Poulan 2300 Bar / Chain Self Tightening

[lil171]

Hi all. So, the other week, I took my 'Poulan' 2300 apart to clean it. Came apart, cleaned, and reassembled as per the way it was. However, when last used a year or so ago, it was cutting fine then it had some chain problems that I recalled while talking with my dad. So fas forward to today. We were outside cutting up some wood for bonfires and I had the chain adjusted as per factory. I cut for about 5 minutes with no problems. Then I took the cover off the top to adjust the idle and it is then we noticed this behaviour. Dad first thought the chain brake was on, but I assured him it was not. The saw just bogged down when giving it throttle. So I shut it off, and he grabbed the chain and it was tight as all heck. We loosened teh bar off, and gave the chain some slack. Tightened it up again. STrated it up, cut a couple small branches (3-4") and it bogged down again. Chain was tight again. Loosened it again, and history repeated itself again. We are at a loss right now. If anyone would happen to know what it causing this, I would appreciate to hear it as we are looking forward to fixing this saw. Thank you in advance for your time.

In case it makes a difference, we loosened off the nut inside the handle (visible), then adjusted chain tension in front of the saw on teh other side of the blade.

 

[Acornhill]

Check the Sprocket for wear, it may be binding up , clean & dress the bar, inspect the bar & chain to see if it is riding smoothly in the groove,


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[lil171]

Ok. Thank you. I will take it apart as per your suggestion and inspect it.

 

[lil171]

Just a little update. I just went outside and took it apart. I used my tool for raker filing that I bought and ran it in the groove in the bar. The bar had a fair amount of 'soft wood powder/dust very oily' in the groove. I removed it all and cleaned it with cleaner. The sprocket is in very good shape. So, I am now hoping that it was just the groove in the bar. I unfortunately will not be able to test it out till probably the weekend as that is when I will be getting my next little batch of wood. But I will run it tomorrow anyways just to see if it goes good, and also for the fact I need to do some carb adjusting as the chain free spins when sitting there idling.

 

[Little Al]

Does your bar stud/s have a shoulder on it/them? if yes is the nut able to clamp the bar rather than seating on the shoulder when setting try a washer under the bar nut to see if it helps

 

[lil171]

Thanks for the tip. I will take a look this evening when I get back home.

 

[CR888]

Make sure oil is slinging off the tip of the bar when revved over some cardboard or wood. Make sure the oil hole is clear, I'd take the bar off & blast the crud out of the rails with compressed air or scrape it out, even wash the bar. No oil = chain seizure. Good luck

 

[lil171]

Ok. So I came home today and gave it a go. I went and filled up the cutting oil tank. I had to give it a little bit of tuning, so I fired it up and let it warm up. I sat it over a piece of cardboard, and after a couple minutes I saw a bit of splatter on the cardboard. But I then took it outside to run it up. Not cutting, but going full throttle and such. While doing so, I saw a good spray off of the tip of the bar. Then while looking at the bar itself, there was a line of oil from pretty much near the motor to the tip of the bar (looked like a line of oil running off of the top of the bar downwards). So, it appears that the oiling mechanism is working fine. I had the chain loosened off some, and it appears to have held the looseness and not tighten up. So, with fingers crossed now, I will have to wait till I can get back out to my buddies to get some wood to try cutting and see if the problem starts again.

 

[Little Al]

Not clued up with this saw Does it have a bar adjuster screw & widget that fits in a bar hole I would imagine it does is tha working OK

 

[lil171]

Not clued up with this saw Does it have a bar adjuster screw & widget that fits in a bar hole I would imagine it does is tha working OK

If I understand the terminology, as I am new, when removed, there is a screw on front of the saw and along the shaft of that screw is a sort of metal widget, as you call it. It fits in the bars long slot. After seeing it the other day when taking it apart to clean the groove, I was wondering if for some reason I did not notice it before when re-assembling the saw..... Rest assured, when assembling this time, it was placed in the groove.

 

[Little Al]

If I understand the terminology, as I am new, when removed, there is a screw on front of the saw and along the shaft of that screw is a sort of metal widget, as you call it. It fits in the bars long slot. After seeing it the other day when taking it apart to clean the groove, I was wondering if for some reason I did not notice it before when re-assembling the saw..... Rest assured, when assembling this time, it was placed in the groove.

