Stihl 011 Carburetor Mounting Woes

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McCullochKid

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So I decided to get around to pulling the carb on a nice 011 that I picked up awhile back, in order to clean the carb out and give it a new diaphragm, which I'm fairly certain is all this saw really needs to make it good as new.
Cleaning and reassembly of the carb went just fine. The old diaphragm was indeed stiff and in need of replacement.
However, trying to get the thing secured back onto the saw has somehow turned into a massive chore. I reversed the process which I used to take the carb off, which is to reattach the fuel line, then the throttle link, followed by carefully fitting it into place.

Here's the part where my problem has somehow developed: The two screws that secure the carb to the body of the saw.
They both screw in without any issue for most of the distance. However, a bit of resistance develops right before the heads of the screws make contact with the carb itself. If I go the final tiny distance to make the screw heads contact the carb, two things happen.
1: The throttle stops working properly. There's a measure of resistance behind the throttle, and It gets "stuck" when the throttle is triggered. Sometimes it'll snap back to its original position after several seconds.
2: The screws are somehow now slightly rotated from their original position before I removed the carb to clean it. You can see in the photo that the air filter no longer fits over them.
Additionally, when I go to back the screws out, the throttle will immediately return to its position if it was stuck. Upon taking the screws all the way out, there's a small amount of metal flakes on the bottom quarter of the threads.

Any ideas on what's going on here would be appreciated. This is one of my most bizarre saw issues that I've encountered yet. I find it hard to believe the screw positions could change so much after just removing the carb once.
Some photos of what I'm working with here...
011-1.jpg
011-2.jpg
011-3.jpg
011-4.jpg
 
I agree with Lee192233. The carb mounting holes go all the way through and open into the crankcase. Looks like something blocking one hole. Be careful not to push that gunk into the crankcase.

Your fuel line and breather line are in the way. See photo, fuel line goes around carb along its top, like the blue line. Breather line goes around carb the other way, like green line. Neither line goes near the carb base to get pinched.

The throttle wire elbow might be set in a hole that's too far off-center, making the throttle "cam over"and stick, see red arrow for a less off-center hole. Also check to see how the cable ferrule seats inside that case slot, blue arrow.

And the air filter is too big (aftermarket?) and is not seating the way it should. Guessing that the filter holes for the screwheads may be misplaced too.
011 fuel line routing.jpg011 filter seating.jpg
 
Lots of good advice here, thanks everyone! I'll take another look at the saw this afternoon and see what happens.
Regarding the air filter, I'm pretty sure it's an original Stihl one, or at least the proper size. It fit perfectly prior to me removing the carburetor to clean it and attempting to put it back on.

Also, if it happens to be necessary for some reason, are there any negative consequences for shortening such screws by a small amount? Like 1/16 or something.
 
I want to correct what I said earlier. See photos: only the upper right carb mounting hole goes through into the crankcase. The lower left hole is blind, it bottoms out. There may be gunk in the lower left hole that you can pick out without that gunk being pushed into the crankcase.

Don't shorten the screws. The upper right carb mounting hole has only 6mm depth, 6mm of threads. If you shorten the screw then it will have less purchase.

The crankcases are from a project never rebuilt. You can see the scarring from something caught and scraped between the upper right screw hole and crank.
011 crankcase 1.jpg011 crankcase 2.jpg
 
Well, I got it back on and working properly. I didn't find any real grime or debris in the holes besides a coating of something reminiscent to dielectric grease. I don't know if that would be enough to throw things off, but I carefully cleaned what I could, along with being extra careful with the fuel line routing when fitting the thing back into place.
Cut with it for awhile today, it's a good runner now. Thanks for the help everyone!
 

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