Stihl 028 Wood Boss Hard to Pull Start

Evening gentlemen,

My Stihl 028 Wood Boss recently became hard to pull start. I'm getting a lot of resistance when cranking the saw up. A video I watched recommended removing the spark plug and pouring a tiny amount of gas mixture (50:50 gas/2-cycle oil) into the piston. Move the mixture around the engine some. Video shows them doing this a couple of times. It worked for them and some of the commenters.

Wanted to throw it out to this experience group for your thoughts.

Appreciate any thoughts/input you might be able to provide.

Thank you.

Man-o-Stihl

 

Is there a chance you could remove the muffler cover to inspect the piston and ring? Take a pic and share. Scoring looks like this and could be the reason for the change.


I really doubt pouring mix in the plug hole will solve it. Not saying it couldn’t but unlikely. If there was a heavy carbon build up I could see it possibly helping, temporarily.

 

If the carb inlet needle doesn't seal it could be flooding and causing hydrolock.

 

I second, taking a peek at the piston from the exhaust side.

 

Is the resistance in one spot or is it stiff the full turn?
I also recommend pulling the muffler/ spark plug, and if it looks good in there then pull off the bar/chain and clutch drum.
Next I'd remove the recoil and see how it feels holding the flywheel.

 

Thank you Wood Wolverine. I've not gotten that far, but it's a rainy day here today, so a good one to take a look at the muffler and inspect piston and ring. I'll try to get a pic and share it. Appreciate the input. I knew I'd get some good recommendations on FHC!

 

Thank you

Thank you Screwloose. I'll take a look these suggestions. Appreciate the input.

 

Thank you Wood Wolverine. I've not gotten that far, but it's a rainy day here today, so a good one to take a look at the muffler and inspect piston and ring. I'll try to get a pic and share it. Appreciate the input. I knew I'd get some good recommendations on FHC!

I tried the gas mixture and that didn't seem to do much. I'm new at this, so learning as I go along. Here are a couple of photos of the situation. Not sure if the image quality is good enough to diagnose. I appreciate the help.

 

Is it sounding any different once running?

Also...clutch is free and gtg?

 

I have seen a lot worse that still ran.
Guessing something else is wrong.

 

Looks like no scoring at all. Just oil stringing above the ring.

 

I've not done anything with clutch. That's more new territory for me.

 

I've not been able to start it. Was afraid I was going to break the pull rope.

 

I'd remove the bar & chain then see how it pulls over. I've had the needle bearing between the crank and the clutch hub fail, causing similar problems. I found disassembly instructions on the u-tube.

 

Take bar and chain off , spark plug out..... can you pull it over?
If not then maybe a recoil issue , that piston does not look like it has been toasted.

Hydro locked??

 

Can you take a picture with the port open and the top of the piston visible?
So far so good but I'd like to see above the ring.
With the piston all the way down try and see what the walls look like.

 

Just pull the cover and see if it's spinning freely. Could be something like a broken spring in there jamming up the works. If the clutch is spinning freely, it has to be on the recoil side.

 

Agreed ^ ^ ^

 

I’d say good news but I don’t want to jinx ya. That piston pic doesn’t show and scoring and that is typically an expensive repair, so
Next step for me would be to do what buzz-saw said, take the plug out and give it a few pulls and see if it pulls over/spins freely. If not, I’d remove the recoil cover. MasterMech might have nailed it. While that’s off, you can rotate the flywheel and see if there any obstructions.