a coworker bought this saw from a rental store a couple years ago and have casually used it until it started acting up yesterday. It would idle all day and free rev with no sign of acting up. I thought he was crazy and went to the wood pile. He was right, as soon as it got under load it would die. I put it on the workbench and opened the carb. Here is what I found. I couldn't believe how packed it was. No wonder it was starving for fuel. Turns out it had no fuel filter at all. Owner said he had never messed with it. Goes to show you anything can happen and you should check all the basics first.
I would check the compression and check for damage to the P&C. Hopefully a bullet was dodged, but you know that sucker was leaned out from that.
I had an ms 460 fuel tank assembly replaced at the dealership. After a few tanks or so of fuel through it it would run way fast at idle and had lost torque in the cut. Took it to another dealership to find out when the fuel tank assembly was replaced the fuel filter was forgotten to be installed. Never thought to check before using the saw. I traded the saw in for an new ms 261c-m.
Yep seen it before. Had a 046 brought in, a tree company had with new 460 tank installed. No filter on it. Same thing but it scored over time and the stihl dealer wanted $700 to rebuild . I did it for $200 and the saw is still out there cutting.
I had a poulan wild thing same exact problem and carb packed with saw dust. Erratic idle and cut off...then run fine. I just rebuilt the carb. It had plenty of compression.
