Al Smith

In my opinion this design like the 441 hasn't been around long enough for people ,dealers included to fully undertand their quirks .I've only seen vid clips of the 201 never had one in my hot little hands . The 441 does okay I guess not IMO as good as the 440 it replaced though but that's a personal opinion on my part .Change evolves as the natural way of things .Remember it wasn't all that long ago automobiles had carbuerators to cause you fits . I miss them about as much as a tooth ache . As far as the 200T goes I have one I enhanced to the point it will take a 16" bar buried to the hilt in oak .Is that neccessary in the course of normal tree work-no .Why so --because I can

Regarding the 181/281 they are indeed very powerfull saws .Fact I have a 281 in the shed which needs seals .Another project I haven't taken the time do mainly because it's still winter time and I'm oppossed to freezing my 'nads off workng on a danged saw . If history repeats itself eventually one day it will again warm up .

Usually what kills a 020 or 200T is the exhaust side gets fried .Argumentative perhaps but my thought is air leaks .Dust ingestion will scarf the intake side but usually won't do that much harm . If the chrome isn't burned up and the piston all gouged up a set of rings might bring it back . To bring one back with a new cylinder and piston assembley is half the price of the saw when new which is what the saw with consideration of the age is worth now if in good running condition .

As a result of wooden packing crates from the Pacific rim a parasitic emerald ash borer has or will wipe out a majority of the ash trees in the central portion of the US and possibley Canada .Because of the St Lawrence seaway extending from the Atlantic ocean to the great lakes it became transmitted from the interior .The worst possible scenerio About 50 percent of the time these tress will resprout .Fact I've seen sprouting on 3 feet diameter trees .The big question remains will these sprouts grow large enough to reseed .Only time will answer that question .If so it will take at least a hundred years or more to ever replace the amount of ash trees that died .

Chainsaw milling is not fast no matter what you're using for power . You have the right idea because in that application there is no substitite for displacement . I've used an 048 Stihl which is the same displacement as an 046 and it struggles at milling .Also both a Homelite 2100 and a Mac 125 which both have ample power but it's still a slow process .

On a 42" bar 3/8" chain it's 135 drive lengths .For .404 it's 123 . A 42" is a lot of bar now .What in the world are you going to cut ?

FWIW it's the same bar mount style as 372-281-2100 Husqvarna if that helps any .

That being the case it's flooding itself I would guess .Caused by ethanol in the gasoline ,petrol if you prefer. Then again I thought all you nice people had fuel that was better than the garbage we are plauged with .The ethanol causes the innards of the carb to stiffen up like cardboard after a few years . Now I have no idea if the 200T's on that side of the pond are different or not from ours .However the main difference between an 020T and a 200T is the 200 will have the "intellicarb " thing and the 020 will not plus the 200 has flip caps ,the 020 has screw caps .Some 020Ts' had a fixed main jet carb ,a few .I've never seen a fixed main jet on a 200T .

Now that's a little confusing .The impulse line attachs through the boot as the carb impulse on a 200t does not use a seperate line like some do which goes on the fuel pump diaphragm side . The little fitting that goes from the main diaphragm chamber to the air filter is the compensation device which regulates the amount of air the atmospheic side of the diaphragm gets depending on how plugged up the air filter is .It allows the saw to run at reduced power level until the air filter can be properly serviced ."intellicarb" Now if that it what is discussed they should run without it . About the only thing you'll get is eventually the atmospheric side of the diaphragm will fill up with fine saw dust and the saw will run extrememly rich if the filter is plugged plus with an open hole in the back of the air filter box probabley suck in some fine dust that won't do the engine any good .

I agree it's rather odd for the seals to fail .As it was though both those saws had the same problems most people report about over the internet .Running out lean after about a minute or less on start up . It has been the assumption by many including myself thet the fault was with the Zama carbs . I actually discovered this seal deal after having changed carbs using a known good one to test one of these offending saws .More or less it was just blind luck that I came upon it .Now this is not to say that every 200T that runs badly that the seals are the problem .However it very well may be that a percentage of high hour saws suffer from bad seals . If you look at E-bay US there often is many 020T and 200T crankcases for sale rather reasonably priced .That factor indicates to me that air leaks from whatever cause has ruined a lot of these high priced little saws . As of yet noone I'm aware of makes an after market cylinder and piston for these things and rebuild with OEM parts would be over half the cost of a new saw .

Okay here's what pictures I have of this thing .Note on the pic of the crank where the black spots are .This is the carbon build up I spoke about .Both saws I worked on had perhaps 1/8" of side to side movement in them . I changed the bearings and seals on one saw which I got from a doner case that was cracked .The other saw I used a thin socket which fit perfectly with the outer race of the bearing and tapped it inward to tighten the bearings up and replaced it with a good seal .Note this is only a temporary fix but it worked . I'm not certain if you can see the thrust washer built into the roller bearings but that is the only side to side thrust preventaive this type bearing has .Unlike a ball bearing which affords thrust control .

