Chain brake fun

[Coralillo Lo Pro]

From videos I thought chain brake installation was a walk in the park, compress the new spring with a screwdriver and away you go. But here are springs and there are springs. That idea quickly proved laughable on my Gen I 455 Ranchers. The saws never had brakes since I got/inherited them, thought I'd put brakes on to sell them. After the fact, I discovered plenty of chain brake install horror stories going way back on AS so found my experience was par for the course. I would have just bought an aftermarket clutch cover complete for cheap, but turns out they only make them for the Rancher II's.
After haplessly trying every tool I could find in my shop and getting nowhere, I clamped the cover to the edge of a work bench and used a pipe clamp to slowly and carefully compress it til I could push it down into the slot. The first time the linkage end jumped out of place a bit and I couldn't get it back in place and had to start over after wasting a half hour of frustration. I held the linkage end down with some vice grips so it wouldn't jump and then got the spring on again without too much trouble.
Was a bit baffled why it wouldn't go on the saw very well and align right but had not watched the videos through and didn't realize my brake band was in activated mode. Put it on with the handle pushed all the way forward, aligned it, and then pulled the handle back to deactivate the brake. The thing operates with a bear trap kinda snap, spring is unnecessarily heavy. Don't know if the OEM's were that bad, the cheap AM springs I got for it are super beefy. Definitely was not a repair I was expecting to be such a headache, but apparently brake springs on most old Husky's over 50cc have given people fits.

 

[pioneerguy600]

I did a series of brake springs on the 394`s, six of them all OEM and they were definitely heavy stiff springs.
I clamped two metric bolts sticking up in the bench vice spaced so they protruded up through the stud holes, that held the cover securely enough for me to enable me to push the spring into the collapsed position using an older slotted tip scrench that would just fit up inside the spring about one inch.

 

[RedneckChainsawRepair]

455 I done that spring on I used flat blade screwdriver and wore good thick gloves. I still dont know how that spring got outside the plastic cover over it.

Lot of them out there just like it. Makes it fun.

Trick for cover and spring. I removed the clutch drum and set inside the cover the way it normally would inside the brake band.
Then installed spring. Put plastic on. Put cover on saw and drum onto crankshaft, with handle still on saw and engaged brake handle to open brake band.

 

[Coralillo Lo Pro]

455 I done that spring on I used flat blade screwdriver and wore good thick gloves. I still dont know how that spring got outside the plastic cover over it.

Yeah, I realize just clamping the cover in place solidly is half the battle, so you get enough leverage. Once you do that, a screwdriver can work. But thick gloves are a must cause I could see how badly I could mangle my hand if something slipped. Cheap little screw down bar clamps didn't really work because the clamping surfaces are too small and they'd slip, but the larger surfaces of pipe clamps work nicely and don't put your hands at risk.

 

[altatim]

I have done these before and with similar results so I ended up making some custom tools to do the job. One was a wooden clamping bracket to hold the cover and the other was a clamp that would grab the spring and compress it in a rigid setup. Worked not bad but I'm sure there is a specific tool/jig that husqvarna made for it