Stihl 045 Super compression blowout

[Coralillo Lo Pro]

I was milling a giant cedar elm log with my 045 Super, which I did the ignition fix on six months ago and had been running good to date, when it abruptly died near the end of a cut. Wouldn't start again and when I went to refill the bar oil reservoir, oil poured out all over the place. I switched saws and looked at it again when I got home. The oil sight glass was gone on the other side of the reservoir. Still wasn't starting after I switched that out and refilled the bar oil. Checked it for spark, then compression, and found it only had about 50 psi compression. Before retiring it some years back til I got the ignition fixed, I replaced the piston and rings, so they don't have many hours on them. Was curious about whether it was just a fluke I lost the oil sight glass and compression at the same time, if the crankcase gasket went and the oil chamber got pressurized enough to blow the sight glass out, but taking apart the cylinder, the piston is scored beyond belief and the cylinder isn't much good either. Probably did much of that damage overheating the saw when it ran erratically before the ignition fix.

 

[Coralillo Lo Pro]

I was told some years ago I remember now that the cylinder had scarring, so no big surprise that piston went bad so quickly. Switched out a pristine cylinder and piston from a spare 056 Super with ignition problems, and started up with good compression but couldn't seem to get it tuned to keep it running. Then abruptly I lost spark. Broke it down to check the wiring on the Bosch ignition fix, that nothing had come free, and looks okay everywhere, but can't get a trace of spark out of it anymore. Dunno if the capacitor went bad or I just have a bad plug wire. One thing after another... Turns out one of the mount screws came loose and flew around and did some damage to one of the coils, so I think this ignition is beyond the help of the simple capacitor fix. Working on switching out the ignitions, but one thing after another is made of unobtainium on the 045/056's, so I find that the M7 threads on the flywheel that let me use a simple two bolt puller on my 045 flywheel were just flywheel holes someone threaded, and the 056 still just has the original unthreaded holes. I could get a simple three bolt puller in a kit that would work, but have so many pullers now for so many different purposes. I don't feel like buying any more. Will just tap the holes so I can use my puller that works on the 045.

 

[Coralillo Lo Pro]

While waiting for the M7 tap to arrive to pull my other coil, I took a look again at the ignition and was showing the screw damage to my wife and pointing out where one of the coil to circuit board wires had been bent and seemed to be grounding out on the metal frame. Her vision being better than mine, she pointed out the wire coming out of the circuit board to the coil wasn't just bent, it was broken. So a quick solder and I repaired that, and resoldered the Foggysail ignition fix wire to the circuit board, coated it with epoxy, and will see if I have a working ignition again. Also went ahead and ordered an ignition from Sagenspezi in Germany as a backup in case this doesn't work out, along with a piston and rings for the other saw, because if you order from their website instead of Ebay, they remove Value Added Tax and with the Euro pretty weak right now, their stuff is a really good deal and one of the only places in the world to get 045/056 Super aftermarket parts. Probably $120 all told with shipping for the ignition, piston and rings, and a manifold hose clamp. Going to rebuild the 056 Super while I'm at this. One of the other good buys to keep these saws complete as I was stealing too many metric screws off the spare saw was an $18 500 piece M3, M4, M5 hex drive screw kit. Switching out the flat head screw heads for hex drive will make assembling and disassembling these old saws much easier.