my new used Stihl MS 290 wont pull.

[cutforfun]

you will get the starting figured out and be drop starting the thing in no time:hmm3grin2orange:

 

[PLMCRZY]

Do you have a neighbor that is a woman? Maybe you should ask her to help you start the saw.




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[genesis5521]

so i came home, went out and had a talk to the saw, put on the choke, pulled it like 3 times and it fired right up. Let it idle for like 20 secs then gave it a few spurts on the throttle and set to cut a nice size log in half, length wise... the saw ate straight through it like a champ.. after cutting a couple more, i shut ti down, waited a few minutes, maybe 2 or 3 then put it to run, pulled it once and it fired up. I guess I was just thrown by the amount of compression it has over my other two saws. Oh i did the hang it by the rope test the "Cutforfun" reccomended and it did exactly as he said it should. it dropped, stopped for a couple seconds and dropped again.. what i love best is the sound this saw makes, compaired to my Husky, this saw almost sounds like a 4 stroke, its like a louder version of my 4 stroke weed wackers!!! lol

Hi Zacker:

See. I just knew there was nothing wrong with your nice new (used) saw. My dealer knew I was upgrading from an MS170 to the 290. He told me it would take more muscle to start it. And he let me start it a bunch of times at the dealership so there would be no surprises when I got home with it. Mine is 5 months old now. Cut 4 cords of wood with it so far. Starts like a champ every time. I just love it!

Don <><

 

[zacker]

Do you have a neighbor that is a woman? Maybe you should ask her to help you start the saw.

Ahhh the jokes that can be made with that... pulling, tugging.. yanking.. all that good, funny stuff...lol :msp_biggrin::msp_biggrin:

 

[zacker]

Hi Zacker:

See. I just knew there was nothing wrong with your nice new (used) saw. My dealer knew I was upgrading from an MS170 to the 290. He told me it would take more muscle to start it. And he let me start it a bunch of times at the dealership so there would be no surprises when I got home with it. Mine is 5 months old now. Cut 4 cords of wood with it so far. Starts like a champ every time. I just love it!

Don <><

thanks Don... now i can start it in seconds flat..lol cant wait to really dig into a tree with it though.

 

[Bushmans]

The only way to fix it is to cut 10 cord of firewood, haul it by hand through the woods, uphill both ways, load it in the truck, take it home, unload it, split it with a splitting maul and run uphill 30 yards or more to stack it. After that it will be easy to start. I guarantee it:msp_wink:

Congrats on the new saw by the way. I drive an 029 Super and somedays you have to switch hands to get it to fire.:msp_scared:

 

[gcsupraman]

do you have a neighbor that is a woman? Maybe you should ask her to help you start the saw.

@ plmcrzy: lmao!!!

Be carefull in the woods of CT, or this could happen to you:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/M9M6B9MI-jY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[genesis5521]

thanks guys... yeah, the only other saw I ever started is my Husky 142 and a 20 some odd year old Eager Beaver..... lol The Stihl does start, maybe I wasnt anticipating that compression? I shoulda pulled it over at the place I bought it from... this way I coul dhave questioned them.

Don.. when I got the saw they showd me how to start it.. and I watched the vid and read the manual...so Im good there, it was the fact that it stalled and then the compression thing was unexpected. Like I said, I could have thought ot pulled over way easier when I first started it.. but maybe I was just really psyched to try it out...lol I dunno. I cant wait to try cutting with it again tonight. Ill probably get a "Talking to" by my neighborsas well...lol hey I moved up to the woods so I could do stuff like this so they can stuff it right? lol...

3/30/17
Now I'm having the same problem as you. I can't pull start my 290 Farm Boss. I've barley used this thing since I bought it new in 2011. It has less than 2 hours on it. I always drain the gas and run the saw to get all the gas out of the carb. Compression is just way to high me now. Somethings not right. Unless someone has a suggestion, it's going to the dealer fer service. It's a shame that the warranty has run out and I've barely used this thing. I use my little MS170 for everything. I bought the 290 as a back-up saw.

 

[mga]

I was working on a couple of the ms290's. some were hard to pull as if they had 500 lbs of compression. I removed the plugs and pulled them over a few times to make sure nothing mechanical was binding up. make sure your gas/oil is mixed right.

some one suggested that there might be gasoline inside or around the crank, but I didn't find any. another issue these saws had was, when cutting, they wanted to bog down and when the hand brake was applied, they would shut off completely.

what I found was bad clutch springs. they were so weak they were engaging the clutch at low rpm's and when the brake applied it killed the saw. even when idling the chain kept moving. I was fixing 5 or 6 of them for some golf course...talk about being abused! they were in rough shape. got them running and the guy gave me one!