So I couldn't show off my Mastermind MS660 at DexterDay's GTG last weekend because the starter recoil broke before I had the chance... Well I took it all apart after I got home, and found that the retainer spring that holds down the starter pawls had broken on one side, and the pawl was missing on that side. Found it rattling around inside the chassis, and then I tried to reassemble the rewind spring. The spring was ok, but part of the plastic piece that holds the one end of the spring was about 1/2 gone. After I had it back together, it seemed like it would work, so I put it back on and gave it a shot. Pulled it over a whole bunch of times, and it's not doing nothing - except dumping gas out of the muffler. Tried another plug, and broke the recoil again after a couple more pulls. Brand new OEM complete recoil assembly + cover arrived today, installed that, still won't start. Pulled the plug and checked for spark - grounded it to the muffler with alligator clips - got spark. What's next? Mechanical? It'll still bust your knuckles if you don't take the slack out of the rope - feels like it still has plenty of compression to me. Pulled the muffler cover - piston looks nice and shiny and I don't see any scoring, rings look ok? Don't really know what to look for there, but everything looked well oiled and moving properly. Am I getting too much fuel perhaps? Of course it's flooded by the time I've pulled on it 10-15 times. But I think I have good compression and spark, and it did pop the very first time I pulled on it after I had the muffler cover off, but I still couldn't get it going. I'm not sure what to do now. I've never been into a carb before - but that's what you're thinking too huh?
It's way flooded sounds like. Leave the plug out and cut the switch off and pull the rope until you don't see a mist coming out. When you try to start it the next time put it on high idle or hold the trigger WOT and pull the rope. Best done with no bar on a saw that big.
Beautiful - followed your instructions, and she fired on the first pull. So on the brighter side, she's looking pretty nice now with a whole new set of covers! Before: After:
Glad it was just flooded. Most of them if they don't pop on the first 4 or 5 pulls just switch to high idle any way. Keep you from flooding usually.
Yeah I'm glad that's all it was - I guess I was freaking out a little having not been able to start it since before the GTG. Guess I just flooded the heck out of it - I kinda knew I did - the fact it was coming out of the muffler should have been a clue!