spudulike

The 346 came in two variants, 45cc and 50cc. The earlier with a 42mm piston, the latter with a weird sized 44.3mm. The cylinders were always closed transfer ports. The 350 has open transfers - these will be two channels running up either side of the bore and a 44mm piston. It looks like you may have had a previous owner who got hold of one of these top ends and slapped it on. I have converted a few 45cc to 50cc 346XPs and these have worked out well with no issues. Bit of a strange one and the 350 will not rev anywhere near as high as the 346!

In most cases, after checking the bar oiler hole is clear, it is easier to spin the clutch and drum off, pull the oil pump and pickup pipe off the machine, check the pipe and filter is clear, check the worm drive/pinion for damage to the worm thread and then check the oil pump inlet and outlet holes are clear. Usually a squirt of WD40/carb cleaner and a blast from a compressor will clear any blockage but sometimes you need to work any slug of fine wood chip out with a sewing pin. If this doesn't do it, it may be the oil tank breather but is much less likely. The issue with these Chinese saws is that they use cheap materials and poor design. The above on a mainstream saw may take 15-30 mins, some cheap Chinese saws need to have the engine removed to get to the pump. Good luck.

I was thinking of a local plumber, loved doing the jobs, never knew who he had worked for, how long it had taken, what materials were used and who had paid. Being good and having a skill is just one part of it....a big part but the rest makes it a viable business.

That last bit is good advice. Many guys are good at a job but rubbish at business. They do the job and them another and another but there is no process to start invoicing and chasing payments. A sale isn't a sale without payment in full!! Many hate the paperwork, I don't care for it but I understand the need to keep the whole business process in order.

Excuse me sir, did you say COCKRINGS.....really and on a Sunday as well!!! Who do you think you are? Prince Albert😂

It gets pretty easy the longer you do it. I did have a weird one earlier in the week, big fat spark on the spark tester - jumping at least 7mm + and after swapping out all the main components, turns out to be the HT lead so the plug must have not been sparking under compression.....that was a first and took hours as I had discounted the HT lead being the problem! This one in comparison...piece of p£$s! Your thoughts are the same as mine, the blow-by of combustion gasses around the plug hardens and breaks down the aluminium thread which can then strip out hence what I said earlier about making sure the plug is kept tight. I think you need the award doing the job you do, at least I can abuse my customers....they love it;-)

Pass it on....do a favour for someone else or help someone on their way, and pass on the message, it may make the world a better place.

Damn, it almost looks like I know what I am talking about...... my original post....."It sounds like the spark plug or decomp valve may have come out as even a seized engine will give slight compression enough to tension the starter." One bit of advice and that is to check the plug tightness regularly to make sure it doesn't happen again - it often does. I hope the plug was just loose and hadn't actually popped out as when they do, they often take a few threads with them and that can lead to the thread failing completely. You need to do it up to finger tightness and then compress that sealing washer by half so you get a good grip. Anyway, good result, the dealer should have fixed that every day of the week. Glad it is sorted...Happy Christmas

WTF...either you have completely misunderstood him or he was talking gibberish in a twatish dialect! If the base gasket fails, the saw will still make pretty much normal secondary compression, you will have a big air leak, you may feel the cylinder is moving on its screws and it may not run at all. If you pick the saw up with the starter handle, does the saw fall to full extension of the recoil rope immediately, does it take 2-3 seconds or 8-15? Have you taken the muffler off and looked at the piston? You can take the spark plug out and shine a torch down the bore to look for streaking/scoring on the bore surface around the port. Not being funny but....your saw is 65cc and if you pull it over hard with the decomp out, you will feel it, it is your saw, you know what it normally does. You initially said there was no tension in the starter chord.....in my world that means the engine spins over like the plug is out and that means a bad failure. I can usually tell within seconds what has probably happened and verify the issue for fact in a minute or two. I am NOT bragging, anyone who does this sort of work should be able to do this as many of my customers have witnessed when they hand their saw over and I pull it over and wince at the lack of compression or dodgy noises coming from the saws engine! Checking the compression, checking for a seize takes a few minutes by a tech. Just follow the advice from us and lets follow this through and get the thing going again!!

