spudulike

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😉

Grease every 25 hrs of use, do that and they have a fighting chance.

I use a smaller plastic box but in short, you need some sort of box with a limited opening so you can put the saw in the box to clean it. You just need a suitable size box, large enough for the largest saw and to fit in your workshop!

Yes but.....what is the compression reading? Even OEM cylinders and pistons wear out. I have seen this before and bores can wear out. Is it the older 45cc machine as this was the older version. I once had a 024 and it had compression of 180psi as I had dropped the base gasket, it would barely spin the chain and there was nothing on the handle - the inlet side of the bore had no plating left! I would measure the compression or check the bore, the ring end gap and then the piston in the bore.

I have had this on high use 020Ts before. If the saw makes enough compression to fire but compression is pretty low...135psi or so, sometimes the saw will just not rev out as it should. The compression on a 346 is ideally 170psi on a nice top end or 150+ on a well used one. If the base gasket is dropped, expect 180-190 psi and if you are only making 150 with the base gasket gone....that will be the cause. Have you tested the compression? Other than that, as BMP said, is it four-stroking? What colour is the plug and has the saw got good power!

Good to get the other half helping out with some of the manual work, reminds me of when the wife helped me lift some oak sleepers.....she went a strange purple colour!! And then there was lifting the double glazing up a ladder..........

Damn he one smart cookie!

I am not pushing for work, the opposite in fact, I am trying to take it easy but it seems most of the arb world have me in their contacts list! Anyway....you should be taking it easy!!

Looks like the offer in the post above your last one may be a nice one, sort of thing that this site is often good at.....sometimes!

One that missed me I think.....I do have a Cornish customer that said he was running a 42" bar on his spud ported 395, reckoned it pulled pretty well as well....it even impressed me!!

Bugger, it will never work again!!! I am now imagining Steve sitting at the kitchen table with bits of server all over it scratching his head!!!

My advice is to get a nice clean ORIGINAL example. I often see some nice saws come in and some right wrecks. The wrecks may cost £100-150 less but in most cases will never be half the saw that the nice ones will be or last as long and if you are going to own this saw, look after it and it is going to earn you a living.....£150 ain't a lot of £££ on the grand scheme of things! You are right to walk away from anything with a Cheap Chinese top end. I have just resurrected a seized MS230 for resale, I was tempted by the £20 top ends but then came to my senses and fitted a quality Hyway. The OEM ones would have made it scrap, the cheap ones would have made it homeowner at best, the Hyway kits are pretty good and it is now fit for Pro or Homeowner use and will last a few years or more! The typical eBay seller will be maximizing their profits and will fit the cheapest open port shyte kit they can find and not find the air leak that caused the original failure!!!

it is indeed!!

These saws use very close tolerances, far closer than Stihl can maintain in manufacturing so they run hotter and need far more oil to keep them running correctly.

I was fishing off Walton on The Naze pier and a Firecrest landed just next to me, waited a few minutes and then flew off.....not what you expect!

See, told you, the old one needed porting!! Not that I have ever overclocked a computer?!!!!

Your server needs overclocking, raise the FSB up a few MHz, overclock the CPU and do the GPU whilst at it. You will then need to turn your heating down?

Older saws are relatively easy to work on but the first few are always a learning curve! With the 357, it has crank stuffers which makes splitting and removing the crank shaft a little more difficult and the inlt boot isn't one of the easier ones to fit! All saws have there own little foibles but if you think about an issue enough and use a bit of aptitude and grey matter, anything is possible. Parts are OK to get hold of albeit Husqvarna parts can't ever be described as cheap! Plenty of people on here to bounce issues off!

I think many treat it as a bit of a joke but I find it far better than some of the tat out there!

Yup, very little used and lightly ported. Did some cutting with the grain, full 24" bar width, loads of grunt and it out cut a 394 a fair while ago...nice!

Ported 346XP Heavily Ported 357XP Ported 181SE