What's on your bench now?

Replacing the handle on the neighbor’s Stihl MS180. Made the mistake of removing the handle grommets from the motor side and got a hard lesson on how miserably difficult it is replace them. Really sours me on Stihl saws if they are infested with poor designs such as this.

Bottom line is if the grommets need to be replaced, the real labor cost is more than the saw is worth.

 

Yup. Homeowner saws not made to be salvaged/fixed.

 

I'm finally messing around with this top handle Poulan I picked up for cheap back in the springtime. I originally thought this was a XXV model, but the more I look it over, I think it's a 2000 (I know next to nothing about these saws so correct me if you know better) It needs the usual: a fuel line, a carburetor cleaning, and also the air filter element crumbled into oily grit when I gained access to it. Luckily my local hardware store which is also a Husqvarna dealer had some 5/64" I.D. generic rubber fuel line in stock. I bought an 18" section for less than $3. Getting it apart was fun... flat head screws galore. I like to think that Pol Pot, Mussolini, the Austrian painter and the guy who invented flathead screws are all burning in hell together right now. Anyway, I'll be replacing the flatheads with either button head or regular socket head cap (Allen) screws. I watched a few YouTube videos of these saws running so I'm more than a little excited to see this old thing hum once again.

 

Cleaned up decently and all back together. New fuel line and filter, a new air filter and a few missing screws that I had to rummage through my stash for. The carb diaphragm was a little iffy but I decided to try it anyway. It runs but bogs when under full throttle. I’ll order a carburetor kit and that should do the trick. Call me crazy but I think I might actually like this stupid little saw

 

Needs a Poulan bar.

Im pretty sure my late uncle had the same or similar saw. Somewhere there exists a pic of him cutting up a limb in my dads yard from Hurricene Gloria September 1985.

Kinda makes me wanna try a different saw brand!

 

In years past I cut a lot of wood with a small Poulan just like that. Great little saw for what it is, but I'm glad I ended up getting bigger saws.

 

Thanks for your input. I have plenty of larger saws myself but I'm still hoping to get some cheap thrills out of this little saw when the job calls for it.

 

Finally getting around to rebuilding one of the cans on an older dual slip-on exhaust system for the Superhawk. Hope to resell it.


Have to drill fresh holes for rivets.

 

I do miss it sometimes. It was handy to carry around the woods when I am hunting down grapevine and honeysuckle to get rid of. Wish I would have kept it.

 

Here I am some months later and finally got this saw fired up for the first time today. I had walked away from it months ago because of all things, the flywheel key let go for some stupid reason. I snagged one off the Jonsered crankshaft that came with my parts saw.
So anyway.... Plugging the hole in the carb did not work out unfortunately. It runs okay at idle and partial throttle, but dumps way too much fuel when goosed because it floods out. It helped a little turning the high screw in but it's running really wonky. I had the air filter off of it and you could see the excess fuel building up in the plastic intake elbow. It kind of makes sense when I think about it, that the carb was designed to send excess fuel back to the tank. With that hole plugged, there's nowhere for it to go except into the cylinder. Too much... So I ordered another Jonsered 670 carb without the recirculating hole in the side. I was going to go with a 272XP carb but I’m not sure that’ll work since they’re pulsed completely different. I’d rather not throw myself another curveball. Other than that, all I need that I'm aware of at this point is another top cover. We'll see what I can find on eBay.

 

Not exactly on the bench but I sure made a mess on the ground… The slave cylinder for the clutch went bad. While the transmission is out I’m replacing the clutch and rear main seal for the engine. Also I ended up buying new lower control arms since the ball joints were shot. New front shocks too since it rode like garbage. The transmission shop quoted me $2300 for the job which I wasn’t going to cough up for a car I bought for $2k. So, I’ll struggle through it and save a few bucks. Luckily I have my truck to use in the meantime.

 

Project Ford Focus ran into a couple hiccups. The rear main seal didn’t come with an installation tool so ended up making one from white delrin. That saved some time and a little bit of money.


The next problem was the alignment tool they sent me with the new clutch kit. The spline fit the disc, but the pilot diameter was too small at the end. At first I wondered if I lost the pilot bearing/bushing in the end of the crankshaft, but after scouring the internet I found that the car doesn’t have one. The shaft on the transmission is not supported by one, oddly enough. So then I rummaged through my stash of sockets, bushings, extensions and various clutter trying to find something to cobble together to line up the disc on the flywheel, came painfully close but no luck. Then I decided to turn up a sleeve and then glued it onto the existing alignment tool.

 

With nothing to do outdoors this rainy weekend, I decided to mix up a batch of black Rit dye and dip the top cover for Frankensaw #1. I think it was a good choice; there was too much orange once I put the newer plastic flagged clutch cover on it. That recoil needs a sticker of some sort, although I’m not sure what I want to put there.

 

500i getting cleaned up before it's trip to the sausage factory

 

I need to order a bar for an Echo cs302. Probably will get a 12”. It’s a twin to one I already have except for the “Echo” sticker color. Also have a cs500evl that needs a bit of tuning. Runs fine but idle is set a tick high. I try hard to keep up on fixing the fleet, too easy to set them aside and have 3-5 broken ones at a time.

Also have a neotec ms250 clone that needs a muffler. Thought about fabbing up a straight pipe instead. Maybe some day.

 

I've never been happy with the Echo branded bars. Fastest wearing guide bars of all the ones I have owned. They have all been laminates, so maybe they have a solid bar in the bigger sizes. When I speak of wear, it's mostly the rails widening and getting sloppy. My 501 came with a laminate. The people in Europe get a Tsumura when they buy one. Bastages!

501SX

 

I think I got a generic one from Baileysonline last time and it’s fine. I flip it around every once in a while when I think about it. I have an echo bar on the 750evl but it’s new so it’ll take a while before I wear it out.

 

Project Husqvarna 61 with a Jonsered 670 top end on it is (hopefully) buttoned up now. I had started it last weekend but discovered that it had an air leak. It wouldn’t hold a tune. I had torn the rubber intake boot slightly but decided to try it anyway. No good. A proline brand from saw salvage came to the rescue. When trying to change it out, I saw that I had no access to the steel clamp screw for the rubber boot either. I had put the boot on when the cylinder was still off, which backed me into a corner. So I pulled the entire top end back off, changed the boot, flipped the boot clamp 180 degrees, motosealed the base of the cylinder and reassembled. While it was on the bench I also put my new used Jonsered starter cover on it, which came in today. I figured why not make an ugly saw even uglier by adding another color into the mix The only thing left to do is change the spring for the chain brake. I have a good one in a bad clutch cover, so I’ll swap that over eventually. For now I just want to try this thing out. It’s been a long, drawn out saw build…

 

I've got a Homelite super xl (late 70s, red and black with points ignition) setting up on the bench currently. Just got the carb kit in the mail today. Needs a new chain, fuel cap, mostly little stuff. I'll probably order a fuel cap now that I think of it