Lemonade from Lemons: The Fabulous 10mm MS044

A few weeks ago I had good fortune to be the first caller when someone near me advertised a 10mm 044, at a very good price. Minutes later other buyers were offering more for it sight-unseen, but the seller nobly told them it was sold. I made the drive, and it was everything I'd hoped. When I got home with it, I immediately checked CL again and was amazed to see a just-posted second 044, this one needing a muffler, for sale at exactly the same excellent price about half an hour away in the opposite direction. I emailed the seller, and was amazed to be first in line for that one too. I made the drive down for it, so jittery with disbelief that I kept looking over my shoulder as if someone else might come along and somehow deprive me of it.

Distracted by my excitement and paranoia, my judgement was clouded, and all I perceived was that it was, indeed an 044, it ran, and it was extremely dirty. I completely missed that there was an important chunk missing from the right side of the crankcase. I didn't investigate why the front handle retained proportionately more of its paint than the rest of the saw, and I didn't notice a curious ripple of bumps across the top of the engine shroud. When I got it home and my brain came back into focus, I realized that something very heavy (wonder what that could've been?) had once fallen on this saw. It had also been run and run and run until there was very little running left in it. For a few hours I considered selling it on eBay for parts, and hoping I'd get most of my money back.

I really didn't want to admit defeat that way, so I started trolling for parts. On AS someone had just come into a couple of parts saws, and he sold me a crankcase after extracting the crank for his own project saw. That case, which he'd thought was from an 044, turned out to be from an MS440. I kept it anyhow. Not wanting to have one flippy cap and one screw-in, I traded the rear handle/gas tank from mine to someone else on AS who had a 440 handle on his 044 and hated the flippy cap. I got a muffler from a third AS member, an OEM case gasket on ebay and a pair of new bearings and seals, and started putting it together. Fortunately the crankshaft and cylinder bore were in good shape. The compression was low, rings were worn thin, and the original piston was evidently pursuing its dream of someday becoming a golf ball, so a new Meteor, new OEM wrist pin bearing and a pair of Caber's. I checked the squish, then made a new gasket out of a Coca Cola can and ended up at .022" with a 180# of compression right off the bat. The pressure test turned up a pinhole leak in the intake boot so that got replaced, along with the kill switch wires, plug wire and boot, clutch drum and sprocket, brake band, carb grommet, the reflector foil under the muffler, the starter rope and some of the AV buffers. I discovered that the early 044's recoil cover was drilled for 4mm screws, so I had to ream out its holes for the 5mm screws required by the MS440 case. I also had to grind the heads of two of those screws smaller so they'd fit in the cover's smaller recesses. When I first started it, I found the clutch springs so tired that it was impossible to tune, so those got replaced too.

After all that, it retains its patented theft-deterring UglySaw feature. And yeah... it runs.

 

You came out smelling like a rose.

 

The original 10mm cases are smaller.
Which equates to higher transfer velocity.

 

Yes, I wondered about that. Before I started I found an old thread about putting a 12mm crank into a 10mm case, and how it required removing a bit of metal from either the case interior or the counterweights. Having put this one together, I don't think it can be much of a difference. The clearances seem pretty close. I suppose I could've added a few layers of paint inside before assembly...

I certainly came out better off than if I'd scrapped it. Being kind of a mongrel the resale value probably wouldn't be great, but I don't mind; I think this and either my o26 or the 346 might end up being my keepers.

 

This is the only one I have handy, of both saws on the day I got them. The one I rebuilt is the one in back.

 

Excellent job, Dex. What method did you use for the case split and re-assembly? I've done something similar to MasterMind's case bearing install... worked pretty well.

 

haha!!! I mean JON! lol I knew it was Jon's post up until I posted... oops.

So, what method did you use?

 

In this case I didn't have to be quite as careful when splitting the old case to get the crank out, since the case was scrap anyhow (it's now part of a child's sculpture at the school where my wife works). I used a tool I improvised from a few iron pipe fittings. Reassembly was more or less Mastermind's method, using the oven instead of a heat gun.

 

Good stuff. I use the husky case splitter I got from weedeaterman. Works on 034/036 and MS460 with no issues. I had to bend the jaws a bit for the 460, but it worked.
Did you have to do anything major to the other saw?

 

I haven't gotten too far into the other one yet. I know it needs clutch springs too, though not as badly, and also the kill switch wiring. Otherwise it seems to be in very good shape.

 

You did get lucky on those.

 

I use a brass hammer

 

Ugly saws that run good don't seem so ugly! I'd love to have an 044/440. I ran a ported one about a month ago. It was an animal.