Stihl MS441 brake

[brynseiri]

The brake has become difficult to use on my Stihl MS441, difficult as in hard to engage and has to be pulled back further to disengage. I recall having a similar problem with an ms260, and IIRC it was one of the springs had broken. Has anyone else experienced this? is it a spring or something else? am about to strip it and see. When I went to the dealer to order a spring, the apprentice was serving, and he gave 101 reasons as to how it was broken, but as a competent fitter myself, none of the lads ramblings made any sense! Any past experiences would be much apreciated.

[Rich2484]

Yep look into the brake band. Had the same on an ms260, was really tight to engage and had to give it a yank to take it off. The end of the brake band was broken. See pic. One one the right is broken end.

[brynseiri]

Just stripped it, its a tiny job, two screws take off a cover and the whole lot is there for all to see. The springs were intact, brake band was intact, so I blew the whole lot out with an airline as there was some sawdust / crap in there. I noticed the plastic sleve on the main spring was a bit too far forward, moved it back but doubt it will make any difference. took the brake drum and sprocket off and blew that clean aswell, put back together and it works fine, only other thing I can think of is it does it after a fair bit of use, so might be brake band changing with heat? I'll keep an eye on it, and see what happens.

[Stubby]

There have been a lot of posts about the actual brake handle on some Stihl models softening due to heat from the exhaust . Could it be that ?

[brynseiri]

I'll have to try a few things when I next use it, maybe it could be the handle, maybe it softens, I'm not sure. I will do some investigations and post here. Thanks for your replies.

[spudulike]

Had one that split one of the dowel turrets and did the pictured repair - it was a right sod:lol:

Keep the pivots well oiled and clean the crap out once in a while!

[brynseiri]

Well, kept it clean, and not so bad at all, so I guess it must be a housekeeping thing.