Saw chain question

I’m sure this has been covered but yesterday I was cutting. I went to tighten the tension on my chain and it was tightened all the way. I used it some anyway. My question is what do y’all do about that. I think the chain has some life left but I was wondering what can be done.

 

I'd think either the bar is worn, or the chain is stretched...or both.

 

Are you certain the bar is the correct mount for your saw?
Or is it just one that "works"
I've run in to that on an aftermarket bar I tried on one of my saws. Got to run the tensioner almost all the way out with a new chain. So far I've not hit the end when running that bar, but when the chains stretch a bit, it's close.

 

If you know the bar is correct for the saw, then the chain is probably way stretched out. You may be able to have a link taken out if your local shop spins chains from a reel.

 

Make sure your tensioner screw isn't broken, I just had to replace one in a buddy's 661 last summer. It was snapped off and he thought he was out of adjustment but it was just the adjuster tab sitting at the end of the snapped off screw. The parts were cheaper at my local Stihl dealer than anywhere else and he had them in stock.

How it got snapped off is anybodys' guess...

 

Could it be that the chain is just worn out even though it's got tooth life left? I don't like removing any links unless the chain was to long from the start. As the chain stretches/wears the pitch is actually changing and it no longer matches the sprocket.

 

Also, while you are inspecting the items mentioned in the above posts , take a look at your drive sprocket . That tends to be a commonly overlooked item .

 

As mentioned, take it to a dealer and have a drive link removed.

 

You're right. But if this is a 72DL 3/8" pitch chain, you are only changing the overall chain pitch by .005" (.375/72)by removing 1DL. I'm not real concerned about 500 thou on a saw chain.

 

I respectfully disagree as 1/2" should cause great concern!! Haha couldn't resist that, sorry. My thinking is that if the chain was correct in the beginning and you used all of the adjustment range the chain is probaly worn out. Using a 18" bar as in your example the adjustment range in the saw should be more than ample.

 

I have a ms271 in which the chain adjuster broke the 2nd week I had it. Put new one and never had another problem again. (7 years and 40 cords later).

Maybe just a bad part in both instances.