The last time I ran it, my Poulan 5020av ran like poo poo. Today I had a little time to see what I could do about it. I checked the plug for cleanliness, and generally cleaned up the saw. I replaced the fuel line in the fuel tank, as it was leaking into the chainsaw body. Still not too good, so I began adjusting the carb. It only got worse, and I could barely get it to run. After a few minutes trying to adjust the carb, I decided to start fresh. I gently turned both the high and Low to seated, and then out 1 1/2 turns. It started right up, and after I enrichened the high another 1/2 turn, it is running much better. Now it is idling fine, has a little hesitation as it is reved through the mid range, and then revs through that to full rpm. Probably about a second to rev from idle through the hesitation to maximum. After about a second at smooth high rpm (wot), it then comes off of that and decreases rpm a little, and is a little rougher sounding. I think that may be what some call "4 stroking"? So, that is how it is running now. It is dark, so I cannot put it to wood until tomorrow. I am not sure it is quite right, an welcome your comments on how to do this better. (I don't have a tach). Thanks in advance. Greg
Sounds like it's running a tad lean. Try turning the H screw out about 1/4 turn and see how it responds. You want to hear it take off from idle with no hesitation, rev quickly through the mid-range and top-out quickly with it immediately 4-stroking.
Here is where my brand new 5020 ended up. Ran and started perfect afterwords. Long long thread on 5020 http://chainsawrepair.createaforum.com/poulan/poulan-pro-5020/ I kept adjusting the carb till I ended up with about 3 out on L from lightly seated and left 2-2.5 on H out from lightly seated at about 12.8K. Turned the I idle up too. Not like the 1 to 1.5 turns out we get used to.
