MS261 v2

[JamesNYorkshire]

23 hours ago, outonalimb said:

Very surprised that this clutch drum problem would show up on the new model after all the ongoing publicity for this fault. The needle bearing itself is common to many other stihls none of whom seem to have this trouble.   One of the original theories was that the drums were not perfectly round in some cases causing the early failure of the bearing (your saw sounds suspiciously like this) . It seems rediculous that you have had to resort to a technically inferior drum to resolve this issue.

I think you could be right.. At first when I took it in to the dealer he thought the clutch drum housing might of been slightly warped as there seemed to be a lot of heat being generated as well, however (after doing a bit of reasearch himself I think) he decided to change it to a spur sprocket which sorted the problem (if it had been the housing I can't see how that would of fixed it). If that's the case I suppose switching to an unaffected rim sprocket clutch drum would also have sorted the problem, although that might of been a bit 'hit and miss'.

James

[spudulike]

The 261 having more power can't be the issue as the bearing is locked once the clutch engages over circa 3,500rpm. The Stihl stance on this is typical German manufacturing and I worked for one for over 30 years so know all about that one! They never admitted the early MS201s were utter shyte but there you go - it WAS the way you were using them....all that wood and oil, what do you expect

I have never got to the bottom of the 261 issue, something must be wrong as I have never seen anything as bad before and have multiple reports from trainers basically telling their students that their chainsaw is unsafe and unfit for them on their course.....says a lot!!!

This isn't me knocking Stihl in favour of other manufacturers but is a comment on finding issues with certain saws showing wear, often terminal in what I would consider relatively new machines!

[outonalimb]

Would it not have been better (if Stihl actually do know the cause) to have simply done a recall (it has been done often enough before for safety reasons) and replaced all drums and bearings with freshly manufactured ones tested to be true (again assuming that this is the prime reason). Anyone unfortunate to have bought a saw with this problem is very unlikely to buy another and loss of confidence in a manufacturer would lead to greater financial penalties than the relatively cheap option of dumping a load of iffy clutch drums.

Spud is right ignoring customer complaints with disdain doesn't win you any friends

[outonalimb]

Interestingly  Oregon has never offered a Power Mate alternative for this saw in any of its guises . Do they make this drum for Stihl ?