So bought a chinese saw (holz g070)

[sliceoflife]

Yep... it's been a big help... adds a good bit of prep time... getting saw buried, then pulling out the line, setting it up and getting back to milling, but definitely makes the job easier.

Need to work a more stable mount method (it's not at risk of coming off, but it does wobble) and make it easier to remove for occasions when it isnt helpful / needed, but its definitely been an improvement overall.

 

[sliceoflife]

Kit for the SuperXL arrived, rebuilt the carb and a quick start and rev seems to have it running correctly. I'll attempt a use hopefully tomorrow. Makes me hopeful the Carb replacement gets the 775g running better too as their behavior was pretty similar.

 

[sliceoflife]

Put the .404 sprocket on the 775g and Pulled the carb off the 775d... and pretty sure at the very least it was likely leaking between carb and crank case... the gasket was soft and gummy and wet with gas... the screws were loose... highly doubt that thing was airtight.


Bad news is I cant swap the carbs directly without making custom wire arms for the governors... the governor arm on the 775g is too short and would hold the throttle halfway open even with trigger released... now that may be easy to fix, but since I've got both saws apart, I'm just going to rebuild the 775g carb with fresh gaskets and put it back. Might steal the reed off the 775d... it's really clean.


I'll still try and pressure test the 775d at some point... but really shocking how loose those screws were... my guess is he didn't want to remove the saws grip and had to screw the carb back on at a wierd angle with no leverage.

 

[sliceoflife]

Rebuilt the echo carb... started right up and ran for a minute but had to flutter the throttle cause idle wasn't tuned... soon as I let off and tried to start it up nothing....


Fought with it for awhile before I pulled the plug and the top of the plug came out and got lost in the ground...


It was a bmr6a that I had trouble twisting the cap off of... must have broke off inside the insulator and just worked floating for awhile.... but now I cant see if the rebuild fixed anything until the replacement plug gets here.



Did figure out why it wouldn't restart tho... was flooding and nothing I did could stop it... every video ever of carb rebuild says make the lever arm almost flush with carb walls... this walbro that is waaaaay off for... there's built in arms that show where it should be... and they're a good 1-2 mm below the walls... so lever arm was set waaaaay high.

 

[sliceoflife]

Got the new spark plug in there and it fired up... shut it down, tried to start it again for tuning... and the pull cord broke again... this time in the flywheel, so I fixed that, and put the oem muffler on it while I was at it before calling it a night. Should be able to play around with it the weekend after next.

 

[sliceoflife]

Work has been nuts lately and it's been pouring rain every day I've had off.


Bought a pm177 / skil 1661. Piston got a bit of scoring. Planning to give it a little fine sand to knock down high spots, test pressure and vacuum, etc and see if I can get it running.
This evening I finally rebuilt the 775g carb and put it back together as well as rebuilding the 1661 carb.
Need to put a new pull cord on the echo 900, then I'll have that, the g070, and the homelite xl auto all running... and then well test the 775g and see if it needs anything. Then once I finish with the skil 1661, I'll either sell the 775d the 775g replaced or maybe try and clean it up a bit more.

Also picked up a homelite 17 and a 1956 homelite ez. Ez looks close to running, so maybe will work on it too. 17 looks like a parts saw to me.

 

[sliceoflife]

Weekend update:



Super XL auto: Running good now.

Echo cs900, Put a pullcord off another saw on it (the cord I ordered on Amazon may never arrive, shipping for negative money from China), stuck the 27" bar back on it, cause I might put the 38" bar on another saw and I wanted to use it for some bucking. Running good now.

775G, idles, revs, doesn't die or stall... sounds SUPER rich still. Need to get a bar and chain on it and tune it up... Sadly the 36" bar and chain I modded for the .404 775D won't fit (spur vs rim drive sprockets... seems rim drive sprockets need a couple extra links)... it's like 1-2 links too short. If I open up the gearbox so I can easily undo the sprocket retaining nut again and remove the sprocket cover plate, I think I could just barely slip it on, but then I've got to reassemble the sprocket retention with a bar and chain in place... Honestly I think it'd be easier just to buy a chain with a few extra links. And I can't put the old B&C on it; as it was a .50 sprocket... so kinda out of luck for actually using it in the immediate future.

I'll upload a video of how it sounds in a bit.

The 775D should still be running; just need to put it back together; wound up not using it for parts at all (was gonna steal the carb rather than bother with a rebuild; but the governor setup was different between the saws so it wasn't a fit). Probably put it up for sale locally as a parts saw.

Still haven't had time to work on the Skill 1661... might be near thanksgiving before I do.

The Homelite 17 it came with will probably get put on facebook for cheap. Too much rust to really see what parts are salvageable; but hopefully someone will find a use for it.

