Homelite Super XL Recoil Issues

[chillman88]

Hey all,

I have my father's old Homelite Super XL and we've been having issues with it.

The recoil spring broke on him, he found one and replaced it, and then the starter rope broke. He put it in the basement (He very very rarely needs it anymore, only when we go camping).

I picked it up to cut some firewood for my house. I replaced the starter rope but noticed it looked like the old one had been melted inside the housing?? It started fine for me a few times, but I found that for some reason my fat fingers would slip off the manual oiler and hit the "stop" switch. I started it back up and the starter rope broke AGAIN! I finished cutting what I had ready and shut it off to pull it back apart again.

When I pulled it apart I found a MESS! All the plastic parts inside the starter assembly had melted, and the spring was broken AGAIN. It looked almost like the starter had never disengaged from the engine after it started.

I found the parts I need on ebay but what happened to cause this? I don't want to have it break again, parts for these saws being no longer reproduced and all. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!

 

[pioneerguy600]

I have had over 90 of those saws and never seen your problem but it would take heat to melt plastic and friction creates heat so your guess maybe right. There was something incorrect inside the recoil housing to cause that much heat, we can`t see what you have there but something was not correctly installed or an incorrect part was used. The recoil spring may have been wider than the original, just a guess, and that would cause the flywheel to rub the recoil rope rotor.

 

[chillman88]

Thank you for your reply. I ordered almost all the starter parts off ebay today.

According to the parts on Ebay, part #15 above is supposed to be metal. The one in the saw was plastic, this could have caused the extra thickness but I won't know until I get the new part. I had to order #2 #15 #16 and #18.

When installing the new recoil spring, it IS supposed to stay in the metal housing that it is packaged with, correct? I could upload pictures, but I have already scraped most of the plastic off the pulley for the starter rope. If it would help I will send pics though.

 

[pioneerguy600]

If the spring comes packaged in the metal retainer it can be installed that way but then #15 will not be required. Your rope pulley(rotor) is still good enough to use? I would have suspected it to have received the most damage.

 

[chillman88]

See now I may be misunderstanding the diagram then. I was under the impression #15 goes between the recoil spring and the starter housing. On my saw, there was what appears to be a plastic disk between the starter housing and the recoil spring.

I was under the impression from looking at mine, #15 goes up against the housing, followed by the open side of the recoil spring. The metal retainer on mine was facing #17 which you said is called the rotor? Yes the rotor is fine on mine, it is metal. It has a bit of plastic on it from #2 and #18 melting, but once I scrape the rest of it off it should be fine. The end that goes into the motor does not appear to be damaged at all.

 

[lesorubcheek]

It looked almost like the starter had never disengaged from the engine after it started.

Never seen this personally, but here's another possibility to check out. The starter uses the two pawls that are bolted on the flywheel to engage with the starter pulley (number 17 in the diagram) in the two cutouts on the end. The pawls are spring loaded so they tend to push inward toward the starter pulley when at rest. After the engine starts, centrifugal force is supposed to push the pawls outward so they disengage from the starter pulley. If the pawls are tight and can't move freely, this could cause the starter pulley not to disengage. Again, just a thought, but anycase it'd be good to make sure the pawls move freely.

Good luck,
Dan

 

[chillman88]

If the pawls are tight and can't move freely, this could cause the starter pulley not to disengage. Again, just a thought, but anycase it'd be good to make sure the pawls move freely.

They moved freely the first time I changed the rope, but I'll definitely check them again. Thank you for the advice.

Is there some trick to putting the starter housing back on? I just wiggled it while pulling the cord the first time to get the starter pulley to go past the pawls to seat. Was that the correct way to do it?

 

[chillman88]

Another thing I noticed that I don't think is related at all. If I set the saw down to move a log, after a few seconds you can hear it bog down and slow down like it's about to die. If I give it a little throttle it will smoke a little and be fine for a minute before it does it again. Does it sound like the carb needs to be adjusted or something else? It sounds to me like maybe it's running a tad rich, but I'm not sure and don't want to assume!

 

[chillman88]

Well the parts showed up today. I checked what lesorubcheek said and one of the starter dogs was a smidge sticky. I sprayed them good with kroil and actuated them until they both moved freely. It wasn't sticking bad, but maybe enough idk.

I looked closely at the starter pulley and where it engages the tangs on the motor had some wear marks. I cleaned them up with a file real good so there's no sharp edges or marks anymore. It's all back together and seems to work fine. Time will tell though as I had started it several times before the issue arose last time. If it comes back I'll let you know.

Thank you for your help,

-- Chris