Fixed my 268XP, again.

[Cliff R]

WAY back in 2009 I went thru some drama with this saw, made a host of repairs to it, and it has ran fine until early this year.

At first it started stalling at idle, but fine in the cut. It acted like it was running out of fuel, idling 5-10 seconds or so after you came out of the cut then it would slowly die out. Sounds like a fuel or air leak problem, correct? So I took the carb off and put another genuine Tillotson kit in it. No improvement.

Went ahead and put a new fuel line on it, no better.

Replaced the tank vent again, no better.

Matter of fact it started getting worse to a point where it would barely stay running at all.

So I think I'm a pretty smart guy and have covered all the bases so I start messing with metering lever height thinking it's off just a bit and starving or running out of fuel. So I go up and down from the recommended setting and it just gets worse and worse and finally woln't fire up at all.

At this point I get pissed off at it and shelve it, this probably happened 2-3 months ago.

I go back in yesterday and make sure the passages for the impulse to the carb are all open, and they appear fine. Double check the intake for cracks, and replace the intake gaskets.

Now after all this work the saw finally just will not fire at all and I'm ready to go bury it in the back yard.

So one last time I remove the spark plug and lay it against the cylinder and it fires like crazy with every pull of the starting rope. Completely OUT of ideas I just happen to look over at my 480CD and just for the heck of it I pulled the spark plug out of it and put it in the 268XP................it ROARS to life instantly and runs FLAWLESSY!

No more stalling out at idle, runs fine everyplace. So I go to the woodpile and make a bunch of noodles for the laying boxes in the chicken coup and it never grumbled once.

As I write this I'm feeling pretty stupid for not replacing the spark plug early in the list of repairs done to get this saw to work again. I just figured that if the plug fires fine out of the cylinder than it must be fine when installed....WRONG!

Good lesson learned here and though I'd pass it on although I'm feeling pretty stupid about the entire ordeal at the moment........Cliff

 

[cuinrearview]

A couple times a year my work(major auto electronics mfg) sells me plugs for $.86 a piece. I buy a stack of boxes just so I can throw a new plug at every saw.

 

[Cliff R]

Good plan. I'm just glad I figured it out because I was getting close to burying this thing in the back yard. I provided a very short version above of a long story. I'll bet I've had the carb off that saw 15 times as I was certain it was fuel related......Cliff

 

[Jeeptrekker]

It's jealous of the other orange saws lol. Glad I happened on this post as my buddies year old 272xp acted similarly goofy two weeks ago cutting firewood for his mom. Definitely going to suggest this before he tears into it. Nothing to feel stupid about. Had an old jeep with a straightsix with a misfire tried every fancy plug and wires etc...til a retired mechanic I knew said it's a tractor engine kid put a champion in it.... Poof gone....guy knew his stuff. Had half a dozen now.... everyone gets champions. No misfires. Thanks for the helpful information.

 

[9050lx]

What brand of plug? Ran two-stroke motorcycles for years as a kid.Typical (fouled plug) problems, even in the 70's NGK was the best and was OEM in all Japanese brands, I believe.That and ND.

 

[Cantdog]

Cliff I had a similar issue...not a saw but a lawn mower 5.5 hp Honda. It would start normal and run fine for 30 seconds and stall....start right up first pull afterwards and do the same thing. Seemed like a fuel issue to me so pulled the PITA carb off it and cleaned everything and every passage and put it back on. It did exactly the same thing so I pulled the carb again and went through it again, also pull the tank and fuel line and cleaned and checked everything for restrictions or anything out of place......no change. Got mad and went away...a week later the bride is complaining about the shaggy lawn so I got after it again.....tore it all to pieces, ign and fuel system ...again no change. I was fit to be tied!!! Went on line and googled 5.5 Honda issues. A long list of posts came on the screen and scrolled down and sure enough near the bottom was a post labled "will start run 25 seconds and quit" A-HA say I and clicked on it....sparkplug was the issue. Pfffffft I said "I don't think so" as it fired out of the motor just like you said. This was a Sunday...Monday morning I was picking up some stuff at the NAPA store and as an after thought I picked up a new plug....screwed it into the Honda and mowed the lawn...I was humbled.....