That's the bit of kit The "widget" should fit in a round/square hole in the bar not in the bar stud slot the idea being you slack off the widget screw, fit the bar with widget located in correct hole finger tighten bar nut/s lift up nose end of bar & tighten widget screw to obtain correct tension on chain.it should pull up the chain in the bar groove tighten bar nut/s The bar should have a slot ( bar studs fit in)2 holes outsides slot lower one usually take widget upper one does the same when the bar is flipped & possibly 2 smaller holes for oil to flow into bar grove top one in use, lines up with oil supply slot in saw casing, lower one for bar flip some bars use widget holes to also pass oil if the widget is in the groove it's wrong & will not be able to tension the bar it will slide in the groove I'm sorry I have no dealing with this make/model saw but all are much the same some also have a thin spring steel bar saver that fit in/out side of the bar don't know on your model though

 

[lil171]

Ok. Thank you. I will take a look later. I will post a picture this evening as well just to make sure.

 

[lil171]

Little Al. My apologies. I was completely wrong, and inadvertently lied. I had honestly thought that the 'widget' was in the slot of the bar as I had indicated yesterday. I only found this out after dismantling the saw again today for pictures. It does indeed fit into a small hole below the bar mounting stud. This can be seen in the pictures.

Picture 1. Picture of adjusting widget pointed at be screwdriver.
Picture 2. Picture of saw bar and screwdriver is pointed at the hole in which the widget resides in when the bar is installed.
Picture 3. Picture of the assembly back in place on the saw prior to me putting teh cover back on and adjusting chain and bar.

Thanks for the help, tips, and advice so far. Looks like I may get another chance sooner than I thought as a neighbor is getting 3 trees cut down hopefully tomorrow and I get to keep the wood! So this will allow me to play with the saw a bit again.

 

[Little Al]

Hope you suss out & solve your problem Try a shake proof washer the one with a lot of teeth on twixt bar & nut & when you fit bar DON'T lift the bar nose adjust chain tension with bar in the droop position If then when you cut & the bar is pushed up it should slacken the chain

 

[lil171]

Ok, thank you for the tip. I will try that, hopefully in the next day or two, weather defendant as well as on my neighbors arborist.

 

[morbius18]

I had something similar happen to a ms460 I rebuilt. The rim on the clutch drum was worn too much allowing the bottom drive links on the chain to slightly hit the clutch drum. It heated them up quite a bit and slightly deformed the bottom of the link. When the links entered the slot in the bar, the slightly flatten bottom drive links hit the sides inside the slot. The saw bogged down and acted like the chain brake was on. It was really hard to move by hand. After it cooled down and the metal shrank slightly it would run again until it heated up and started binding.

My guess is the clutch sprocket on your saw is doing something similar. Check the bottom of the drive links to see if they are rounded and shiny.

 

[Ginger15]

I had this same problem on my poulan 2300av. It had a new bar, new drum, and new chain, and would self tighten to the point it would stop. All the pitches matched. Swapped a different bar and chain and it worked fine. Funny thing is, I use that other bar and chain on a different poulan 2300 and it worked fine. Over in the poulan thread we never did find the true cause.

 

[lil171]

That's kinda funny. At least you solved your problem. As I do not have spare parts kicking around, if my saw does it again, I may just shelve it till I can find some used parts. However, I do have a chain supposedly on it's way. If the problem persists, I will immediately swap the chain out. As for the bar, I do not have a spare.

 

[Ginger15]

I thought I had a spare bar, but couldnt find it. They can be had for about $20 or so. My problem bar was a 14", the 18" worked on it though. But the 14 worked on a different poulan 2300. Super weird. I would see if a dealer would let you try a bar out? Mine would go tight without even cutting, just having the engine spin the chain would do it. But if I spun the chain by hand it was fine all day long.

 

[Mauser]

Check your engine mounting bolts! I almost totally ruined a Poulan 2900 by using it so long with loose and some missing bolts - they ruined the mounting holes in the engine block and I had to re-tap for new bolts. Some of the symptoms I was seeing included the chain being thrown (even with new bar and chain), along with the mysterious changes in chain tension. The engine movement also pretty much ate up the inside of the plastic sprocket cover. I felt pretty stupid when I finally discovered that all the problems were simply due to my own stupidity and poor maintenance!

In fact, I was just putting on a new rim sprocket and dressing the bar on that same saw today, and while I was testing it for good oiling, I ran into the same problem with magically tightening chain. Sometimes it goes suddenly very loose, and other times it goes super tight, all for no obvious reason. Flipped the saw over and found one of the mounting bolts almost out, and another two less than fully tight! Even after the first re-tightening, they started loosening up again VERY quickly - finally had to bear down on those bolts harder than I wanted to stop that game.