Your Strangest Saw Problems??

[Michael Waters]

I often read the posts on this site regarding problems people have with their saws. Some are pretty basic (scored piston and no compression) but others are quite mysterious.

I think people should post some of their experiences with strange saw problems that took them days/weeks/months to diagnose. It might be a good resource for people looking for fixes for their that wont start on a tuesday, or a stihl saw that wont rev unless you hide the husky.

My strangest problem is a bit lame but it had me stumped for a few days. I didnt tighten the flywheel nut and sheered the key. It stumbled when you pulled the starter but would quite kick over. Seemed like flooding, starving and it had me beat.

 

[WoodChuck'r]

I can't stop running or buying them. :hmm3grin2orange:

:greenchainsaw:

 

[Fish]

The earliest was when I was working for Dave in Nicholasville, I started there
cheap, so I could learn.
I was looking for stuff to work on that winter, and I was looking at the
"cold" cases.ck burner
I kept asking him about this Homelite Super EZ, and he would just say,
"leave it alone....It is haunted....."

Finally on a real slow day, I got him to give some details.
He said, it came in, no spark. New coil. No start. Unplug the kill wire, no go.
Order another coil, no go.
Finally, ordered another flywheel, direct from Homelite, no start.

Put in a box, backburner....

I waited until we got another EZ in with fuel problems, got that one running
good, when everyone else went to lunch, I part swapped untill I figured it out.
I have told this story before, so you guys that heard it, keep quiet.

I even called Homelite, and they sent me the part to fix for free....

What was it????

 

[maccall]

Maybe not the strangest symptoms, but the reason made me a bit surprised...

It was a Stihl 020AVP from around 1972 that I inherited from my father who died in 1974. After that it passed many hands as a family loaner until it came back to me to stay. It was hard to start, not too steady on idle, and there was no way to tune it so that the chain stopped spinning on idle that didn't make the saw stop.

This brought me here to AS, and when I had gathered some courage I tore the saw down and the carb was so full of crap on the outside that it was hard to see it was a carb at all. When it's been cleaned a bit I noticed that the saw had no impulse line. It wasn't even broken, it was totally gone!

A new impulse line and the saw runs as good as new. This is a video of it after my repair, and this is a thread with some pictures of it. Nice saw, but a bit tricky.

I have no idea when the impulse line went missing, or who managed to tune the saw without it. My father was a skilled mechanic specialized in British cars, but I can't imagine him not replacing the line. All other relatives had no idea about engines, but we're known for being pretty a stubborn family... The only thing i regret is that i didn't video it before it got the new impulse line, because when running it ran amazingly well for not having an impulse line...

 

[JohnnyBoy1986]

I had an old Shindaiwa 695 with a 24" bar that would run great....sumtimes.
After running 5 minutes or so it would begin to misfire and bog down, if you let off the throttle it would damn near cut off but then pick back up and run like it was a 4 stroke with a radical cam in it and this is where it gets interesting... when it ran like this if you engaged the throttle it would run the chain backwards!! It would spin the chain towards you instead of away! It had an old 3 piece ignition system and either the exciter module or the ignition module was going bad* throwing it out of time and causing the engine to run backwards!
My grandad has also had a husqvarna 480 do this to him years ago. that was by far the weirdest thing i've ever seen. I never knew which piece was bad because the parts were NLA, and expensive if you could find them. The man that owned it was 92 years old and he used it regularly every winter

 

[pioneerguy600]

Who on here remembers the short thread I did on a Husqvarna 266XP that I found out on the roadside on garbage day? It would idle but shut off immediately when the trigger was pulled for WOT.
Pioneerguy600

 

[Blazin]

I need to pound on my 365 recoil when it's 10 below.....go figure! LOL!

 

[Michael Waters]

Spark plug wire??????

I even called Homelite, and they sent me the part to fix for free....

What was it????[/QUOTE]

 

[tr33thri11s]

Would have to be all the times I've hauled a saw up in the tree and it's scared of heights. Try to tune em on the ground and they run fine. But get them up in a tree and no go. Now that can be quite aggravating.

 

[RandyMac]

I had two identicle 797 McCullochs, one would start on the third pull, if you did everything right. The other one had an evil streak, on a cold start, it sometimes would decide to kick my ass before starting. It wasn't my first choice on a cold day.

