Cooked MS200T??

[sime42]

Hello all

 

I've got a bit of a problem with my trusty climbing saw, (Stihl MS200T, 2008 model). It doesn't want to tick over nicely at the moment. When I first start it the idle is a bit uneven and after a while it cuts out altogether. When hot its even worse, it just dies as soon as I release the throttle. Apart from that it seems fine, it revs as good as ever and has plenty of power for cutting.

 

I should mention that I may be responsible for this problem!

A couple of weeks ago I was doing a reduction on a leylandii hedge, and using a skip to get rid of the waste. I was getting short on time and skip space so decided to mill the brash down a bit with the chainsaw. I went at it pretty hard and after only a few minutes the saw started cutting out on idle. I figure I must have overheated the poor thing as it was a stinking hot day and the exhaust was pretty stifled as I had the bar in the brash up to the hilt. The exhaust housing was smoking afterwards. I feel a bit stupid writing this now!

 

I'm loath to take it to my local service place again as I feel that since I'm normally pretty mechanically minded this is something I should be able to sort myself. Judging by a lot of other posts I've read on here I reckon this is the best place to come for advice as of few of you blokes seem to be chainsaw Oracles!

 

What does anyone think;- have I indeed overheated the thing and caused some damage to something? (or maybe the smoke was just resin burning off on the exhaust. He says hopefully!). Or is this just a question of re-tuning the carb? If anyone could give me a quick tutorial on the three screws that would be much appreciated, (H, L and LA). Thanks. I've always wanted to get my head around these but never plucked up the courage to fiddle with them in case I muck up a fine balance of something.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Sorry about the long post!

[Wolfie]

I don't think the problem is from using it hard on a hot day. The smoking may just mean it needs a clean down/blow out of the accumulated crud from barrel fins, etc.

The running problems sounds like the normal carb fault. Easy fix by someone that knows about the accelerator pump problem.

Don't suppose you have another working 200T that you can switch carbs with to be sure it's that.

 

 

 

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[sime42]

Thanks for the re-assurance Wolfie.

 

If it is the "normal" carb fault, dodgy accelerator pump, would that happen suddenly? I'm not sure if I made it clear but the idle problem started immediately after the leylandii milling incident. Before that it would happily idle all day.

 

Unfortunately I don't have another ms200 to swap the carb from.

[Wolfie]

Yes, can happen very suddenly.

I've replaced/fixed carbs on all of the 200T's i've owned.

 

From new you used to get just over one years daily use before they started playing up.

I think that Stihl did eventually sort the problem just before discontinuing the saw.

 

If you decide to buy a new carb make sure that you get one for the older 020T model.

 

 

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[Ray1]

Take the exhaust off and have a look at the piston and see what shape its in.

[Eddy_t]

Where abouts in WM are you, if you're not too far away, I can take a gander

 

 

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[sime42]

Thanks for the offer Eddy-T. I'm in South Birmingham. Where are you?

 

Wolfie;- I appreciate your advice about getting a new carb. It would be ~£100 that I'd rather not have to pay out though if I can avoid it. So is there any harm in adjusting the idle screw a bit in the hope that fixes it?

 

Can anyone point me in the direction of any documentation for the MS200 please? A workshop/maintenance/service manual or exploded diagram for instance. I've seen various references to them on here but all the links I've followed didn't work.

[Eddy_t]

Cannock, a 'quick' ride up the m6

 

 

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[spudulike]

Typical things that cause these issues are accelerator pump issues or leaking welch plug, both are fixable. It is possible the saw has overheated and partially seized, if this has happened, the compression will have dropped off but removing the muffler will give you the answer on this one.

 

A quick retune of the carb may fix the issue but if it doesn't, check the above.

[sime42]

Cheers all for your helpful thoughts.

 

My plan of action is to get the exhaust off and check the piston. If it looks OK I'll try a retune. As a last resort I'll have a go at repairing the previously mentioned well known faults / replace the whole carb, depending on how brave/broke I feel!

 

First I'm going to buy myself a service manual as they look pretty cheap on Ebay. I'm assuming there won't be too many differences as I'm not sure I'll be able to get one for the exact year of my saw.