M-Tronic - Avoid? Or Acquire?

[rogue60]

The harness issue is from the Russia war with Ukraine, from what I understand stihl is starting to get then made elsewhere. From my normal travels I haven't seen any real decline in mtronic saws vs what dealers ever kept on the shelf normally. Which in truth is a lot more then a year ago. 500i has become readily available as well as moat models being back in stock. Fourtantly the solenoids have little to do with where the harnesses are made so thats a non issue at this point.

I had to wait over 3 weeks for a couple white solenoids for two 661's through my Stihl dealer.
Meanwhile two saws sitting unusable. I hope Stihl have a stockpile of solenoids stashed away somewhere that'll keep saws running way into the unforeseeable future.

 

[ZeroJunk]

Sort of a curious chain of thought going on in here in that we, being the store, buy carburetors for common weed eaters 25 at a time, and for common blowers at least 10 at a time. We have at least 30 carburetors for the variations of just a MS250.

And, ya'll are concerned about something going wrong with Mtronics ?

 

[sean donato]

I had to wait over 3 weeks for a couple white solenoids for two 661's through my Stihl dealer.
Meanwhile two saws sitting unusable. I hope Stihl have a stockpile of solenoids stashed away somewhere that'll keep saws running way into the unforeseeable future.

I'm surprised they arnt keeping some in stock. Then again we have a surplus of stihl "dealers" and most don't stock anything.

 

[2StrokeFondler]

I had to wait over 3 weeks for a couple white solenoids for two 661's through my Stihl dealer.
Meanwhile two saws sitting unusable. I hope Stihl have a stockpile of solenoids stashed away somewhere that'll keep saws running way into the unforeseeable future.

Stuff happens, I guess. Have to wait 2 weeks for a pair of 270 bearings.

 

[NHden]

I'm surprised they arnt keeping some in stock. Then again we have a surplus of stihl "dealers" and most don't stock anything.

A dealer in my area told me that at a recent Stihl meeting, it was announced that Stihl would focus on having parts on hand for more popular models.

I needed two parts for my brand new MS151TCE and had to order them from outside the country. In the US, Stihl called one obsolete and the other non-orderable. I call it BS.

 

[Captain Bruce]

We already have topic about (Stihl?) selenoids...with pictures and everything else (how to & DIY) ...I am 95% sure that I red it on this site (5% that it was o*p*e forum).

Dont ask me if I could find it......but I red it less then a year ago!

So you are an "operative"? Does that include spelling and grammar lessons? Your entire injection into this thread is miss-mash nonsense. selenoids? i red it? Who's WE? Do you have a mouse in your pocket?

 

[StihlsawuserMS361]

So do you remember setting the mix rods with a dwell meter? I went to the electronics school also. It was an hour trip from Warsaw, but it was definitely worth it. Still have the book on the shelf.

Oh yes

 

[StihlsawuserMS361]

So do you remember setting the mix rods with a dwell meter? I went to the electronics school also. It was an hour trip from Warsaw, but it was definitely worth it. Still have the book on the shelf.

@stihltech: Fun times, huh?
Yes, I do remember. I think back then it was called C4?
First you had to remove the aluminum plugs in the air horn. Then, set the metering rod mechanical travel using a plastic float level gauge and adjust the screws with another special tool. Hook up an analog dwell meter, start the engine and wait for it to go into "closed loop". Then adjust the idle air screw to obtain a varying dwell reading. Of course, this is assuming everything else went as planned. All for probably less than an hour paid warranty labor!
I have my book also, I think it was called S.E.T.? It was a good course, and by reading how a rectifier bridge worked on Oldsmobiles, I was able to adapt one to my Kawasaki 900 and saved quite a bit of money compared to a Kawai dealer.
So these Mtronics and 500I's are pretty advanced compared to the '80's vehicles!

 

[Tomos770]

So you are an "operative"? Does that include spelling and grammar lessons? Your entire injection into this thread is miss-mash nonsense. selenoids? i red it? Who's WE? Do you have a mouse in your pocket?

You are quite a nervous person for a "guru" member...

Here is my "mouse from a pocket"....but I have mixed solenoid with injector.....my bad! Hope that I will be not banned for that? Sorry @NHden

https://www.arboristsite.com/threads/so-i-took-a-stihl-ts500i-injector-apart.307486/

 

[NHden]

You are quite a nervous person for a "guru" member...

Here is my "mouse from a pocket"....but I have mixed solenoid with injector.....my bad! Hope that I will be not banned for that? Sorry @NHden

https://www.arboristsite.com/threads/so-i-took-a-stihl-ts500i-injector-apart.307486/View attachment 1096305

Your English is better than my Slovenian (or is your language Slovakian?). That's all I'm going to say.

 

[Tomos770]

I am Slovenian...

Tnx....I am improving it (English) every day!

 

[KostasVolos]

I really can't hold myself to ask something .It's a bit of derailment ,but at the same time it has a lot to do with the issue discussed on this thread.
Please be patient with me .

