What can you tell me about a Stihl MS170? Got this one for the right price from an estate. My aunt gave it to me. Appears to be in … better than good condition. I wouldn’t call the outward appearance excellent. To be honest, I haven’t even looked at it hard enough to determine what exactly it’s outer condition is, I just took a stabbing guess. Tried to start it with no success but I’m not sure it had gas in it. Didn’t take the time to see. Was moving fairly quickly to empty a barn. The rope will pull so I know it isn’t locked up. It will also hang by the rope, so I believe compression may be good. Hopefully, here in a week or so I can check it out more.
Check it out and report back. I bought a 170 new and it later had hot starting issues so i sold it. The only Stihl ive owned that i can bad mouth. Was a decent light weight saw that worked well when it would start.
It took me a while to learn how to start my 251. Basically: - Hold trigger and set starter to full choke - Pull starter firmly until it stumbles - Move to half choke - Pull starter, once saw starts immediately blip throttle which will switch choke to run setting If you screw up these steps the engine floods. Like right away.
Good information to know. I had heard of some of the news saws having issues starting if a certain proper sequence wasn’t followed correctly. I will check it out in the next day or so. Currently not near the saw.
I can tell you mine takes 5-6 pulls to get going. Nothing out of the ordinary as far as the sequence goes. Choke on, pull till it fires up briefly. Choke off, a pull or two and it starts for real. It seems to almost foul the plug if I let it idle too long. Best to get it going, get it warmed up, then put it right to work. It runs better in the cold, and I'm sure if I fiddled with it I could get it running better in the heat. Most of my cutting is done in the cold though, so I'm leaving it alone. With a sharp chain it's a very capable little saw that's easily lugged around all day. The narrow kerf zips right through limbs and hardwood up to about 10" no problem. It'll cut bigger than that, but I have bigger saws more suited to that task.
