spudulike

If you do it yourself, use a soft nylon bristle brush with no discernable central boss...see below. Use flexible rods and always turn clockwise so the rods don't come undone. The Victorian chimney will have a few bends in it as the upstairs bedroom fireplaces impact on the straightness but it should be OK if done right. This type of thing: -

Nice and quiet in Suffolk, glad you have a plan and sounds like you are on the up, employment and all.

The normal settings on the H&L screw on the carb is 1 turn out on each but 1&1/4 turns out is a decent place to start and then turn the H screw in until the saw picks up well and revs well but doesn't scream at the top revs. Glad you are making progress.

There will normally be a removeable baffle plate in the top of the stove so open the door and see if there is a plate either bolted, screwed or just registered in to the stove. This plate should be removed and then the flue swept. I usually work out the rough height of the chimney and then translate that in to the number of rods needed. If there is an additional damper in the flue above the chimney, that needs to be removed and is usually a case of holding the damper plate and rotating the handle so it can be withdrawn through the plate and flue. I have had three stoves and one plate was bolted, the other two were Stovax and they were registered on the rear wall of the stove and two lugs on both sidewalls.

Those 361s get quite lively when you gut the muffler!

FIne, it is an oil and not a solvent.

That is horrible and that big groove above the exhaust port isn't helping compression.

Some neighbours are really not worth the breath of trying to talk with them. I know as I have had two point five now and the current one is "on the spectrum"....according to most of the people in the village. If you haven't had one of these "Pieces" living next to you, you really don't understand how frustrating it is. One suggestion - drill all the branches anywhere near the border and stick .22 blanks in them!! May seem excessive but these sort of people really should be made to live together in one town or village where they can make each others lives a pure misery by bitching at each other incessantly.

Yup, I run a Rover Mower and chipper both with the Locin engine, seems OK to me.

OK, fit a new one, Locin are fine and Predator seem to be good on the Youtube tests but not sure if they are USA only then the Honda can be a nice little bench project for the winter.

Probably a thuja and not leylandii....or anything else if his knowledge of nature is like 95% of the UK population. I was asked what a blackbird looked like once when we heard its warning call. My response....bird like and black

Just to clarify, the smoke was coming from the breather and not the exhaust? If the breather, I would agree, time to pull the top end apart and check the piston, bore and rings.

bit like Troy Balyiss back in the day!

On these type engines, 175-230psi will give a decent gain in power, beyond this, combustion will be stifled as is seen on many very high revving two strokes...14,000 isn't that high compared to many racing bikes of the era where these compressions would be excessive. If you have tested/run/modded many saw engines, you find that the difference between 150psi and 175 is like chalk and cheese in pickup, power, torque and chain speed under load. Your cheaper saws with decent compression may be being held back by muffler design, poor ignition advance, carb air flow and design, combustion chamber design, port duration and blowdown figures etc. Compression is just one part of the equation.

Well that sorted it then didn't it. Not sure why I got so many MS880s in that had gone pop. I always put it down to the fact that they had been left on the shelf for months with half a tank of fuel in them and then used again for a big cut and seized. Must have been coincidence You may get away with it on strimmers or trimmers due to them revving less and not being under heavy load but try it with a decent pro saw having been left for 6 months and go in to a large continuous cut and your luck may well run out. An expensive test. I always put many seizures down to a possible number of factors, perhaps old fuel, slightly lean, perhaps a slight air leak and probably a longer cut...it happens, I would show you a large bucket of seized pistons but they are long gone. Nothing personal but all my old fuel goes in a mower or chipper and this discussion is similar to the fella that said chainsaw clutches cant spin off if you leave the side cover off!!

That gauge looks like the Gunson Hi Gauge. A standard 372XP - 150-170, Modified - 185+psi MS200T, Standard 150 on an old one, 175 on a new cylinder, 200+ modified. The rest, no idea what they are.

carefully as on any engine!! No idea but do expect timing marks on the crank flywheel and any pulleys on the cam/cams. You probably need to make sure the engine is set on TDC when doing it....hopefully pretty standard, good luck. Check the valves haven't contacted the piston crowns when the belt failed.

Just read this and other forum equipment maintenance threads, develop your own thoughts from issues and see if you are correct as the dialogue continues and others comment on possible fixes. YouTube has many vids that may be of interest. Get a few scrappers, strip and learn. One of my things is to question every part and question what it does and why it is constructed in that way....a sort of fit, form, function type analysis.

It may be that the decompressor is holding the valve open or has burnt it out. I haven't had one of these units apart before but typical loss of compression on a 4T engine would be piston/ bore/ring wear, valve clearance or worn seat issues or blown head gasket. These engines are probably like the Stihl 4 stroke engines and lift one of the valves for easy starting. When the tappet clearance is too great, starting I'd much harder on the handle. Your tappets may have too little clearance. On the carb, make sure you get the emulsion tube that resides behind the main jet, out and clean both the jet and tube. It has small holes in it that, if blocked, cause hunting issues. Double check the choke mechanism is opening and closing as it should....some are automatic, some are manual and then make sure the engine governor looks OK, many take them apart and don't get them back together correctly. Just a bit of my limited experience. Some interesting vids on YouTube comparing these type of engines, some even analysing the metal in the used engine oil.

As per Gareth's suggestion, strip the wire ends, slip on shrink wrap, twist the wires together, solder, move heat shrink in to place and heat. That should work best.

Fix the Honda if it is fixable at a reasonable cost otherwise Locin make decent replacement engines - many equipment companies use them.

Try turning the H screw anticlockwise 1/4 - 1/2 turn and go from there. The 260 should have a carb where the H&L screws work independently of each other. The 026 had the type of carb where adjusting the H screw threw the L screw adjustment out and vice versa....more tricky.

The throttle linkages are coloured and the first part that may be red will join with the other linkage that is red...pretty simple after the first few👍

You couldn't make it up could you. Modern life at its best.

Funny enough, my mate made the same comment. We still have one of our first neighbours stay with us for a week each year so can't be us, one side is always fine, all the good in them and the other side.....you've got it. The latest one started before we even moved in so there goes your theory...sorry!