spudulike

Yup, a coarse grub screw pushes in to the end and the tube is then fed through the hole in the plastic wall just behind it in your pic.

That is some erection Wes, the length, the girth, the ..........erectness Seems almost pleased to see you!

I did say......

Yup, Echos are funny, they seem to always need the muffler modded and a bit of a carb tune and bingo...different saw. I guess it is because the Japanese seem to use CATs rather than strato type technology. People ask me what they are like and I always say, they seem a bit lightly made but seem relatively strong and typically.....well....JAPANESE!

That 560 was pretty much scrap when I got it.....lasted a few years but don't know how much work it did though!

I will send up those carpet slippers and this months edition of Gardners World......what happened to the Matty I knew, looks like you have got a bit soft ooop north The older 362s had similar clutch problems to the MS261, I don't know what Stihl did but have just scrapped another MS261 this month, 6 years, in good overall condition and little use! Not seen many 362s in TBH. The M tronic gives it a bit more go but have never felt that these saws were a belter. A bit bulky and flat but....they all cut wood!

Thanks, all cleared up now. I always had them down as cast and he statement threw me. Glad all is cleared up now.

I think either tapping the hole oversize or using an insert rather than a helicoil if the hole is badly worn could possibly do it. The issues look to be the fact the hole has gone and the raised turret looks to have gone so it will need a bush of some sort. Also the screw that holds the handle in place has some sort of screw thread rather than a typical screw thread......good luck! If that lug goes...it is one expensive repair and a short bottom end may be the solution.

On the latest saws, one half was pure magnesium and one half (I think but not100%) was Magnesium alloy. You have to be careful with magnesium as it can go up in a big way. I remember the early days of magnesium motorbike mag wheels, basically they were catching fire in accidents where the bike burnt!

Yes, EPA again

All non strato/autotune saws are on borrowed time so if you are looking for a 395, 390 and any other saw or this generation, grab it now as these saws if looked after, will be banging away for 15-20 years!

Something nagged at me on this one. Couple of things - when I look at pistons, I see casting flash, slight unevenness in inner surfaces or casting witness marks and then machining to the critical surfaces and parts. The piston body shows obvious signs of casting - the machining will be common to all pistons. I then remember my days on bikes and being able to fit Wiseco "Forged" pistons and then thought, if all pistons are forged, why make such a thing out of being forged. So...basically, cast is molten metal in to a moulding cast and forged is battering solid metal using heat to soften and "forge" shape - like a blacksmith making horseshoes! I then Googled it and most pistons are cast but the top end ones for racing or high revving engines are forged.....ah, reconciliation in my head once more Sorry but your statement is wrong, perhaps you have come from only using race pistons - come across them in bike and car track racing and drag racing then assumed....... No offence meant and don't intend any ridicule but this one just "niggled" at what I understood to be fact!

Not sure what year but there was definitely a shift from say the 064 to the 066. The older saws typically had dumb one setting coils but the later ones would roll the ignition timing advance to almost zero at start and then start advancing the timing dramatically from a few thousand rpm. Get a strobe timer on the saw and shine it at the flywheel, that will tell you what's what!

Interesting - Rolls Royce used harmonic resonance in their turbines, hit them and measured the resonance in the metal to see if the castings were good.

I did have a vague feeling it was yours, it was running like a bag O S and not revving, the coil sorted it whilst you were supping Prosek in Croatia I believe!

The term is "Woodruff" and yours looks 100% fine. It is quite usual to get a couple of degrees movement in the flywheel and is of no concern. If the woodruff key is sheared or missing, then you have a real issue. The facts are the ignition seems to have gained advance - how........my bet is either the flywheel to coil gap is too large or the coil has gone bad. I did have a 361 in once where the thing would only rev to around 7Krpm and a new coil sorted it out. If you want to try to manually retard the ignition a few degrees then opening up the spark plug gap to 2 -3 times the original gap and opening up the coil the flywheel gap will do this but reckon your fault is probably the automatic retard circuit in the coil has failed giving full advance from low revs.

On the MS461, there is a strange alloy bracket that bolts across the crankcase mouth and goes right up in to the piston. There has been a lot of speculation on what it does but the clever money is on dome sort of diverter creating a strato effect on a relatively standard engine design. See pic below. I believe that the piston probably had a very fine crack in it after I tried to remove the central boss from the clutch after an employee of the saws owner didn't fix the e clip on correctly. The clutch grenaded and did the boss up super tight. I used pretty much all the force I could muster to shift it and ground it off in the end with a diamond burr after I couldn't shift it - it lasted a few months before letting loose. The stop I used was the Stihl one followed by rope when the damn thing didn't shift. Got it back together again and hope it lasts now, all the parts looked good and measured OK but it is damn difficult to tell if components have micro cracks or a bit of stress damage. I know a few tricks in checking engine components and agreed with the owner that the repair bill was worth paying to see if it lasted - the other option was a complete rebuild with new components which didn't make sense.

Imagine a lump of flapjack, dipped in araldite and left to bond to your chainsaw - that is bio oil that is! I have had to grind the stuff off the fins of cylinders with a 4mm drill before now - a right bar steward of a job! If you don't mind wrecking a good saw over a period of time, carry on with the oil!

When you use an oil that can dry and go hard, please don't knock on my door and expect me to service and clean it!

Nice Mac, the sap sounds like bio oil....spawn of Beelzebub.

And that's the way it goes sometimes, hopefully the next five on the bench will go smoothly and make up for one saw that just saps time. Been there and sympathise!

At this rate, the saw will be completely OEM Had a 372 set to over 14200 once, pulled like a train but wasn't very standard

As ADW said, the autotune likes a perfect engine and doesn't take wear and tear as a friend. Expect any wear in the engine to cause idling issues like this. It is a shame you cant raise the idle speed but guess it will breach the emissions the machine is certified to produce....give me a standard carb any day! If the machine marks on the piston have smoothed then it is usually best just to fit a new piston as the saw is a bit of a bitch to strip down in my humble opinion!

The saw had been serviced by me about a year ago and had tached it, found it to be over revving, pulled the limiter, backed it down and then re-tached it at around 12500. It than came back as the owners employee had not put the clutch e clip back on correctly and the clutch had grenaded. It was tached again and OK and after repair, even with the bar off, it didn't over rev so know it wasn't down to that. This work was months ago, one of the lower window supports has a crack in it and the crown has a fine crack running up the shattered skirt and across the crown that looks slightly older but with no signs of impact or poor piston stop use The piston was in good shape and the machine is also. I reckon the skirt shattered and it took out the strato flange - I had always wondered what damage would occur if this let loose - I know now! It may be a casting flaw, one of the lower skirt supports has a very slight honeycomb look about it and it is possible the piston just cracked - not a nice one but hope there are no little hidden surprises - worth a punt on a relatively cheap repair on a very decent ground saw.

Had a MS461 in from a long standing local customer, it felt like the crank had failed or there was a big piston issue. Took a look down the plug hole with the customer there and the crown of the piston looked cracked to me Had the machine apart and either the strato flange had busted shattering the piston or the piston skirt had shattered taking out the flange but it was a BIG mess. The screws were still in there and tight so the flange hadn't come loose. All the debris was cleared, the bore looked OK, no indentations in the squish band or ports and the crank ends were straight, the big end looked OK and the rod was incredibly straight. Fitted a new piston and flange and the saw now runs, am hoping there are no hidden nasty surprises that time will unleash but a risk worth taking.