Still undecided about the EZ original that came with those two either... it's in pretty good shape and probably just needs a carb kit to get running... but I don't see myself ever using it over my other saws. May put it up on eBay as is and see if it gets any nibbles.

 

[sliceoflife]

So picked up what is hopefully the saw I'll be milling with for the foreseeable future... most expensive saw I've bought so far, needs a carb rebuild and a new fuel line, but hopefully that is it... and it came with a vintage Oregon 44" hardnose bar.

Swapped the sprocket back on the 775g, so it is back to how I bought it, but running.

Same for the 775d. Back how I bought it.

Gonna sell both, as well as the ez, the rustbucket 17 and maybe the echo 900...

Then if I get the 1661 running, I'll probably sell it too.

Only reason I might not sell the g070 is their resale is garbage around here (see them on facebook regularly for half what they cost)... but still debating it. Maybe keep it as a backup mill saw, or dedicated first cut saw or something.


Then I'll keep my super xl for small jobs and the new saw for milling.

 

[sean donato]

Personally I think selling off all the old stuff and getting something even half modern is a good choice. I like vintage and odd balk saws as much as the next guy, but easy parts and reliability trumps cheap and nostalgia when you have work to do.
What saw did you end up picking up?

 

[sliceoflife]

Homelite 1130g

Checks all the boxes; almost as big as my 070, gear drive so it should pull anything I can throw at it, has a strong auto-oiler, already have the sprocket to convert it to .404 when the chain it came with wears out. Older, but parts don't look too bad (I see pistons on eBay for like $20), and the thing is in great shape... some paint missing from muffler cover and the base; but otherwise a beaut.

Plus the bar it came with is 44" and hardnose; so basically perfect for me to get every inch I can out of the 36" mill I've got. I'd guess I'll go from the ~26" diameter my 36" bars could do to almost the full 36" the mill can handle. It's also got a built in mount for a helper handle so if I get really ambitious and decide to build a custom mill in the future; should be easy to rig a mount for it.

 

[sliceoflife]

Put the rebuilt carb back in the skil 1661 and still dead. Changed spark plug. Still dead. Checked for spark. No go.

Starter assembly/coil bad, I assume?

 

[sliceoflife]

So I poked around the ignition to try and see if I could find any identifying marks to know what replacement to look for and this pulled out.

Looks like they just had it stuck in there, rather than attached to a plug... which may be all that was wrong... I'll try and secure it with a proper plug and see if that fixes it... if not; ignition module is probably the next option... question... are they basically proprietary... IE do I need to find the original module type/model to replace it or if not; what specs are of concern that I'd need to make sure the replacement meets?

 

[sliceoflife]

Nope, coil is bad it seems.

Do I need to find the exact coil for a replacement, or?

 

[J D]

Often the plug wire is replaceable & winds into the coil. In that case there is a barb in the coil that contacts the centre conductor & a thread that grabs the outer insulation

 

[sliceoflife]

It is and does... Rescrewing it in there didn't help though.

Had to do a little research on magnetos/points etc.

Bought some feeler gauges (I know I have some around here, but I'll never find them), to reset the points; and filed the points a bit to try and clean them up in case they were corroded. Once the gauges get here and I confirm the gap is correct; I'll try it again... if it still has no spark; it looks like other things that may have failed are condenser and capacitor (I didn't see a capacitor; but supposedly there's one somewhere); so they'd be on the chopping block to replace. The Stator assembly is basically unreplaceable.. there's a lot that look similar on eBay, but it's pretty specific to the saw by all appearances based on how it mounts under the flywheel and sets the coil gap/etc... I did find some replacement coils; but they're pretty pricey so hopefully the points adjustment gets me spark.


Kind of worried it wont though as the points look like they have too much gap if anything... which should mean weak spark, not no spark.

 

[sean donato]

.020" is usually a good place to start with point gap. You can get new plug wires too. May not be specifically for your model. As long as they fit they usually work.

 

[sliceoflife]

It says .015" on the saw. Is .020" a better starting point for some reason (age/etc) or just the starting point if you don't know the recommended gap?

 

[sean donato]

It's just a general rule of thumb that will get you close if you don't know what it is.

 

[sliceoflife]

Thanks...

So I set points gap to .015, put the saw back together... still no spark.

Any options at this point? I guess I can start replacing starter parts, but that's gonna add up not knowing which one or ones are bad... and like I said, if it comes down to the stator and mount plate... doubt I'll be able to find one that's a match.

 

[sliceoflife]

Oh well, rather than wondering and letting it bother me, I'll drop the $40 on the coil and at least rule that one out. Ordered one.