Please clean your air filters at least once every 20 years.

I knew you could do it.

(Oh, you actually changed the post title. I thought you meant you'd cleaned your air filters.)

 

As an additional consolation, I found 2 more flaws: it had the wrong spark plug, and the high-speed needle was set far too rich.

Unfortunately I have to report that it now runs perfectly. After gassing it up it started within about a half-dozen pulls and idled smoothly. I let it warm up for a minute, leaned it out a bit, cut a couple of cookies, tweaked the high-speed a bit more and that was it.

What's especially surprising to me is how easily it re-starts after being shut off. You don't even have to ask nicely; it practically leaps into action by itself if you gesture in the direction of the starter handle from three feet away.

 

I wonder if they replaced the spark plug trying to get it to run when all they needed to do was tap out the filter?

In any event....you suck.

 

Oh, the filter was way beyond tapping out. I soaked it in straight Simple Green for a couple of hours to soften it up enough to be able to rinse it clean.

 

For posterity, here's the info I relied on to pin down this saw's age. This was the best of the Husky dating threads I found.

"If the number tag is "silver", the saw isn't newer than 1986, unless there is reference to Yugoslavia or Slovenia on the tag.

...

White top 61s were made well into the 1980s. I believe the change from black/gray to orange happened around 1990 - but it doesn't really tell much anyway, as you never know what color top a used saw originally had.

The safest clue is the number plate, including the color of the plate (silver/black), the arrangement of the numbers, and some times even the text.

The change from ywwxxxx to yy wwxxxxx (note one x more) didn't happen "past 2000", but from around 1999 week 18 (I don't know the exact week yet). Black tag saws made from 1997 up to that time in 1999 had the full year on the tag in addition to the serial number, to distinguish them from those made 10 years earlier."