Stihl 026 - Pulsating Ignition?

[fossil]

Did you change the spark plug? I've had bad plugs give all kinds of weird symptoms. Something cheap to replace and at least eliminate that from the equation.

 

[SteveSr]

Hello,

I had a chance to take a look at this again today. And the answer is... Drumroll... Air filter! For those of you that had the right answer give yourself some...!

All I can say is... This is a BRAND NEW Stihl OEM filter. I don't normally look at brand new parts as potential failure items. I started the saw up with the AF cover removed and while it was misbehaving I watched in disbelief as the choke lever moved back and forth... all by itself!

So for those of you that have seen this before did Stihl lay some bad filters with weak springs or make a production change and use the wrong spring? From my dead filter pile I found two variations. One had a limit stop on the choke lever arm which prevented the choke plate from contacting the rear half of the filter while the other one didn't. Both of these seemed to have a stronger spring than the one in my defective filter. Swapping a spring from a dead filter fixed the issue.

Thanks,

Steve

 

[lone wolf]

Hello,

I had a chance to take a look at this again today. And the answer is... Drumroll... Air filter! For those of you that had the right answer give yourself some...!

All I can say is... This is a BRAND NEW Stihl OEM filter. I don't normally look at brand new parts as potential failure items. I started the saw up with the AF cover removed and while it was misbehaving I watched in disbelief as the choke lever moved back and forth... all by itself!

So for those of you that have seen this before did Stihl lay some bad filters with weak springs or make a production change and use the wrong spring? From my dead filter pile I found two variations. One had a limit stop on the choke lever arm which prevented the choke plate from contacting the rear half of the filter while the other one didn't. Both of these seemed to have a stronger spring than the one in my defective filter. Swapping a spring from a dead filter fixed the issue.

Thanks,

Steve

The hardest stuff to trouble shoot is new because we believe it should be working. I had a leaky cylinder on my bucket truck that kept leaking and after three rebuilds and a bunch of new cylinder rods and mounting plates etc I figured out it was a factory defective seal!!!!!!!!

 

[spudulike]

So true - new means working......completely throws you when it doesn't!

 

[Ax-man]

My money was on the ignition. Never would have guessed it was an air filter, but I know what you mean kind of a funky way to choke a saw with that set-up.