 

[U&A]

All our spark plugs are basically made in places like this. I cannot find the original article but this basically shows and says the same thing.

So that $30,000 or even $70,000 truck you have that you just replace the spark plugs in..... those plugs and some parts are made in places like this.


http://www.zerotohundred.com/forums/index.php?threads/scary-spark-plug-factory-mim-is-better.193568/




Sent while firmly grasping my redline lubed RAM [emoji231]

 

[Huskybill]

Once a year I completely clean the saw at the end of the cutting season. I remove all the plastic I can and blow off the saw. Square the bar, sharpen the chain, check and replace the rim, lube the clutch brg, bar nose, change the spark plug, clean the airfilter. Check the pull start a put a few drops of oil on the stud. Fill the gas n oil and test cut with it. Then it goes to rest till next season. If a natural disaster happens my saws are ready to go, if I get the call.

Trouble shooting,

Gas level first
Sparkplug
Air cleaner

Gas and spark should run.

There’s a small black line of carbon that forms under the electrode arm on the porcelain it shorts the plug out. It’s hidden from our sight. The rest of the porcelain is clean.

 

[Cliff R]

I've had little to no issues with spark plugs over the years. The last time I had a spark plug issue was with a brand new Honda Rancher I bought back around 2004. It refused to start one day and I hadn't even had it a week. I checked for fuel, then the plug and it wouldn't fire at all, replaced it and good to go.

I have a commercial sandblasting cabinet and use ultra fine glass beads to clean up spark plugs then put them back in place. This one checked fine out of the cylinder but obviously when it was tightened down something was going on inside the plug to make it not work correctly. I have the same set of NGK's in my GTO's current engine and they ran nearly 10 years on the previous engine, no issues and all I've done it lightly blast them off a few times and check the gaps.



Lesson learned in spark plugs, just because they check fine out of the engine doesn't mean they will work when torqued in place.

My new plugs should be here today, I bought NGK's for it and it appears the same plug will also work in the 480CD so I'll have a few spares for it as well.......Cliff

 

[Cantdog]

Yep my issue (I believe) was a very fine crack in the porcelain you couldn't see that when cooled was insulating as it should but the moment (30 seconds run time) the porcelain warmed and expanded the crack widened enough to allow the spark to go to ground. A few seconds of cooling and it would start right up first pull, run perfect, no skipping/stumbling and the shut right off in 30 seconds.....over and over again exactly the same for as many times as you wanted to yank on it.

 

[Cliff R]

The spark plug in my 268XP started to fail back in the Spring. At first it just effected idle, ran fine in the cut. It continued to get worse and worse and for sure sounded and acted like the carb was running out of fuel at idle. Initially it would idle 20-30 seconds then start running rough and stall. The more I worked on it the worse it got, probably nothing to do with the the carb cleaning, kits, fuel line, etc, the plug was just going bad.

It finally got to where it wouldn't even fire up, and I'd done so much to it at that point I was frustrated and not looking at the basics. Thru me WAY off pulling the plug and seeing it fire fine across the electrode out of the cylinder, I just figured it was something in the fuel system or air leak.

In any case valuable lesson learned in troubleshooting for sure. A plug can fire fine out of the cylinder but still not be any good........Cliff

 

[Czed]

WAY back in 2009 I went thru some drama with this saw, made a host of repairs to it, and it has ran fine until early this year.

At first it started stalling at idle, but fine in the cut. It acted like it was running out of fuel, idling 5-10 seconds or so after you came out of the cut then it would slowly die out. Sounds like a fuel or air leak problem, correct? So I took the carb off and put another genuine Tillotson kit in it. No improvement.

Went ahead and put a new fuel line on it, no better.

Replaced the tank vent again, no better.

Matter of fact it started getting worse to a point where it would barely stay running at all.

So I think I'm a pretty smart guy and have covered all the bases so I start messing with metering lever height thinking it's off just a bit and starving or running out of fuel. So I go up and down from the recommended setting and it just gets worse and worse and finally woln't fire up at all.

At this point I get pissed off at it and shelve it, this probably happened 2-3 months ago.