 

[dt6266]

my super xl 925 that likes to rip my arm out of the socket when i pull the cord and decides to kick back.....one saw that needed a decomp valve

 

[Erick]

I even called Homelite, and they sent me the part to fix for free....

What was it????

Spark plug.

 

[Kenskip1]

Strangest Problem

I have a friend who had a Husky 36. It would run for a few minutes then die. Well I put a carb fit in it and still did the same thing. I thought that it might be a coil issue. Well it sat in my garage for about 3 months until the new coil arrived. ($58 and change) Well I replaced the coil and installed a new ignition switch that was bad. Low and behold it still did the same thing. I removed the carb and nothing was amiss. The spark was midnight blue, but it would run for a few minutes then die. I finally wised up and removed the gas cap. I then diagnosed it down to a bad gas tank vent. A new one was not available so I had to improvise. A small hole was drilled and a small hollow tube is not sitting directly behind the choke lever. It now dribbles a small bit of gas while filling until the saw is running but as of now, it runs like new. I told the owner how much I had in it, carb kit, ignition switch,coil, plus labor. he told me to keep it.Ken

 

[cjnspecial]

MS200T carbs are fun to diagnose.....symptoms tell you it's an air leak or dirty carb or cracked fuel line or impulse line.
Coils are funky to when they only show problems after warming up.

 

[Hddnis]

Pulling and pulling on a saw that won't start and then realize I forgot to put fuel in it.

I came down out of the tree for lunch break. First thing I do is top off the oil and fuel in my saws. Somehow I totally forgot the fuel this time, but the oil was full.

I felt really stupid. That'll teach me to climb with a headcold.



Mr. HE

 

[Michael Waters]

I had a motorbike sitting for a "couple of months" (turns out it was actually 18 months) that I tried to start over and over for about a week with no luck. The first thing that a good friend said to me was "check the fuel". I stupidly said "fuel is fine". What an idiot I was (still am). I finally checked the fuel and it came out like honey. No way was this thing going to start.

I am no pro by any means but i have probably rebuilt a dozen motorbikes, 3 dozen chain saws and half a dozen cars. Still made a rookie mistake though. Probably lucky the thing didnt start.


When fixing motors I think the biggest problem is that people get an idea in their head about what the problem might be, and it is always something very difficult (coil, starter motor, computer module etc etc). Once they have that in their head you cant shake them.

 

[stihlboy]

The earliest was when I was working for Dave in Nicholasville, I started there
cheap, so I could learn.
I was looking for stuff to work on that winter, and I was looking at the
"cold" cases.ck burner
I kept asking him about this Homelite Super EZ, and he would just say,
"leave it alone....It is haunted....."

Finally on a real slow day, I got him to give some details.
He said, it came in, no spark. New coil. No start. Unplug the kill wire, no go.
Order another coil, no go.
Finally, ordered another flywheel, direct from Homelite, no start.

Put in a box, backburner....

I waited until we got another EZ in with fuel problems, got that one running
good, when everyone else went to lunch, I part swapped untill I figured it out.
I have told this story before, so you guys that heard it, keep quiet.

I even called Homelite, and they sent me the part to fix for free....

What was it????

ground strap?

 

[rxe]

192T.

Sometimes it ran beautifully, other times it died. Symptoms were fuel starvation, but impulse was good, carb was good, tuning was good. I'd pull it apart and check everything for dirt, and it would bog down. Then I'd pick it up a week later, it would cut a load of wood, idle perfectly, then it would die.

It turned out that Stihl put a stiffening spring in the impulse line - only they forgot with this saw. Without the stiffening spring, the impulse occasionally kinked....and starved the carb. £1.20 later, I had a perfect saw.

 

[rob066]

This wasnt my problem. One of my friends had a Jonsered 630 with the two piece coil and module. He could pull that thing all day and it would not start. To get it started you would have to kick the recoil with your foot. Then it would start right up.

 

[Fish]

ground strap?

I did the swap thing from the running saw, and determined the problem
to be the flywheel. Now that it is morning, I am remembering more clearly.

The saw came in damaged as the guy was trying to pull the flywheel
looking for points. Dave had ordered the flywheel from Homelite, he got
the coil from Stens {cheaper}. It turned out the problem was the flywheel,
the magnets/polarity was reversed. I called Homelite and their tech said
that there were 2 different flywheels, depending on which coil, but the
flywheels, different, had the exact same part numbers.
I told him which coil it had, and he sent me the correct one.