Poulan Pro PP5020 Won't Start! Need Help!!

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If that version of the 5020 has the EZ-PUll recoil starter, there is a spiral spring under the toothed part that grips the FW pawls. These springs have a habit of self destructing and jamming the recoil drum from retracting the cord. A $3.00 spring and one of the worst of these type of recoils systems I have seen. To get to the spring, just remove the center screw and lift out the central black part being REAL CAREFUL not to lift the rope drum or the recoil spring behind it will unravel.
 
OldStroke2. i think you are exactly correct. The Assist spring looks to be bent,. How a spring can be bent is beyond me, I would have thought a spring would have been hard enough to resist bending, even if you wanted to bend it. I was able to bend it back just a little and it worked better, but under load, looks like it just failed again....... I am considering pulling that spring out and see if that is causing the cord not jam and not recoil.
 
Even if you think spark is good i'd replace the plug anyway.
I recently had a fairly new plug fail. It would still give off a nice blue spark but wasn't enough to start the saw.
Once I replaced it and tested another plug, I could definitely see although the old plug had a nice blue coloured spark, it was weak compared to a new one.
 
OldStroke2. i think you are exactly correct. The Assist spring looks to be bent,. How a spring can be bent is beyond me, I would have thought a spring would have been hard enough to resist bending, even if you wanted to bend it. I was able to bend it back just a little and it worked better, but under load, looks like it just failed again....... I am considering pulling that spring out and see if that is causing the cord not jam and not recoil.
Well guess what, taking out the spring start assist work. So had to buy a rebuild kit. Seems like this saw Is two steps back and one step forward..
 
Well guess what, taking out the spring start assist work. So had to buy a rebuild kit. Seems like this saw Is two steps back and one step forward..
You can just get a new spring. Poulan part # 581481601 about $3.00. Order a few of them, it's not IF they will fail but WHEN they will. I have disabled a number of these systems and the next time this one fails I will try something different. I tried soft soldering the coils together, but wasn't a permanent solution, no longer have access to welding equipment but a good solution would be to run a couple of beads across the coils. Next thing I will try is to cut a piece of drill rod to the right length to fit into the holes in both pieces and pot it into the spring cavity with a good epoxy. These things fail because we are drop starting the saws, if you have the patience to use them the right way, they might last. You are supposed to just pull the cord quickly with moderate pressure and the spring will kick the piston through compression, giving faster and easier piston speed through TDC, this only gives you one pop per pull and you need a LOT of these so most of us say to hell with it and drop start it to get the engine spinning through a few compression cycles.
 
Thanks for the explanation on the start assist spring. I have this poulan and a husquvarana rancher. It is funny to me, I have never had much of any problems with the rancher, but the poulan has several parts that have a H stamped on the parts. I would have thought the realiability would have been very similar, but doesn’t seem so at this point…
 
So far the starter needs sorted, if the saw starts and runs good it will be fine for light work.
Sorry I can not advise much as I have no experience with a poulan.
You mention some parts marked with H, yes, Husqvarna owns Poulan, and my one
and only small Husqvarna cost me two recoil springs in a few hours, and they would not
cover them under warranty and the saw a day old, said they were wear parts, so two wore
out in a few hours I got rid of the saw immediately, piece of scrap it was.
And from what am hearing in this thread, you will be replacing them often enough too.
 
UPDATE: I got the starter repair kit in the mail and installed yesterday. Well guess what, it popped on nearly the first pull! As several people suggested the initial problem must have been very flooded. The trick to turn it upside down and pull the starter was the smoking gun when it puked out some gas on several pulls. That was a good indicator of being flooded. Thanks for everyone's help... I still think there must be some kind of work around/strategy to prevent the saw from getting flooded so easily. but maybe not....I believe one problem was the low speed jet might have been a little too rich. I am sure that couldn't help. If anyone has any tricks they have learned along the way, I am sure there would be several folks that would love to hear about it!!
On a separate note, I have a good friend that I went to school with had a chainsaw accident Friday. He was very experienced using chainsaws for most of his life... It wound up cutting his left forearm very deep but looks like they will be able to save his arm. It was bad and required a life flight to a large trauma unit. At this point i am not sure what happened, but I guess the point is it can happen. Take your time and be safe!!
Have a good Holiday.
 
These saws seem to flood very easily. In normal 2-stroke starting, you set the throttle open and the choke fully closed, then pull until it pops or fires but these saws seem to flood before they "pop". A good start procedure is to pull twice with the choke on, then push the choke off (don't touch the throttle) and pull a few times to see if it fires. If you keep pulling with the choke on and it doesn't fire after about 5 or 6 pulls, it is probably flooded.
 
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