I go back in yesterday and make sure the passages for the impulse to the carb are all open, and they appear fine. Double check the intake for cracks, and replace the intake gaskets.

Now after all this work the saw finally just will not fire at all and I'm ready to go bury it in the back yard.

So one last time I remove the spark plug and lay it against the cylinder and it fires like crazy with every pull of the starting rope. Completely OUT of ideas I just happen to look over at my 480CD and just for the heck of it I pulled the spark plug out of it and put it in the 268XP................it ROARS to life instantly and runs FLAWLESSY!

No more stalling out at idle, runs fine everyplace. So I go to the woodpile and make a bunch of noodles for the laying boxes in the chicken coup and it never grumbled once.

As I write this I'm feeling pretty stupid for not replacing the spark plug early in the list of repairs done to get this saw to work again. I just figured that if the plug fires fine out of the cylinder than it must be fine when installed....WRONG!

Good lesson learned here and though I'd pass it on although I'm feeling pretty stupid about the entire ordeal at the moment........Cliff

I've got several freebie saws,generators,brush cutters etc.
Guys got frustrated and were tossing them.
It was just the plug
I lost faith in ngk which the plant is 4o miles from me.
Bosch isn't what it used to be
Suprisingly i haven't had a failure with champion
In decade's.
I still have homelites and husqvarnas
From the 70/80s that i got back then
had champions when from the factory i guess.
Because i never had to change them.
1.78 at wal mart

 

[Cantdog]

I use mostly Champions as well......mostly due to the fact that all older Jonsereds require them. The plug connector only fits the threaded part of the plug tip.....Champions tip unscrews...NGK doesn't... As an aside....I pick up a lot of used/broken parts saws on the cheap.....almost always, no matter how beat or dismantled a saw might be, 90% of them I acquire have a brand new plug installed as almost everyone tries a new plug in the last attempt to get a ruined saw to run again!!! I have a shoe box full of new plugs for my preferred chainsaws...LOL!!

 

[Cliff R]

Made a change to my post above. That same set of NGK spark plugs has powered two engines dating back to 1999, and 5 trips to the finals at the big Pontiac race in Norwalk with 2 trips to the King of the Hill (last man standing) race at the same event. I guess they have served me pretty well!........Cliff

 

[husqORbust]

Any carbon tracking on the bad plug?

 

[svk]

Interesting. I’ve had great luck with NGK except in older snowmobiles which seemed to eat any plugs.

When I was a marine mechanic the Suzuki outboards utterly rejected the Champion plug which apparently didn’t cross reference properly and was too cool.

I run NGK plugs in all of my saws. I’ve only had a couple plugs of any brand fail during use.

 

[Czed]

Interesting. I’ve had great luck with NGK except in older snowmobiles which seemed to eat any plugs.

When I was a marine mechanic the Suzuki outboards utterly rejected the Champion plug which apparently didn’t cross reference properly and was too cool.

I run NGK plugs in all of my saws. I’ve only had a couple plugs of any brand fail during use.

I'm not damning them
But when a few customer's brought saws back
And the only issue was the ngk plug
I had to switch.
I would say it was a bad batch but these were from different source's.

 

[svk]

I'm not damning them
But when a few customer's brought saws back
And the only issue was the ngk plug
I had to switch.
I would say it was a bad batch but these were from different source's.

It’s been almost 20 years since I wrenched on outboards so things definitely could have gone downhill there!

 

[president]

Good plan. I'm just glad I figured it out because I was getting close to burying this thing in the back yard. I provided a very short version above of a long story. I'll bet I've had the carb off that saw 15 times as I was certain it was fuel related......Cliff

did you pressure test it at all during the process?

 

[Cliff R]

No pressure test done, it got new cranks seals in 2009. It has a BUTT LOAD of compression, enough so that I yanked the starter rope knot thru the handle in the middle of all this drama. I ordered a new spool of starter rope and replaced it.

After the repair I loaned it to my brother and they used it all day Sunday, even sent me some videos of it making cuts in a 30" Beech log.

Now I'm going to have trouble getting it back!...LOL.....Cliff