From high-tech carburetor electronic tuning circuits to ...fixed jet carburetors .

A Stihl MS180 ( just an example of a chainsaw with fixed jet carb ) will
ALWAYS fire up and run ( do it's job ) whether being at sea level with 40 C ( 104 F ) ambient temperature at mid-summer or at 2000 m ( 6000' ) altitude with -10 C ( 14 F ) ambient temperature during harsh winters .There's no carb H or L manual adjustments at all .

So ,where's the "catch" with this ?
Or what is the "secret" to that ?

How come the "toy" always fires up and runs trouble -free no matter what ,while the "real" chainsaws either need constant fiddling with the H & L carb adjustments or fancy electronics for automatic carb tuning ?

I constantly put my MS180 chainsaws under heavy work loads( way beyond their intended "purpose" or "capabilities " ) and as long as they are not straight gassed ,never had one fail from lean mixture ,due to poor carb "factory preset adjustment" .Usually ,worn off main bearing seals are the cause of failure ( causing air leaks ) .
Once ,I had a broken connecting rod ,but it was just a single case.

Almost everybody here seems to despise fixed jet carbs ,but from personal experience they do operate just fine ...

 

[sb47]

My 261c is my favorite saw and my go to saw over my other carb saws. Good fuel economy, easy start, no adjusting the fuel screws. It just starts easy all the time and always runs great.

 

[bwalker]

I really can't hold myself to ask something .It's a bit of derailment ,but at the same time it has a lot to do with the issue discussed on this thread.
Please be patient with me .

From high-tech carburetor electronic tuning circuits to ...fixed jet carburetors .

A Stihl MS180 ( just an example of a chainsaw with fixed jet carb ) will
ALWAYS fire up and run ( do it's job ) whether being at sea level with 40 C ( 104 F ) ambient temperature at mid-summer or at 2000 m ( 6000' ) altitude with -10 C ( 14 F ) ambient temperature during harsh winters .There's no carb H or L manual adjustments at all .

So ,where's the "catch" with this ?
Or what is the "secret" to that ?

How come the "toy" always fires up and runs trouble -free no matter what ,while the "real" chainsaws either need constant fiddling with the H & L carb adjustments or fancy electronics for automatic carb tuning ?

I constantly put my MS180 chainsaws under heavy work loads( way beyond their intended "purpose" or "capabilities " ) and as long as they are not straight gassed ,never had one fail from lean mixture ,due to poor carb "factory preset adjustment" .Usually ,worn off main bearing seals are the cause of failure ( causing air leaks ) .
Once ,I had a broken connecting rod ,but it was just a single case.

Almost everybody here seems to despise fixed jet carbs ,but from personal experience they do operate just fine ...

It's pretty simple. They are only tuned properly in a narrow range and the rest of the time they are not.
I had a Ms260 Pro that had a fixed jet carb. It never ran right until I swapped the carb out for a WT194.

 

[ZeroJunk]

I really can't hold myself to ask something .It's a bit of derailment ,but at the same time it has a lot to do with the issue discussed on this thread.
Please be patient with me .

From high-tech carburetor electronic tuning circuits to ...fixed jet carburetors .

A Stihl MS180 ( just an example of a chainsaw with fixed jet carb ) will
ALWAYS fire up and run ( do it's job ) whether being at sea level with 40 C ( 104 F ) ambient temperature at mid-summer or at 2000 m ( 6000' ) altitude with -10 C ( 14 F ) ambient temperature during harsh winters .There's no carb H or L manual adjustments at all .

So ,where's the "catch" with this ?
Or what is the "secret" to that ?

How come the "toy" always fires up and runs trouble -free no matter what ,while the "real" chainsaws either need constant fiddling with the H & L carb adjustments or fancy electronics for automatic carb tuning ?

I constantly put my MS180 chainsaws under heavy work loads( way beyond their intended "purpose" or "capabilities " ) and as long as they are not straight gassed ,never had one fail from lean mixture ,due to poor carb "factory preset adjustment" .Usually ,worn off main bearing seals are the cause of failure ( causing air leaks ) .
Once ,I had a broken connecting rod ,but it was just a single case.

Almost everybody here seems to despise fixed jet carbs ,but from personal experience they do operate just fine ...

I do some work for a tree service that has a big bucket truck and a crane and does however much work he wants to do.. He has a MS880 that he doesn't like and never uses. A couple of 394XP's. I think he went with the MS192T's saying he had just as soon have that as a MS201T for what he was doing.
He has 6 or 8 MS362's that he says have made him so much money if they never cut another stick of wood with them he is ahead.

Point I am getting around to, he never, ever touches the adjustments on a saw. Says he never has.

 

[bwalker]

I do some work for a tree service that has a big bucket truck and a crane and does however much work he wants to do.. He has a MS880 that he doesn't like and never uses. A couple of 394XP's. I think he went with the MS192T's saying he had just as soon have that as a MS201T for what he was doing.
He has 6 or 8 MS362's that he says have made him so much money if they never cut another stick of wood with them he is ahead.

