Craftsman 3.7 cu in, What is this thing?

Homelite maybe ?

 

917. is Poulan but it is a old timer

 

It is a Roper, I do have two of them. It is/was equipped with the Power Sharp system.

Had to go to my laptop to get pictures, one of mine came with a case.

 

Yep, Roper as in stoves and washers. I have one also. Parts are non existant!

 

The saw in question was an updated version of this:

 

I concur it's made by Roper, The deep ditch on the clutch cover allows one to discern them from the Poulan made Countervibes from 30 feet away. Roper made lots of outdoor power equipment such as riding mowers, etc. I've had the Poulan made 3.7 but never the Roper made ones. Have heard of good performance from them but no personal experience. They seem to sell for a lot less than the Poulan version for whatever reason. A lot of these saws were made so I would expect parts are out there from cannibalized saws. I think they preceded the Countervibes.

 

Those saws were not cheap when sold. In today's dollars most would be surprised what saws cost back then.

 

Roper appliances are still being made.

 

If my memory is correct, GE purchased Roper in the late 80's and then sold the outdoor products division to Electrolux.

 

That is correct except it was the mid 80's. At one time Sear's owned 60% of Roper. Stoves and lawn mowers, chainsaws, well pumps, and many other Sears hardware items were made by Roper. As stated above you can see the connection of the 917. vendor number with both Roper and Poulan/Husqvarna through sell offs and acquisitions.

http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/roper-industries-inc-history/

 

The one I have here is the earlier version pictured above. Decomp is built into the throttle preset button. When the owner brought it in, he said hard to pull over, he was right, had an extended tip CJ-6Y plug in it instead of the CJ-6. Good thing the old guy could not pull it over, if it had fired it would have holed the piston.

 

OK so have finally got it ready to start. It will start and run with a squirt of mix directly in the carb. Not pulling fuel, new carb kit, still not pulling fuel. New fuel line time, however, I can find the line going to the carb inside the carb box, disappears into the sawcase off toward who knows where. Fished around in the tank to try to find the other end, no such luck. I cannot figure out how to even get to the line without tearing the case apart (don't want to do that) ! Any ideas?

 

I have never been into one and mine are 7 hours away.

 

From the IPL it looks to be a multi part line, with a double barb where the line exits the tank. The line inside the tank and the filter are completely rotted away so I cannot even see where the line should run. Looks like a candidate for the scrap barrel. Didn't want to try taking it apart since most of the gaskets are NLA. Looked to have been a very nice 60cc saw but becauae of neglect, it is now scrap or a good parts saw were anyone to need one.

 

I see another 3.7 on my local CL for $35.

 

OK, it appears from some pictures of a Roper tank I found on eBay, that the entire tank needs to come off the engine in order to replace the fuel line. What a PITA on a $35 saw! Which also appears to require that the oil supply lines also have to be removed.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sears-Craft...879?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4d24c20cff

Link above is to the pictures I found, not sure yet if the clutch and flywheel have to be removed also, right now it does not look like it. The saw runs on a squirt to the carb, but does not pull fuel from the tank. I'd like to get it running correctly, just for the challenge of it.