Well the oil pump arrived and is installed. While waiting for the oil pump I had loosely installed the clutch and drum just as a place to store those bits. I went to remove them yesterday when I was considering installing the brake and brake handle but it took me a 1/2 hour just to get the drum off. When nearly fully in place the drum was rubbing on the casing as it rotated for maybe 1/4 of the rotation which I think may have been the out of round that afleetcommand warns of in his video. I am sure it would have run like that but no way I would intentionally operate an out of round drum so now I have a new Oregon drum on its way. I may see that by Saturday but will be at a club meeting that day. Does anyone have a lead on a nice 28 or 32 inch bar and chain for this saw?
My 026 has a .325 pitch, .063 gauge bar. I would need to reconfigure the 660 to use it and I doubt the .325 rim sprocket would fit my 660 clone's drum.
You are right but I am not intending to actually use the saw with a short 20" bar like my 026 uses. I would rather try it out in a longer bar like the one I will be using, even though the up front cost is a bit higher.
It's am but should have lasted longer so hopefully it's just a bad one. I started it and warmed it up and ruff tuned it to maybe 12.8k and started making cuts to seat the the rings,made 5 cuts and heard the exhaust pitch change and shut it off,maybe 2 min total run time. Thankfully it didn't hurt anything. Oem crank I'm it now. I wanted to try the am one but it will be the last one I try.
I bought a 32" Laser bar off a guy on fleabay...got a chain from them too...was something like $86 total, shipped. (went with 0.050) Professional Chainsaw Bar 32" for Stihl Fits Large Mount, 3/8, .050 x 105 DL | eBay
My new Oregon clutch drum arrived today so I decided to get it mounted and I ran into a new issue. I could not engage the oiler arm because the clutch drum reached out further than that wire that drives the oiler. The more I looked at it the more I became convinced that I was responsible. At one point in time I had been concerned about that wire hitting the case and I think I may have bent it in slightly to avoid interference. Now that I had shot myself in the foot it was time to bend it back into position and not end up with it too far out as a result. The way I left it the wire barely misses the case as it goes around but it sticks out just far enough to engage the clutch drum. It took me 3 tries to get it to do both things properly. Now that I think about it, that wire being slightly too short may have gotten it stuck inside the Farmertec drum and led me to go buy that extra drum after I had so much trouble removing the one they sent me. It could even account for the rubbing I was getting for part of the rotation of that drum.
Fun the last couple of days: I installed the new oil pump and once I figured out the oil pump wire was bent too far in I had no issue installing the clutch drum. Everything else just dropped right into place. Next up was the chain brake now that I had something for the band to press against. I started into it by bringing over the brake handle so it would be nearby when needed. Then I installed the small lower part of the trigger mechanism without any trouble and e-clipped it in place. It took a few tries to get the little spring onto it but that was just me being fat fingered and a bit clumsy. Next up was the handle with the larger articulated bit mounted into the handle and the holes aligned. So far so good but the e-clip would not slip down onto the pin far enough to get to the groove. In fact, with the brake parts mounted in place I couldn't even see the groove. That meant it was time to set the handle aside, remove the muffler and use a drift to drive the pin a bit further out. Once that was done I brought the parts back to the saw and got the handle on with the e-clip in place. At this stage I should have double or triple checked my work. I had a heck of a time getting the main brake spring on and when it was on the trigger did not operate. I went back and checked what I had done vs what was available in pictures on line and sure enough I had installed that linkage backward. Once I had it installed correctly the large spring was much easier to install than it was with it backward. Moving forward, I installed the brake cover and started to install the chain adjustment device. Now I remember seeing lots of comments on videos about that adjustment being quite stiff at first but loosening up with some exercise but mine would not turn at all using my scrench. I took it back apart and found that I had one heck of a time removing the gear that has the scrench slot cut on the top. We have all seen videos of people just dropping that gear into place but mine had been a bit picky and required that I carefully align it with the hole in the case just to get it to go in at all. I had thought a nice snug fit like that would insure it would not wobble around and cause problems but what had happened was that it had jammed in the bottom of the hole. With everything out I degreased the gear using brake clean and did a trial fit. It was too tight to go all the way down and sit on the o-ring. As I moved it around I noticed it was cutting away the aluminum piece of the case so I decided to do a little hillbilly machining. My gear was hard enough and sharp enough to actually cut the aluminum with little effort so I used it that way to make a snug interference fit of the pair. I would turn it maybe one full turn then remove it and clean out both the gear teeth and the metal flakes that were in the hole. After doing this 3 or 4 times it no longer was scraping on the sides of the hole when I dropped it in place. Now when I drop the gear into that hole dry, it is free to rotate and is seated at the bottom of the hole and sitting on the o-ring at the base of the post. Next up is going to be reassembly with that newly "machined" hole that fits my gear. Side note: If the gear with the bar adjustment post mounted on it is not fully out near the plastic end of the screw, you can't get the white plastic slide in place as you assemble it. The adjusting piece will be in the way. I had set out to get it to some kind of mid-position before I tried to put everything together, which is often a good practice, but in this case it meant I had to break it all down again to run that adjustment piece out near the end I had first put it on. Time for me to go back, finish the adjustment install with lubricants and then I will be down to the bar studs, a bar and a chain. Oh, and I still need to put that muffler back on.
Good stuff... Are you sticking with a stock AM muffler? (Sorry if you already mentioned it). Once you do one complete rebuild the others are easy. For me, I started actively looking for projects after my first. Huge confidence boost and it puts saws that are normally out of price range right into the mix.
I am using the supplied parts as much as possible. So far all I have ordered separately was a HYWAY gasket kit, a winter/summer shutter (that most kits were missing but mine turned out to have one) and an oil pump in place of the unusable one they sent in the kit. I also replaced the clutch drum that I thought might have been out of round. I have also been to Lowes twice for nuts and bolts. The saw is fully assembled now and if the rain breaks today I will be giving it a test start. I did buy a 28 inch, .050, 91DL, 3/8 bar and chain for it and even that is installed.
I picked up some 89 octane last night and made a 40:1 mix with it. Today I fired up that new saw and it does run. It also idles well. Unfortunately It does not rev up well and full throttle is pitiful. Now I need to go do some research on how to tune it. Even at what was maximum RPM the clutch was slipping when I tried to give it much power in a cut. After being used to my Husky 555, this thing is dog slow running. It was smoking pretty bad but part of that may have been all the oil I put on rings, bearings and such during assembly. My guess is that at least the H adjustment is way rich and maybe the L adjustment is too rich too. I got in 5 minutes or so of break in time so at least when I lean things out I may be OK. I think I will try turning both screws all the way in and use the one turn each starting point next time. I have no idea where the carb is set since I have not touched it since I unpacked and installed it. The chain oiler is another matter. It is oiling nicely even at the low RPM that I have been able to achieve. My guess is I am running 4000 to 5000 at full throttle with no load. Adjustments are definitely in order.
The extra assembly lube does tend to load things up, but should clear out within a minute or so with a few blips of full throttle...sounds like you are on the right track. When I first fired up all that extra oil sure made a slobbery mess on mah shiny new saw...
