mini score- craftsman wild thang

[fearofpavement]

well, I saw this Craftsman saw on CL and thought I would inquire on it and one thing led to another and it ended by me bringing some seasoned firewood to the guy in exchange for the saw. I haven't looked it over to speak of but it sure seems to pull over pretty easy. hmmmm.

It has a case which is worth $10 to me. So if the saw is junk it is a negative score. If it just needs carb work I'm happy. I should know later today.

I didn't even look at the saw at his house because I didn't want to haul the wood back home as I had other errands to run. It is a '98 model. Has some other chain in the bottom of the case but as stated, I didn't even look at it. Has a scrench, guess that's another buck. Things looking better all the time...lol. i pulled it out at an intermediate stop because, you know how it is...

The story is that it was cutting wood, he put it away in the fall and now it won't start. He bought another saw. I gave him $30 worth of wood for it.
More later.

 

[fearofpavement]

Findings

Well, got the saw out of the case, blew it off with air, pulled the top cover. New air filter and plug nice to see. Pulled the plug and measured compression cold and got 126 and 128. Not as high as it should be I'm thinking. So I pulled the muffler. Muffler looked in good condition. Saw appears to be well maintained but the wing nuts for bar nuts was a bit weird. (since corrected)

Well the piston had a bit of scuffing/scoring on it. Not bad, just a tad. Ring was free. If this saw was easy to get apart I would probably put a ring in it.

put a bit of mix directly into the cylinder through the exhaust port and gave it a pull. On the second pull it fired up and stayed running (beyond the amount of mix I put in) so I shut it off, put the muffler back on and it fired right up. Didn't stay idling (it would idle but then just quit after a couple seconds.)

Put the air filter and top cover back on blowing everything out and off as I went. Saw overall was in good condition. Fired it up and headed toward my wood pile. Went to flip the chain brake on since I had to walk about 100 feet and it wouldn't move. Lever stuck? Nope, no chain brake, just a hand guard. That surprised me as I thought that by 1998 ALL saws had chain brakes. Apparently not. (unless this had a retrofitted part)

The saw ran ok in the wood but didn't cut worth beans. The chain feels sharp and I eyeballed the rakers but it just isn't cutting much. I'll take a file to the teeth and maybe a bit off the rakers too and see if I can correct that. I have some 3/8" lo pro chain but am not going to invest a chain into this saw until it proves itself worthy.

I have to dig/cut out a stump at the church tomorrow and I'm thinking.... (this stump is up next to the building in a row of shrubs and has to be manual removal. No room for equipment.)

Anyway, I am still uncertain how I did on this thing. The scrench doesn't fit anything so that gets deleted off the plus side. I still have a nice case...

Oh, I have seen ads but never encountered this weird bar that has the adjustment within the bar. Who's stupid idea was that? Sounds like something the flippy cap guy came up with. Is that the only bar this saw will run or does it have a normal adjuster too? Didn't investigate that yet.

 

[zogger]

You proly have an "Intenz" bar. Seems like you can slap another poulan bar on there from something else in the junk pile. Is there provision for a regular adjuster on the clutch cover?

Scored scuffed low compression, it ain't gonna last long running it most likely. Maybe you can get that one stump out of the thing. Perhaps run it pig rich with the mix oil, 32:1 or something.

I was just thinking of something..way back when we ran car oil like 30 weight for mix oil..I am thinking..I don't recall any toasted top ends. Fouled plugs, yep, cut in a cloud of fumes, yep, but don't recall myself or any of my cutting buddies scoring/scuffing pistons and cylinders ever. Now I am sure it happened back then of course, but I don't think it is near the common problem as it is today with much higher revs, lean settings, and not much oil and mostly pure crap fuel that goes into most saws. Plus carbs bolted directly to the engine with no "boot", one big air leak eliminator, and the fuel lines didn't rot near as fast either.

 

[fearofpavement]

You proly have an "Intenz" bar. Seems like you can slap another poulan bar on there from something else in the junk pile. Is there provision for a regular adjuster on the clutch cover?

Scored scuffed low compression, it ain't gonna last long running it most likely. Maybe you can get that one stump out of the thing. Perhaps run it pig rich with the mix oil, 32:1 or something.

I was just thinking of something..way back when we ran car oil like 30 weight for mix oil..I am thinking..I don't recall any toasted top ends. Fouled plugs, yep, cut in a cloud of fumes, yep, but don't recall myself or any of my cutting buddies scoring/scuffing pistons and cylinders ever. Now I am sure it happened back then of course, but I don't think it is near the common problem as it is today with much higher revs, lean settings, and not much oil and mostly pure crap fuel that goes into most saws. Plus carbs bolted directly to the engine with no "boot", one big air leak eliminator, and the fuel lines didn't rot near as fast either.

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Some nostalgia going on there. I agree with most of what you said. Don't want to get into any kind of oil/fuel mix discussions but to get some 32:1 for the sick saw, I would just have to pour some out of "any" of my fuel mix cans. (oh the horror!)