Lockdown life for you!!

My favorite Gyro..... Anyone feeling hungry and wanting a beer now?

CPC Farnell are a big company, Farnell are a big electronic component distributor and CPC are the domestic side doing computing, gaming, homewares, TV and Audio type products. They are a BIG name but think CPC are perhaps better known in the North as they are based near Preston. I have visited both Farnell and CPC as a supplier to them in the past and have purchased from them with no issues. The axe looks like it has been kicked around for a while. It should come with a plastic guard holder/hook so you can hang it up and it also protects it in transit and for hanging in a shop etc. I got my X27 from Amazon US when you could get them for £40. The teflon coating would have come off if your axe had been used but it looks like the plastic safety cover has been removed and the head has taken a knock. Perhaps a couple of lads in their dispatch department pissed around with it before sending it! I guess it would look like that after its first outing but not good receiving it like this as new. Perhaps ask for some sort of refund to compensate for the damage - probably easier and cheaper for them to do this than organize picking it up etc.

It sounds like the spark plug or decomp valve may have come out as even a seized engine will give slight compression enough to tension the starter. Check these two things first, if the plug has come out, check the thread of the hole and make sure it is still OK as it often fails once a plug has come out under combustion pressure. If it isn't this and your "no tension" is more like not much tension then you have probably left fuel in the saw for a while then cut hard with it and seized it.

Agreed, they are rock hard rubber and split away from the mount after a short use. I tried them once and binned them when the saw came back a week later....absolutely shocking.

Mmm, I still have a few of your old crankcases in my collection -the cranks and a few other parts were of use! Bad carbs Hmmm, just bad repairers😉

You need to practice your sarcasm a bit more. Unfortunately me abusing customers doesn't put them off, the other guys must be utter shyte for them to still be knocking on the door😂 You know the answer Andrew, a nice warm workshop, bargain hunt at lunch time and work when you like.....at home!!

Battery power will take over, it is the natural progression. Automotive is going through exactly the same turmoils at the moment. The battery kit is quiet, clean, you can use it early morning and at the weekend without pissing people off. It will replace petrol kit and the battery/motor technology will determine the pace it can happen. The petrol kit of today will be brought out at agricultural fairs and everyone will reminisce about when they used or owned one! You will see them in Bygone Museums with a little plaque giving the history of the demise of the petrol engine. It will happen and the manufacturers will probably tell you that the saws you are seeing now may well be some of the last petrol saws that will be produced. I am just glad I fired up the business when I did as this electrical kit has no soul. You may as well be fixing a hairdryer!!

Loose mufflers....it happens because many people remove them then fail to fit the belleville (domed) washers that should be fitted and tension the screw so it doesn't come loose😉 Your last comment made me smile though😂

Nice looking job, enjoyed the bit they showed!

I may know a prospective purchaser on one of these saws - will let him know!

Interesting, it was pretty much the same as the 150 from what I could see. Only done one 151 and found it pretty crap until I did the normal on it which transformed it as usual. The 150 weaknesses were the flywheel spinning and the front engine mounts coming loose. The rest of it seems pretty good and reliable.

Agree on the term "Topper", many of my customers use the term and have taken it as an alternative to "Top Handled Chainsaw" You could consider the MS194 or the MS151. Both use the 1/4" chain and offer a lighter saw. One guy I know rates the MS194 heavily!

