Chris-PA
Where the Wild Things Are
It looks OK here:Wonder if he smoked the chainbrake band?
Why did I walk over to this part of the shop again?LOL! And it gets worse! Getting back to the issue, I like your idea as the best place to start being to mount the B&C without the clutch cover using the nuts & washers & see if the chain can be freely pulled by hand. Another thought comes to mind. If I remember correctly (can't count on that) the OP said he continued to cut after damaging the chain & some smoking occured. I would expect the chain to stretch from being overheated, but maybe some warpage took place?? I had to chime in here, because I am very curious as to what the answer is.
I'm curious too! Something doesn't look right about the tail of this bar:
Does it look like it's been cut off, and those corners left sharp? Maybe the tail is too close to the sprocket and the chain is getting hung up on those back corners? Could be just an illusion from the pictures I suppose.