Flippy cap woes

In October I bought a Stihl ms250 saw. Now the flippy cap for the bar/chain oil won't lock down again. This is the 3rd cap thats been on the saw. Since the last replacement which was done at the dealer I've only opened it once. Any ideas?

 

Switch to Husqvarna

 

Dave sounds like you may have put it in and turned it to the locked position before it was seated. You need to get the cap back in the unlocked position. I have done this before too. I have had luck putting the cap in and turning it counterclockwise. the top half has to rotate while the bottom half doesn't. Kinda hard to describe over the net.

 

The caps I have actually have lines marked on them. The lines aren't lined up when I put it on the cap won't turn to get the dogs down

 

Your cap is in the closed position. I just came to the shop and played with one. You need to unlock it to get the lines aligned. Try using pliers CAREFULLY. Don't squeeze hard. The first pic is the closed poison. The second is open . See the gap in pic 2.

 

Complete with flippy caps.

 

Well crap. I didn't know we had gone that route.

 

At least the flippy caps solved...
?
?
?

 

The Difference Being that I have NEVER had any trouble with my Husqvarna Flippy Caps


Doug

 

Dayum, now THAT looks Really Convenient


Doug

 

My Husky Flippy Caps work just fine for me,

Must be a Husky Thang


Doug

 

Another forum someone suggested taking a paper clip to clean out the lip. That worked.

 

Darn you beat me to it.

Ever see a flippy cap on a ported 288XP?

 

Flippy Caps, Steals answer to something that was not a problem. You would have thunk you would try and improve on threads and an O ring.

 

I really do not know what the problem is. I have 4 Stihl saws here and I use them all the time. Never had a problem with a flippy cap. Must be an operator thing.

 

I hate them myself , a regular cap worked for how many years then someone came up with the bright idea to over-engineer a gas cap.
Yeah I know , it is about not needing a tool to remove them but come-on , don't you have a scrench or bionic fingers to unscrew a regular cap. Maybe a small brush too in order to clean off chips before removing the caps?

I really think part of the problem with them leaking is the "O" rings don't agree with ethanol in todays fuel.
Also I admit I have been to blame on more than one occasion of not putting caps back on properly so when picking up saws I took either a gas or oil bath. The way to overcome this is a good pair of chaps ; they are like " Depends " for a wood-cutter.

...and why does the MS170 ( stihls smallest saw ) have regular screw on caps ?

OK my rant for the day is over now.

Bottom line is I don't like them but have learned to just deal with them , it really wasn't that hard to overcome my disliking them.

 

Standard response from a Steal head. Some flippy caps are tolerable but not all are equally awful. My neighbor has a Steal pole saw. When ever I had used it, it took no less than 60-90 seconds to seat the oil and gas cap each. And on one occasion it broke and I had to buy him another one. DO NOT say I am not "smarter than a flippy cap" because it is just a stupid thing to say on a product that is a POS.

 

Two comments:

I normally fuel saws on the bench at home and often just grab another saw when it runs out. But I too have a small 2" paint brush to clean chips off the caps prior to removal. A good practice that takes virtually not time.

I never run ethanol fuel in any small engine, flippy caps are inherently just a piece of $hit.