It is an easy one, there is something that is stopping the saw reaching peak revs - Circa 14700+ on this saw. All you have to do is find it! Electrical - you may be getting something stopping the coil doing what it should, is it a blue limited coil....probably not and none of the limited blue coils limit to 12Krpm. Perhaps there is arcing on the plug or cap or the kill wire/HT lead is touching earth or the coil is shot. In my experience, these arcing/shorting issues don't cause rev limiting issues,they stop the engine. A limited coil can blow the high speed section so an engine won't rev out, seen that on a 361 and a blower so it does happen but isn't common. You could try many of the coils off the 3 series saws just observing some may be limited so will send a tach all over the place once it hits the limiter. Check the HT lead with a multimeter and check connections at both ends, check the kill wire or just disconnect it. Check the coil gap. Fuel - how is the saw running? Wet, oily, smokey black plug or is it lacking power, bogging, lacking power. If the carb is throwing in too much fuel, you will be getting a heavy fuel residue. It is possible you are getting far too much fuel or far too little. I would pressure check the fuel line, check the tank breather and also the HOLE that goes in to the carb elbow as I have seen two with the through hole not present! Check the gauze strainer - take it out and use a magnifying glass, get carb cleaner down the H and low screw, check the pump diaphragm, especially the pump flaps and pressure check the carb. Mechanics - Check out the piston for the things BMP has mentioned, chack the compression, 150 is getting low on these saws, 170 is decent. Check the first hard pull. With the base gasket deleted, you should be 80-100psi - if this is much lower and you don't get up to almost max reading in 3-4 pulls, the engine isn't in good shape. Check the bore and plating for wear and discoloration. Check the inlet manifold, especially the impulse nipple (Yes, I did say NIPPLE)....it often splits along the top or can get distorted if not fitted properly. Is the short impulse line fitted between the inlet clamp and the carb connector fitted correctly - just had this problem!! make sure the inlet manifold perforated inlet support sleeve is fitted. Make sure the muffler isn't blocked - had one plugged with mud once!!! I can't think of much more - I have just spent 4 hours on a 200 I had rebuilt that just wouldn't start. I had replaced the HT cable and was getting a big fat blue spark jumping 7mm so it was never going to be an HT problem was it......cock yes it was, after stripping it doing a full leak test, swapping carbs, coils, flywheels etc etc, I swapped the HT lead and bingo....the HT lead being screwed on had forced the copper strands deep in to the sheath making a bad connection - great spark in air, none under the 200psi compression the saw had!! If you check all possible issues, the issue left, however improbable, is the culprit!

From a repairers side, the MS200T is by far, the easiest to work on, the MS201t is fairly similar but the T540XP is one that I hate more than most. I have been told the 540 has a nice clip allowing you to clip it to a strop but a second clip allows you to hook it on your belt - with a suitable clip. I am not a climber but this is cited by many as being orgasmic! The 540 is damn difficult to strip...if any Husky techs want to argue the point, I will stick £100 down to be the first to strip and get the piston off a fully assembled MS200T against them doing the same on a 540 and no powered tools to be used either! Can't say too much about their use but the 200 has a nice spread of power, no revving it up to full tilt then hitting the wood like some. If you do get a 200....make sure it is as original as possible, especially the top end and carb. I have yet to see a cheap aftermarket carb work well and unlike most, I prefer the accelerator pump carb as I find them much much more stable in adjustment! Just seen the latest post.....did the MS200T have an OEM top end/carb and what compression did it pull? Was the same cutting gear used? Was it tuned correctly .........lots of things determine how a machine works and one test doesn't prove too much in my book!

The Gunson gauge is one of the more reliable ones, I did keep blowing the schrader valves on modified saws so fitted a Presta one and it has lasted well. A decent 346 should have 170psi. What was the end gap like? 7 thou is good, below 20 is OK, anything over and it is looking a bit iffy. Sometimes you have to tear it all down again and then build it up again to get to where you need to be. Are there signs of it being over-fueled such as a wet oily residue, black plug etc. The only time I have come across this sort of issue is with saws with excessive top end wear, the last one was an 020T that was doing exactly the same thing, couldn't get the revs above 12k even with the H screw turned in! It is possible the HT cap is leaking down making the high revs miss or the carb having a leaking check valve or the coil being like your 361 one but that was a limited one.....weird one but my diagnosis head still comes back to engine wear. Stick a new piston in it😉