Brought home a Homelite XL-800

[Roanoker494]

Picked this one off Ebay on July 1st and it just made its way to the house, via USPS, today. I had been looking at adding one of these for a while now and I just could not resist when I found this early model. It seems to be complete and feels to have very good compression, have not put it on a gauge yet. After a little work, a few parts and a paint job it will be a very nice addition to the collection. The seller sent along a bar but it turned out to be a OEM small mount 16" Husqvarna bar in .325 pitch, not really right for this Homelite but I have a little husky that could use it.

 

[watsonr]

Nice, your going to like the way it sounds and feels when cutting. They just have that sound like...soothing to the sole!

tried to rep you, seems it wouldn't let me.......that's dumb.

 

[Duke Thieroff]

Johnnie, you'll like that saw, powerful and actually pretty quick, strong runners when operating correctly. Just did a little bit of work to mine last week.

I think it's an XL 700, but darn close to the same as yours.

Chris

 

[Roanoker494]

Looks like you got yourself a fine looking "Frankensaw" there, got a couple of those myself.

I believe mine will end up wearing a NOS 28" Homelite bar and a full comp Oregon chain.

I am not 100% sure but I believe the XL-700 was a 77cc saw and the XL-800 was a 82cc saw.

 

[Eccentric]

Chris' Frankensaw could have started out as just about any one of the multitude of variants of this series. Tank assembly looks like the shade of red used on later XL925's. The fuel cap is the older style. The recoil cover, clutch cover, carb box/rear handle/manual oiler pump assembly, and A/F cover all say XL700 to me. The carb's a Walbro SDC, which would've come from a later saw in the series (or was a replacement from the dealer). An XL700 wouldn't have had a black handlebar (but an XL900-something saw would have). Can't remember if Chris measured the bore. The P/C are most likely replacements if the rest of the saw is a mix. Remember that the toughest dogs are mutts....

 

[Roanoker494]

Well..... My new "gem" quickly revealed itself as a turd......... though I have gotten stuck with much worse.

First I noticed that the rear handle had damage

Then I noticed the fuel tank was coming apart, which is probably the biggest issue I have found.

There is a spot on the sealing lip broken off. Why in the world did Homelite put one single screw on the lip?

Still has the factory 82cc top end, piston was slightly over 52mm.

 

[jockeydeuce]

Johnnie.......I think I can fix you up with the parts you need for that saw, but they'll be blue.

Send me a PM if you want them.

 

[stinkbait]

Since you have the cylinder off you should opem that exhaust up some. You can make that center bridge in the exhaust port narrower. And I would leave out the base gasket for the cylinder too. There should be plenty of room for squish.

 

[Roanoker494]

Johnnie.......I think I can fix you up with the parts you need for that saw, but they'll be blue.

Send me a PM if you want them.

Thank you for that offer but I have to see if I can get the tank back together before I bother tracking down any parts. Seems these tanks were a issue since the tanks on the later models were bolted together.

Since you have the cylinder off you should opem that exhaust up some. You can make that center bridge in the exhaust port narrower. And I would leave out the base gasket for the cylinder too. There should be plenty of room for squish.

If I can get that tank straightened out this saw will get a "work over". I have been told that there is a lot of power to be had out of this series saw, not that they were lacking any power to start with.

 

[Roanoker494]

Here are some of my current tank adhesive possibilities

Buy JB Weld Original Coldweld Epoxy 8265-S at Advance Auto Parts

Buy Permatex Liquid Metal Filler 25909 at Advance Auto Parts

Buy Permatex PermaPoxy™ 4-Minute Multi-Metal Epoxy 84109 at Advance Auto Parts

Buy Permatex Contact Cement 25905 at Advance Auto Parts

All of these are available at my local Advance auto, and several of them are available at Wal-Mart where I can get my 10% discount. I had some in the Homelite thread tell me he used the JB weld with very good results, so unless someone knows of something better I will be trying it tomorrow evening.

 

[jockeydeuce]

Thank you for that offer but I have to see if I can get the tank back together before I bother tracking down any parts. Seems these tanks were a issue since the tanks on the later models were bolted together.
.

Is yours one of the ones that are welded together??

 

[Roanoker494]

Is yours one of the ones that are welded together??

The tank looked like it was originally "glued" onto the saw body, it is not bolted like the later XL-925. It looked like someone had already attempted a repair using something like JB Weld but they had just smeared it all over the place and it was falling back off. I am going to press the JB Weld in the seam, like you would do with silicon, and then use one of those pour in tank liners for a little extra security.

 

[NORMZILLA44]

I read your'e top post Roanoaker, and was gonna congratulate you, because I know what it's like to get one youv'e wanted for awile. But read your'e latest, and that's a bummer man, hope you get it going.

 

[Roanoker494]

I read your'e top post Roanoaker, and was gonna congratulate you, because I know what it's like to get one youv'e wanted for awile. But read your'e latest, and that's a bummer man, hope you get it going.

It is not a total loss even if I can not fix the tank. I will still end up with enough parts to cover my invested. Hopefully I can get the tank fixed up, replace the rear handle and have a running saw. All is not lost because the UPS man is coming to visit me tomorrow with my recently purchased 044, so there is still hope for the week.

 

[bugfart]

I have been inspired!

 

[Guido Salvage]

I miss the contributions that Johnnie and Mitchell used to make to the Forum.