Need Help With 038 Magnum/MS381 Parts Swap

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Fellas -
First pro saw I bought many years ago was an 038 Mag. It's been sitting in pieces for about 5 years and I'm finally getting it back together. I had the cases powder coated, triple port on the muffler, NOS full wrap, NOS top cover, BG delete, etc. The original fuel tank looked horrible next to the NOS and powder coated bits, so I sourced a new one.

My new tank, from what I can tell, is the MS381 style. It bolts on, but the contact spring for the ignition kill switch is different - it's about 1/4" away from contacting the wire for the kill switch.

I thought I had the wrong switch shaft, but the IPLs I'm looking at call for the same switch shaft for both.

I'm stumped! Any ideas on how to make this work? Anyone got pictures of an MS381 contact spring and switch shaft setup?

I'd also buy an NOS 038 tank, but I haven't seen any for sale.
 

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Can a pic of the spring be put up, maybe its the wrong one or something else is not in the right place or orientation. I know the spring on an 038 that is held in place with a screw mounted to the top of the fuel tank is long enough it could be stretched backward more than 1/2" if need be but there isn`t even that much room in the airbox it located in.
 
I had this same problem but I forget how I fixed it, I've done a couple of 038's, almost all of the old mag tanks leak at the seam by now, and the chi com tanks work fine. Hard to find a more rugged dependable old saw with the amount of power a 52mm 038 mag has. A bit heavy, but......
 
I had this same problem but I forget how I fixed it, I've done a couple of 038's, almost all of the old mag tanks leak at the seam by now, and the chi com tanks work fine. Hard to find a more rugged dependable old saw with the amount of power a 52mm 038 mag has. A bit heavy, but......
I have reworked several of them also but can`t get a visual of how the spring could be so far away from the switch holding the grounding wire from the coil. There is not much room in that airbox. I love the grunt to 038 Mag has.
 
Can a pic of the spring be put up, maybe its the wrong one or something else is not in the right place or orientation. I know the spring on an 038 that is held in place with a screw mounted to the top of the fuel tank is long enough it could be stretched backward more than 1/2" if need be but there isn`t even that much room in the airbox it located in.

Yep. The screw was my problem. I was using a different style of spring, but it was the wrong one. I needed to use an 038 spring. Pics and details to follow.
 
I have reworked several of them also but can`t get a visual of how the spring could be so far away from the switch holding the grounding wire from the coil. There is not much room in that airbox. I love the grunt to 038 Mag has.

Yeah, I'm ready to sink the bar into some wood. Had planned to sell the 038 Mag and keep the 044 that I have that needs some attention, but I think it'll be the other way around.
 
Yeah, I'm ready to sink the bar into some wood. Had planned to sell the 038 Mag and keep the 044 that I have that needs some attention, but I think it'll be the other way around.
I run them both quite a bit, still have 7 of the 044 and MS440 saws, can`t let them go and still keep 3 of the 038 Magnums around. I like the 044 saws for felling and the 038`s for bucking.
 
Ok, so there were two issues. I didn't have a hole drilled in the new tank for the contact spring and the tank was not configured exactly the same in that area, so I made the mistake of assuming that I needed a different contact spring. I couldn't find any contact springs (the ones that I thought I needed anyway) here in the U.S., so I ordered some from China that took forever to get here. Mistake.

Anyway, after looking at it again, I realized that I just needed to drill a hole in my new tank so I could screw the old contact spring from my original tank to the new one.

After that was done, I fat fingered everything into place and checked to see if the contact spring was working and it was, so I filled it up with fuel and oil and it fired right up!
 

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