Point I am getting around to, he never, ever touches the adjustments on a saw. Says he never has.

Which is what many guys do either out of ignorance or laziness.And this works as long as your climate doesnt drastically swing in temps and you can tolerate a poorly tuned saw.
Where I live it might be 100+ degrees in July and -30 in February. Or it might be 60 degrees in February and a few days latter it's -20, which happened this past winter. There is nonway a saw tolerates those swing in temps and still runs well.
And this is another reason why Mtronic is beneficial.
Incidentally, I have a Husqvarna 580BT blower than wooukd not even start below 40 degrees with stock settings. You coukd get it to go by putting some gas into the intake, but then it bounced off the rev limiter at full throttle. Pulling the limiter caps snd setting the LS and HS screws every a few times a years and it starts and runs like it should.
Another example is a Redmax 3050TS trimmer I just bought. Out of the box it was so lean on the LS it would barely start in summer temps and I am at nearly 3000' of elevtaion.

 

[ZeroJunk]

Which is what many guys do either out of ignorance or laziness.And this works as long as your climate doesnt drastically swing in temps and you can tolerate a poorly tuned saw.
Where I live it might be 100+ degrees in July and -30 in February. Or it might be 60 degrees in February and a few days latter it's -20, which happened this past winter. There is nonway a saw tolerates those swing in temps and still runs well.
And this is another reason why Mtronic is beneficial.
Incidentally, I have a Husqvarna 580BT blower than wooukd not even start below 40 degrees with stock settings. You coukd get it to go by putting some gas into the intake, but then it bounced off the rev limiter at full throttle. Pulling the limiter caps snd setting the LS and HS screws every a few times a years and it starts and runs like it should.
Another example is a Redmax 3050TS trimmer I just bought. Out of the box it was so lean on the LS it would barely start in summer temps and I am at nearly 3000' of elevtaion.

I don't disagree with you. He does not have that kind of temperature swings. And, if it is the occasional 10 degrees F here nobody is working in it. And, the elevation is 900 feet give or take 100 .
I work on saws, weedeaters, blowers, trimmers... Stihl exclusively, at work anyway. The EPA, I assume, has demanded limiters for years.
Normally, they come all the way rich against the limiter. So, I'm thinking somebody in Norfolk sets those parameters. Or, Germany maybe to a lesser extent.
Curiously, the low idle is almost always too rich. Maybe to add to the high. Don't know.
There are always exceptions, but carb adjustment is usually not an issue.
Usually if you have a carb issue it is just stopped up and there is no good fixing it if it is less that 20 years old.
You just replace it.

If you want to see some really curious stuff get one where the owner has removed the limiters.

 

[stihltech]

The carburetor does not lose adjustment. Dirt, fuel, air and vacuum leaks and lack of maintenance are the factors that change the available air and fuel going into the engine. Would a high altitude or extreme heat affect this ? Yes, due to the factors just stated.
Not familiar enough with those extremes in my area. 100 degrees and 1500 to 2000 feet are about the top.
In most areas a regular carburetor or Mtronic will work just fine. WITHOUT adjustment.

Interesting to hear from colleagues here as to what changes are being made to compensate for the extremes.

 

[bwalker]

The carburetor does not lose adjustment. Dirt, fuel, air and vacuum leaks and lack of maintenance are the factors that change the available air and fuel going into the engine. Would a high altitude or extreme heat affect this ? Yes, due to the factors just stated.
Not familiar enough with those extremes in my area. 100 degrees and 1500 to 2000 feet are about the top.
In most areas a regular carburetor or Mtronic will work just fine. WITHOUT adjustment.

Interesting to hear from colleagues here as to what changes are being made to compensate for the extremes.

No, a carb doesn't lose adjustment. However atmospheric changes happen daily and this influences how the saw runs.
A professional logger will tune his saw in the morning when it's cool and then again when it heats up in the afternoon.
Most people under estimate how much a 20 degree swing in temps changes tuning.
Now if your pig rich, as most saws are when set by dealers you can get by just fine. Albeit with a poorly running saw.

 

[rogue60]

Myself working at the same elevation years on end and only having two weather swings summer and winter I only tune a few times a year set it and forget it.
I've never experienced a saw being tuned in the morning needing constant tuning throughout the day myself are they really that finicky and sensitive? an industrial 2T at that.
If they are it's that mynute I've never noticed a change in tune but like I said that's at a constant elevation.
Also all my saws are Stihl and have intellicarb maybe it's not a gimmick? my filters need tapping out many times a day our hard hardwoods make dust.
I'll add I do cut the limiters so I can tune a saw properly.
Like the above post I've also got saws with no high or low carbs and they run the same all year round and they run good not blubbering or lean I'm at 3300 feet.

Ain't saws like all engines and designed to run within a predetermined window as far as operating temperature? I assume this also helps keep tune in check on normal day to day operation with no massive extreme swings of hot and cold ambient temperatures.

Which saws are finicky with tune throughout a day? So I know what saws never to buy lol