I was given an 026 by a friend, he said that they quit using it because it was too hard to start, he thought I could use it for parts. If I pour a little gas in the carb, it starts right up, then will re start after its warmed up a little, runs good, just made about 20 cuts with it. Where do I start trying to fix it so it starts without the carb fill?
I agree with the choke. It's in the air filter and will warp and not seal correctly . My 026 takes about 6 to 8 no mater what . I think there just a cold blooded saw .
I forgot that the choke lever is broken too, so it may not be seating the choke properly, I need to replace that first then go from there
I replaced the choke lever today, no change, what do you guys reccomend next, I'm new to tinkering with saws. It runs fine after its started wouldn't a bad impulse line cause more problems when running?
Why did you replace the choke lever? Was something obviously wrong with it? Can you see that the whole actuating mechanism is working properly now?
On any old saw of that vintage I usually always just go ahead and rebuild the carb, its easy to do and the kits are cheap, probably about $12 off ebay for that. A dealer won't be much more. It certainly won't hurt and it will rule out another possibility. There were several different carbs on those so you'll need to pull the carb and look for the tiny markings on it. Maybe something like a "Walbro WC-22" or something like that. Or, drive over here and we'll swap the carb off of mine onto yours and test it that way!
Is that new lever working such that it is "locking in three positions". Off - all the way up, run - one click down, and then "choke" - with the trigger "locked" all the way in first then choked all the way down? I had trouble with a saw that was just not locking all the way down enough to close that choke fully.
On an 026 the choke lever actuates a choke plate in the air cleaner. I am not going to defend that design but that is what it is. A new air filter is a new choke. The actuating lever is a bit convoluted and made of plastic so I would not be surprised to find one broken.
I took a look at my 026 to check things, try checking this to rule out a choke problem. First, remove the air filter and work the little choke lever on the filter by hand visually verifying the the choke is in good shape and seating closed inside the filter. You may have already checked this but I do not see that above. If it is not visually seating nice you need a new filter as stated above. If ok, reinstall it on the saw, leave the cover off. Second, put the saw's control lever to choke. Use your finger nail or a little screw driver to try and raise the choke lever on the air filter some more to see if there is any play there, or if it is tightly closed by the saw's control arm. If there is play there then it is not tightly closing. If it is tightly closed than I'm pretty confident your problem is something else.
The choke seems to be engaging properly, I'm starting to wonder if low compression could be an issue, don't have a gauge to check. I've been too busy to mess with it