Vintage Stihl

I'm a Stihl guy, but for only two reasons; neither of which has anything to do with perceived quality or superiority ...

First, it's what I was raised on. My dad heated our house with firewood cut using only a Stihl 031AV for many years.

Second, it's what I'm used to working on (shy of this damm Contra, of course).

 

Nothing like a lunchbox score. Reminds me of "One Piece At A Time" by Johnny Cash. I love me some Johnny Cash music.

 

I wish he was still here and able to run for President. I need a job where I have to "dispose" of Kroil..., or anything useful for that matter.

 

goes in the expired chemical barrels on the hanger floor for disposal. absolutely nothing wrong with it. does the wd40 you buy at home depot expire??

 

I have used some WD that I know was 10-15 years old

 

Hey, it may sound crazy, but I fly so much for work anymore that whatever they think is the safest, I'm all for it. Is it dumb to throw penetrating oil away, of course, do I want to change any of the policies that keep those birds flapping their wings, absolutely not... Someone way smarter than me came up with all of those policies, and I'd say by the minute number of mishaps they have, I'm all for keeping every one of them.

 

I hoard firewood, saws and heat with wood

 

I'm back . . . and I come bearing exciting news! This afternoon I pulled the top end out of the MMO bath. I still couldn't get the cylinder off, but it did do enough to let me force the cylinder back down and bolt it to the case again. Form there I gave the rings and bore a healthy dose of Kroil, let it sit for an hour, and then ran the piston up & down a few dozen times using the flywheel nut until it had notably less resistance. Then I followed Brad's (hdtoolmkr765) instructions above and things went perfectly. The piston is a little rough, so it's future is uncertain until I get a chance to do some work to it. The cylinder is not perfect, but better than I expected it to be and I'll have no hesitation running it. The crankshaft had over .050" movement axially, despite being smooth and tight during rotation. Turns out there are bakelite spacers ("thrust washers") on either side of the crank between the counterweights and case halves and one of them had magically disappeared.

For the record, if Brad charged me $1 for every text this saw would currently be running me just over $11,000.

So, as I type this the saw is completely disassembled other than that damm fuel cap, but it's soaking and will hopefully come off tomorrow. My shopping list now includes the following:

• Piston rings
• Full gasket set
• Seals
• Crank bearings (I believe these are usable, but it's apart, so it'll get new bearings)
• Thrust washer (will probably get two for a fresh set)
• Carb kit
• Fuel line
• Fuel filter
• Tank vent

Not too bad for a saw built in 1960 that I know sat stationary for at least the last 15 years (although I suspect much longer than that). Here are some shots post dis-assembly prior to any cleaning. Pretty amazing how small the total number of parts is compared to Stihls made in the last 30 years.

 

Did you discover exactly what was holding up the piston from coming out, or did the kroil just nuke everything?

 

Buildup behind the rings causing them to be of a larger OD than the lower cylinder ID when compressed. Even now that the piston is out the rings are stuck rock solid in place and on the intake side they're very slightly proud of the outer cylinder wall. It was basically just wedged in there due to crap built up behind the rings.

 

The piston looks scratched. Is that from woking it out or from running it prior to you?

 

I believe most, if not all of the damage to the piston occurred while it was running a long time ago.

 

All awesome news, I'm looking forward to seeing this thing run.

 

Been awhile, so I figured I would check in. The saw has been disassembled and waiting for awhile now. It took me some time to get around to ordering the parts I needed for the rebuild (gaskets, rubber parts, bearings, etc.) and some of them are on back order. Also, I ran into an interesting situation. The thrust washers I referenced earlier (one of which was missing) are pretty much non-existent. I took it much farther than I needed to, but I think I may very well have figured out what they were made of, and I'm having a new set machined as we speak.

The last remaining task on the saw was figuring out how to get the damm fuel cap off. I tried everything I could think of to get it loose without causing damage and it wouldn't budge. Admitting defeat, this evening I broke out a big ol' wrench and a rag and gave it a go. Miraculously, I got it loose with almost zero damage. Believe it or not that was a very big deal because I learned from hdtoolmkr765 that the older Stihl cross-cut logo fuel caps are very hard to come by and I have a very strong desire to keep this saw original and period correct. Now I just have to wait for the last few OEM parts and fabricated washers to arrive...

 

Cool cap

 

Have you checked out this site http://www.acresinternet.com/cscc.nsf/GasbyManufacturer It lists all the spec's