Chrome plating worn away, cylinder toast?

[ol'homey]

The chrome plating on the exhaust port side of the jug on my old Homelite C72 has worn or flaked away. You can see and feel where the edge of the chrome plating stops and the aluminum underneath starts. I don't see any way to smooth this out other than to remove the remaining chrome plating. The plating looks decent on the intake side. Any way to save this jug? I posted on the trading forum and sent a few emails looking for a jug and piston with no luck so far. I guess I'll have to start looking on Ebay for a parts saw with a decent jug and piston. What are the odds of finding a 30-40 yr old C7,C71, or C72 parts saw with a decent jug and piston? BTW this saw started and ran fine. It just had low compression and felt like it had less power than it should. I guess the reed valve design allows it to continue to run with a messed up jug and piston? I hate to scrap a saw that still runs. Any ideas?

 

[Four Paws]

Send it to a machine shop and have them bore it ever so slightly. That chrome plating is very thin on there - they should be able to clean it off and you could get the cylinder re-chromed. Just a thought, don't know if you want to invest that much into the saw. You could just put it back together and run it...see what happens.

-Josh

 

[NWCS]

if its a saw of high value, you can send the cylinder to US Chrome for about $150 and get it re coated. would be done with a modern much better nikasil. much harder and more durable than chrome.

 

[z4lunch]

Steve here... had my West Bend 820 Nickasel'd at Millenium technology in Plymouth WI... Just google them for there web site
Steve

 

[Lawn Masters]

I always thought the C series had those steel liners like the Macs had in bigger saws. guess ya learn something new every day. wonder if a liner of steel could be turned to fit your bore, and honed for it... that'd be PERFECT for your needs.

 

[ol'homey]

Thanks for the replies. Here's some more info: I found out today the jug is off a C5, C51 or C52 not a C7 ! Looking at Acre's site I see that the 5 series had a 2" bore and 1.5" stroke and the 7 series had a 2" bore and 1.5625" stroke. That explains why 2 cylinder base gaskets were used. The extra base gasket probably added around .015-.020" clearance which must be enough so that the piston doesn't hit the top of the jug. I bet this old saw used to make some pretty decent compression with the piston going about .040" higher in the jug than stock. Anyway I guess I should start looking for C5 jugs. The C5's are common on Ebay so maybe I'll be able to find a decent jug after all. I'll add to my post on the traders forum that I'm also looking for C5 jugs. I'll also check into all the ideas you guys posted for fixing this jug. Thanks

 

[ol'homey]

I just looked at the C9 dimensions on Acre's site and found the bore is 2.0625" and the stroke is 1.5625" (same as my C72). Now I'm wondering if a jug and piston off a C9 will fit on my C72 ? or if I could find a C9 piston and have my jug bored to 2.0625 ? Aw heck, now I don't even know what to look for anymore! I guess my best bet is to try to find somebody that is old enough to have played around modding these old Homey's and ask what will work and what won't. Any ideas who can help? Thanks, Lee

 

[RaisedByWolves]

Hey Homie, post the casting number(s) of the cyl(s) you need. I may be able to help you out.

 

[ol'homey]

The jug that's on my C72 saw now is 58174-2 which belongs on a C5. If I could find another one of those that would work fine. If you look up the OEM jug for a C7,C71 or C72 you come up with a-69710. Thanks

 

[RaisedByWolves]

How bout a 58175e?


Does yours have a funny brass pipe on the back?



I have two styles, with the pipe and without, there are also other minor differences (bolt hole sizes).



Let me know what you think and Ill take some measurements for you later on tonight.


Most likely these are revised versions of the same design, knowing how homelite did things.

 

[ol'homey]

Mine doesn't have the pipe. Here's some pics:

 

[ol'homey]

I cleaned up the piston and think I can reuse it if need be. I can get new rings at Dixie Sales. Here's a pic:

 

[josgmctk]

I just checked my c-71 and it has 58174A casting number which is part number A69710, also my c-51 has the same casting number on it.
the piston pin is set in different place to componsate for the different stroke.

 

[ol'homey]

OK cool, so the C5 and C7 jugs are the same. There's plenty of C5's out there so somebody has got to have a decent used jug. I don't know why they put 2 cylinder gaskets on this saw. Hopefully I'll be able to just use some permatex type gasket maker since the #58292 gasket is NLA. If the piston hits the top of the jug I'll get some gasket material and make one.

 

[RaisedByWolves]

Sorry homie, out of 25 jugs that I have I dont have the one you pictured.


The one I refered to earlier has a 2.180" bore and some other differences in the T ports and such.

 

[ol'homey]

Thanks for looking. I'll probably just have to wait for another C5 parts saw to show up on Ebay. The trouble with buying a saw on Ebay is how to make sure it's jug isn't just as bad as the one I've got. My C72 started and ran with the jug you see in the pics so buying a saw that runs doesn't mean the jug will be OK. Most sellers won't have a compression tester or be willing to pull the muffler off to look at the piston skirt. So it's a crap shoot.
I could send the jug off to Millenium to get it Nikasil plated at a cost close to $200 including shipping both ways. That's more than the saw is worth and I'd still have to buy a piston and rings to make it right. So that's probably not going to happen. A cast iron insert would have to have the exhaust ports and all the "finger" porting you see in the pics cut into it which would be nearly impossible. A slight overbore to get rid of the remaining chrome and obtain a smooth cylinder surface would probably increase the piston to cylinder clearance enough to cause piston slap. So it looks like rolling the dice on an Ebay saw is my best option so far.