westchester) He offered me the use of his climbing saw for a week as he didn't need it for that time. I just want to say a public thank you for that generous offer.
Thanks Corey!

 

[treeman82]

THANK YOU MIKE! I tried the oil in the spart plug hole trick and it fired up with no problems other than a good amount of smoke. I would also like to thank you for giving me this idea. Because if I had not gone over there when I did... Something may have been stolen. I got there (old shop still) at about 11:00 PM BOTH doors downstairs were open. I was pondering calling the cops to look through the place.... but no cars around so whatever. As far as I could tell nothing had been stolen. I fixed the saw, locked up and left.

 

[Greg]

I'd check out that 044, I had one go bad after one tank of mixed gas that had a high alcohol content. My ground guy went to get more gas, and went to the closest station, that just so happens to sell lousy gas with alcohol in it. $300.00 later my 044 runs like new. Luckily my climbing saw didn't have any of it.
Greg

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

The new gas, if you have the same stuff we are forced to run in our 5 county area, will make your saw run lean which could blow it up. We did the thing where somebody has to run for several tanks of the "good gas" to run in the saws, for a while, and then we gave in and started using the new stuff.
Just tune your saws to run on the alcohol gas(a little richer high speed setting) and they run perfect, without having to chase around looking for "good gas". The other benifit is that if you ever run the old gas, the saw will not be damaged, it'll just run a little rich. The bad is, if you let your saw sit for more than a month or two, you might have to throw the gas out and add fresh.

Matt,
Glad to help.
Will that be check or charge?

 

[Kevin]

I would think with a scored cylinder the life of this saw is still limited?
It will be interesting to see if it still operates after a good heating up.
Lets hope that it lasts at least until you can find a good buy on another.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

I'v e fixed a couple boats and a lawn mower this way, with no future problems.
Only time will tell, but I think it'll be alright.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

In fact, the lawn boy mower, I had to stick a wood dowel into the spark plug hole and hit it with a hammer to get the piston moiving. That was three years ago!

 

[treeman82]

It's strange that we got to talking about this. I was talking with a friend today. He told me that his daughter blew the engine on one of his mowers. He had changed the oil on it, but didn't tighten the bolt down enough, oil came out and it siezed up on him. He already ripped off the old engine and is in the process of putting a new one on. $2,500 for the new one.