Went to look at a Rancher and this followed me home......

It was a rain day, so no firewood cutting. Saw an ad on CL for some Husky Rancher 55's, but this 288xp came home with me.

It's going to need some parts and a good cleaning. It has spark and decent compression. From what I can tell from the exhaust port, the piston & cylinder look pretty good.

 

Nice find! I'm betting that should have some serious grunt when it is running.

 

Nice find! Interesting that it just kind of 'followed you home'..

Is this one of the Huskys you can make a screamer out of by muffler / porting mods?

 

I've never ran a 288XP, but I've heard good things. Been wanting a 80+cc saw so I can retire the McCulloch SP81 to a shelf queen. This will be a winter project, I'm planning on a total disassemble and rebuild.

 

Only ask because when we processed wood, our neighbor would come down with his Husky - he was the wood-cutter, I was strictly a wood-grunt, hauling and splitter duty here. That was a nice saw.

He was a saw guy, like you, and had 'modded it to breathe better, IIRC. He'd let me do some cutting every now and then, that saw always amazed & impressed me with how easy it cut wood, just like butter. I think he had a 24" bar on the saw.

Congrats on the purchase, it's a good looking saw !

 

I talked with him on Thursday and could not get straight answers on the condition of the saw. While the price was enticing, I elected to not make the 2 hour round trip to check it out. If it had come with a bigger bar I may have been swayed to take a look.

Glad you got it and good luck getting it going, here are the pictures from the ad that I saved.

 

Yep same guy. He called this afternoon and I went to check out the Ranchers and the 288, I'm in Richmond so it was pretty close.

It'll make a good firewood getter, next season.

 

I would have gone to Richmond for it, but 7 miles the other side of Berea was a bit much for me without any solid information on what sort of condition the saw was in. You were close enough to make it a no-brainer.

 

Did a little work on the 288xp. New top cover, Meteor piston & MM cylinder clean-up, bearings & seals, Carb kit, muffler, oil pump, fuel line/filter, trottle spring, chain tensioner & a-v mounts.

Now for some work on the handle/tank to clean things up a bit, a 28" b&C and we should be good to go.

 

When do we get to hear that thing??

 

Soon, I hope. I left off the base gasket and it's running .020 squish, it has a ton of compression. I'll have to post up some compression #'s before start-up.

 

Umm. It seems to be missing a very important part.

 

Nice saw, BTW. Very clean.

 

Very nice indeed !!!

 

Actually 2, front and rear...

 

Did a little more work today. Installed the anti-vibe mounts, fuel line, installed some carb parts I left out. Didn't get a chance to check the compression, I wanted to hear it run.

Still need to paint and install the decal on the clutch cover and find a good 28" bar & chain.
Here's a quick video from my phone and some pics.

 

The 28" bar arrived today from fordf150 . The 288 is complete. Next week we'll get it dirty in some Osage.

 

Not sure if I missed it or not but I desperately need to give you at least one "you suck"!!! I'm jealous, nice saw.

 

That cleaned up well. You are going to love that 288XP!