This saw belongs to our buddy that turned us on to my first locust haul. When we first ran into him, he was working with this saw. When we came back to help, the Lil Husky was no where to be seen. He said he'd gotten it pinched pretty good, and when he got it out, the chain brake wouldn't release. Truth be told, the twisted bar was The actual problem. But, I could tell something was up with the brake. Upon disassembly, I found the band difficult to remove from around the drum. It was definitely dragging, and the brake handle made no difference. The clutch, and drum had definitely gotten very hot. But the real story here was the brake-spring, or lack of one under the cover... I ordered a new band, and the correct spring, cleaned everything up, and reassembled it. I don't know who, but I probably know why there was no spring. I made up new cuss words trying to compress it enough to fit in the pocket, holding it in place while "finessing" the cover into place. I launched it across the shop a couple of times. Nearly impaled myself through the wrist, and had a generally frustrating time figuring out just how the hell they got it together in the first place. Thank God I had my emotional support chicken handy. Anyway, I got it together and I works like it's supposed to now. Without that spring, the brake would neither stop the saw, or stay disengaged.
I recently was given a saw in a box and after I got it all together, I realized someone removed all the brake parts! So I know your struggle with that spring. I used an 8mm allen to push on the end to get it hooked on the edge, then pushed it the rest of the way down. Had to do it twice too.