I just went through this ordeal with both an 020T and an Ms 200T . Here's what I found .These series of saws use roller bearings instead of ball bearings for main bearings .They relie on a fiber thrust washer to keep things in alignment .Given enough time they develop some side to side slop in the crankshaft which will ride the edge of the seals up over accumulated carbon on the crankshaft left by pyrolited oil residue .The seals heat up then they leak .The seals appear to be Viton which is very resilliant but will swell when heated . After I got home from work this afternoon I'll post some pictures which will clear this up .

I guess I have a few one might consider old .This is Mac 125 wearing a 36" bar.

A couple things will over heat them .Probabley the worst is tuning the carb too lean .A lean mixure burns faster than a more rich one ,produces more heat .It doesn't help the cause to run a dull chain or crowd the saw too much either . Say little known fact of history on this .In WW2 the RAF and USAF had the escort planes shot up .The Rolls Merlin was a water cooled engine used on Spitfires and later the P-51 Mustang ,leaking coolant they would over heat .Many an old war bird made it back accross the channel by throttling them back and running with the choke partly closed to keep the heat down .

Oh my I had no idea . Around here you of course can't raise livestock within most municipalites save perhaps a rabbit in a cage .Where I'm at in the boon docks I could raise anything from field mice to elephants if I wanted to . Seems the field mice kind of came on their own but no pacaderms .Don't want any either .They won't mind and I doubt I could make them .Besides that they eat a lot not to mention the fact they expell a lot too .

It seems you folks on the other side of the great Atlantic are blessed with more rules ,regulations and edicts than we in a lot of areas .Portions of Canada as I'm told has recently experianced a like type of government intervention . So far they haven't tried at least in the area of chainsaws to be nannys to us but given enough time I'm sure they will . Evidently the governmental powers that be must not have better things to do than try to protect the populace from itself .Geeze if this continues you might need a permit to mow your own lawn .The only other option perhaps is get a herd of goats .Which would likely entail a permit of sorts too ,with a fee of course .

I have 5 saws in my shed of over 100 cc and an 084 is one of them .It too is equipted with a D-Handle . The 084 actually belongs to a tree trimmer friend of mine and I'm kind of guarding it for him to prevent theft which is long story .At any rate in the last 4 years that saw has only been ran at exibitions . Large saws as a rule will last almost forever simpley due to the fact thay don't get used that often .While they have outstanding power very seldom does the situation present itself where a saw of that size is needed .In other words the novelty wears off rather quickly .

A bent driver on the chain can cause that same thing .If let go long enough it can take out the clutch side bearing also .

Hmm imagine that .Oh not a big deal we on this side of the pond have so much regional slang stuff it almost takes a translator if those from the midwest converse with the deep south or west coast .Then you throw the Canadians into the mix and it really gets confusing . Then come the Aussies' which I understand perfectly in written text but miss about half of it in real conversation .I sometimes wonder if we all speak the same English which is certainly not the "Queens " English in any form or fashion . Oh not to worry I'll catch on .I just somehow tried to relate knackers to something .My first thought was a well developed busty female but that would be knockers perhaps originating from this side but we'll probabley never know .Enough nonsense .

I've only owned 2 or 3 "new saws" in my life time but I've rebuilt dozens . My method is to set the fuel mixture slightly rich for several tank fulls at the onset then gradually lean it out .After say half a dozen lean that thing out to proper mixture and flog that thing .Run like you stole is an old red neck Yank saying .Run the knackers off it maybe ,whatever knackers are ?

Same in the US .If you have the money you get the saw .They might be nannys in the large metro areas but out here in the corn fields they could care less . I don't know where they ever got the idea a top handle is so dangerous any way .If you know how to handle a saw it isn't any more of a hazard than any other saw.

Stihls problems with the Zama model C1Q with the accelerator pump has raged on for several years .It's been an ongoing topic on internet forums for at least several years . I don't know the exchange rate but that carb is right at 100 dollars US .One sixth the price of a new saw which is highway robbery . Stihl so far as I know has never addressed the problem which by the way is only on the later model 200T's .The earlier models plus the 020t did not use the accelerator pump models .

A little bit on this that most are unaware of .The accelerater pump has a little o-ring that fails which causes an air leak .The way the linkage actuates the pump it's inevetatble this piston will fail in time .Now one fix they claim to remove the piston and seal off the cavity with epoxy thus bypassing the pump . I've found what appears to be tiny cracks in the fuel chamber which I've sealed with red loctite with pretty good success .Another gent in California has done the same thing . One carb which was shipped to me from Australia I thought had cracks in it .I later shipped it to Stihl in Virginia Beach Va where they analized it in their lab and said it didn't have cracks but did have internal leaks . Often over looked and something I just recently discovered are the crank shaft bearings .Most saws have at least one ball bearing ,most have two .The 200T uses roller bearings both sides . Because of the method used to control side thrust by using a composite type material in the bearing they develop side movement .Given enough time this will cause the seals to leak and not only hinder the preformance but after enough time burn the piston and cylinder up by causing a lean run condition . The 020/200T is a different breed of cat to put it in Yank terms .Built like no other I've even seen .Born and bred to be a runner .With that high bred performance comes situations you'll find in almost no other saw .

--or 19 thou for us not metrically inclined .

Well I've got some I've had for over 30 years and never changed the plug if that accounts for any thing .Yes by the way they still run .