I guess it's possible. The excessive heat from that episode could have screwed the springs up. If you pull the drum off again, can you easily expand the clutch shoes with your fingers?
At idle the crankshaft should be spinning (i.e. motor running) but the drum should not be spinning (i.e. chain not moving). You're saying that it wants to move the chain when idling and that I believe means one of two things: 1. The clutch springs aren't contracting properly (i.e. failing to pull the clutch towards the center/crankshaft and thus engaging the drum when you don't want it to) or 2. The idle adjustment is set too high and the crankshaft is spinning just a bit too fast causing the chain to move. For #1 you can get new springs or a new clutch. For #2 you'd just have to adjust the idle screw. Have you been making any adjustments to that screw? I'm not familiar with that saw but on the 028 there is a separate screw for idle adjustment. I was told (probably by buckthorn or huskil) that it's basically like squeezing the trigger really, really lightly so that the engine doesn't stall....but not too much that the chain moves. I'd adjust the idle screw lower (i.e.raise the screw but that might not be the case for every saw) and see if that fixes it. And when adjusting it takes very, very minute adjustments. You don't need to be spinning that screw all over the place. If you turn it clockwise and the revs go up, go counterclockwise slowly and see if the chain stops moving while simultaneously not stalling the engine. If that doesn't work then I'd try the new clutch or springs. I'm sure people have seen both happen at the same time too. When was the last time you cleaned your saw out? Do you take off the cover and brush away all that sawdust when you sharpen the chain? Also are you sure the bar is getting oil btw? Looking at your signature 6 cord doesn't sound like constant crazy usage of your saw so I'm guessing you don't use it too often.
I took another look today - the springs are definitely toast. I will swap them out and see if it works!
In your picture, you can see the gaps between coils are much wider near the ends than in the middle of the spring. Heat conducts in from the shoes. I think you stand a good chance of getting it fixed after replacing them!
I just put the new springs in and its working great test running it. Who knows if it will act up in the field, but for now it looks like problem solved. Thanks for all your help guys!
I put some of this on the bearing cause it happened to be laying around the shop: Valvoline™ Multi-Vehicle Grease : Product Catalog - Valvoline™
