Craftsman trouble

[redfin]

Ill try to keep this short because well it is a craftsman and your time is more valuable than this saw.

I was given this 36cc saw. It started and idled when I brought it home on the fuel that the guy had in it. It sat for awhile till I could muck with it. After cleaning and a new spark plug I can't even get it to pop with a spray of fuel down throat.

Here's what I did so far and I'm only really doing this a leaning experience because I'm fairly new to working on saws.

I swapped the coil from this saw onto another identical saw. It runs fine on other saw.

I pulled muffler and carb. Cylinder and piston look fine from what I can see.I did pull compression on both craftmans. The bad one comes in at 110 and the runner is roughly 130.

What I'm not understanding is how this thing fired and ran when I brought it home but now its that low on compression. Is there something I'm miSsing before I pull the cylinder? If all looks good in there I will most likely put a ring in it.

Thanks for reading.

 

[BDM53ENT]

Hard to say but at 110 I would be pulling the jug anyway. Ive gotten them to fire as low as a 100 but no power. I tend to go to far but I would yank the flywheel and inspect the key way first to eliminate timing. Fuel down the carb, trigger wide open, choke off and yank away. If nothing happens you may be reading higher compression that you may actually have depending on your gauge.

Just throwing out some thoughts, Ill let a specialist chime in.

 

[discounthunter]

fuel system. new lines and a carb kit after CLEANING the carb.

 

[redfin]

fuel system. new lines and a carb kit after CLEANING the carb.

The carb on this saw works fine. I put it on the other saw. So I guess ill pull the jug and take a look. I will not buy anything but a ring for it.

I just thought I would check to make sure I wasn't overlooking anything.

 

[kgip2k]

did it smoke alot on old fuel? just wondering if it had a little extra oil to help with the ring seal

 

[redfin]

Now that you mention it it did smoke more than usual, but at that point I didn't mess with it. Thought I would tune it after I cleaned it and the carb.

Probably will pull the jug tomorrow and take a peek.

 

[kgip2k]

try a little extra oil first and see if it will start. i am curious if it will

 

[rms61moparman]

What model is it?
If it is the Craftsman (or Sears) equivalent of the 3616 Poulan it won't be as simple as pulling the jug. You will have to completely remove the engine from the chassis (not a big deal really after the first time) and remove the cap from the rest of the engine.
If you want to post a pic it will help us help you.


Mike

 

[redfin]

try a little extra oil first and see if it will start. i am curious if it will

Well I run 32:1 in all I have so what would you suggest? And I don't have the model number here.

 

[kgip2k]

IDK... maybe just extra teaspoon, i am sure you plan to drain all fluids when you pull it apart.

 

[BDM53ENT]

.
If you want to post a pic it will help us help you..
Mike

Yep

I was just throwing out my thoughts assuming its a Poulan, My bad.

 

[redfin]

This is the wonderful piece of craptastic plastic I'm working on.

I did find a very small scratch in cylinder wall. Looks like ring is worn also. Top of the piston is fairly carboned up but otherwise looks good. I'm thinking a piece of it is what caused the score. Do you think Randys emery cloth trick would be sufficient?

 

[redfin]

Welp, I dug alittle deeper into this thing. I pulled the flywheel to verify timing as was suggested. The crank key is missing!

I guess that would explain pretty much all of this nonsense.

 

[514mach1]

Is the crank key actually missing or is the "key" one of those deals where it's supposed to be a ridge built into the flywheel hole?

 

[redfin]

There is a slot in the crank and one in the flywheel so I'm ASSumming there should be a key in there?

 

[LarryRFL]

On some of those Poulan/Crapsman saws, cheaper to replace the carburetor (if you believe time is money). Half the time even putting in a rebuild kit won't work. Carbs are pretty cheap on some of those saws (around $30 to $35).

 

[rms61moparman]

When you get it all back together and running the way it is supposed to, you will find that to be a very nice little saw for the homeowner niche.
It looks like a Scotchbrite pad will take that small mark out with no problem. Don't worry about the ring unless there is sharp burrs on it. If you aren't in a hurry, the rings for those are dirt cheap and readily available. Stick a Woodruff key in it and after checking tune and oiling, run it like you stole it.


Mike

 

[redfin]

There is nothing protruding down from the flywheel hole into the crank so there should be a key right? I'm thinking it was either forgotten from the factory or a po forgot to put it back in.

As I said this is mainly a "learning" saw for me.

 

[Saw Dr.]

The key is molded into the flywheel on those, and is not uncommon to shear. If there is no obvious protrusion inside the taper of the flywheel, the "key" got sheared off. It us only there to index the FW during installation anyway. Sorry I didn't see this sooner. You probably didn't need to pull the saw apart at all.

 

[Chris-PA]

Yeah, I wish I had seen it earlier too. I have never seen an actual key on one of these, it is just a tab cast into the flywheel on both the older (Phelon) and newer (Walbro?) flywheels. My oldest is from 1995. Look at it carefully. If it got wiped off then I'd bet someone had messed with it.

Anyway, the flywheels are quite common, and you could just carefully align it without the key.

The cylinders on those are a bare aluminum bore and can be sanded pretty well. I have used a large wooden dowl and wet paper as well as Scotchbrite. Check also for thick carbon buildup at the sparkplug boss. I had one where that had formed a thick lip that fooled me and I thought it was part of the casting. When I was testing after porting it that broke off and plowed some deep furrows in the cylinder.

Unfortunately your saw is a non-A/V version - it will run quite well with a muffler mod but will numb your hands pretty easily.