Makita 6401 for $180?

[wendell]

Well, looks like my $250 bet didn't turn out so well. My sister made in down with the saw yesterday evening. It looks much more used than what the lady on the phone described...scrapes and scuff marks, etc.,. But, the worst thing I initially eyeballed was that one of the bar nuts is apparently cross-threaded on the stud..to the point of metal filings trapped in the threads. The stud also appears to be shorter than the other one and have a "broken" looking end to it. I'm not sure what the bar nuts are supposed to look like (flanged or not flanged) but these appear *lots* smaller than the ones on my MS260 Pro and smaller even than the nuts on my Rancher 55. Not happy at the moment but hopefully I will be if I find I can replace the studs fairly easily...otherwise, does HD take these saw back if found unsatisfactory???

Ed

Not sure what HD's policy is but I'd give them a call. Not sure what difference the size of your bar nuts makes but they are the same as any larger Husky. Stihl's are studs and nuts are larger, that's why the bars don't interchange.

 

[Intheswamp]

Not sure what HD's policy is but I'd give them a call. Not sure what difference the size of your bar nuts makes but they are the same as any larger Husky. Stihl's are studs and nuts are larger, that's why the bars don't interchange.

Thanks for the info, Wendell. I decided to see how bad it was and unscrewed the nuts. Apparently someone lost a bar nut and shoved a regular machine nut on it...wrong threads. The good thing is that it seems the metal in the machine nut was softer than the bar stud...the filings were from the nut. The stud was a little buggered up but I took the other (good) nut and ran it back and forth for a while and it seemed to smooth down. I decided to keep it and let it be a project for me. I cranked it and it ran ok, I guess...not as smooth as my MS260 Pro. I think I need to check the area of the clutch...it seemed to give a metalic sound from that area...someone said that I probably need to grease or replace the clutch bearing. I was also told I need to pull the muffler to see what the piston looks like. I take it that if it looks like someone's been frying bacon on it that that's not good... ???

Ed