spudulike

There's an offer - £25 for 30 mins work and a part price of £17, that makes it £42 and a bargain in my books...rip his arm off at that price. I bow to someone's greater experience and think I had better take a well earned rest

Just checked, the 550 cap wont fit the 346, the initial part of the cap is too large for the oil hole although the 346 cap seems to fit the 550 but wouldn't recommend any modification of the alloy 346 casting to accept the 550 cap.

Just fix the spring issue and it should sort out the other idling issues, the autotune may need a reset though!

Mainly used for those in the sales process, knowing others history, companies and gaining an angle on selling! not had much use for it lately!

Good luck with it Pete, just treat your customers how you would want to be treated yourself and it should work out fine.

I have only lost a couple of bits of kit and take it personally if I cant get something working as it should and guess that is a big part of the equation - having the aptitude, enjoying it and a "nothing can beat me" attitude.

Well I am sure that isn't the case but the point is there and any father should tell their kids how to sort out savings, pension, mortgage etc and how all this stuff works but unfortunately, no one seems to understand it or care! I did a bit from my mid 20s and it helped me start my own business from being made redundant from the corporate world and that is the point - start early and have a plan!

Good topic and anyone that says they will wait till they get there is a bit like putting the brakes on after you have hit the lorry in front of you! The sensible option is either to swing between being an active member of the front line team to actually managing the business, marketing, doing the quotes, assessing the jobs and overseeing the work rather than actually doing it. The other option - have another business plan in mind, something you enjoy, are good at and people will pay you a reasonable sum for without totally shagging out your body. Another plan - be damn clever from 20 years of age with accumulating wealth and investing it wisely so at late middle age, work isn't in the equation.

Yup, saws will go electric more and more. There are constraints on how much HP they make at the moment and that means that the current raft are in the MS150/MS201 area but that will change as time goes on. "20 years"......I reckon 5-10 years to replace up to 60cc and only the big hitters 70-120cc taking longer for the manufacturers to overcome on weight and power source issues. The technology will mirror bike manufacturers ditching two stroke and cant see it going four stroke but battery power is probably the way forward unless someone creates a sort of two/four stroke hybrid that doesn't use two stroke oil. Possible that we will be forced to use alkalyte fuel in the future but the two strokes we use now will fade out in our lifetimes!

I have no doubt that the manufacturers will hold on to their diagnostic kit with vehemence same as the car industry until forced to fit OBD2 ports in cars allowing independents the chance to make a living and diagnose most sensor based faults on modern cars.

OK, I am an old fart, but the good thing about being an old fart is the history you have seen........I used to ride bikes, the superbikes of the late 80s were pretty much copies of the GP bikes of the day so Yamaha had the RD500 and Suzuki had the RG500. Both bikes were V4 two strokes and went like stink and unfortunately, made a stink so the bike manufacturers came away from making them and majored on four strokes and voila, the GP series of two strokes were overtaken by the four strokes of Moto GP! There was an Italian superbike manufacturer that thought they had a perfect solution, the manufacturer was Bimota and they created a very light and powerful fuel injected V4 two stroke to overcome US emission laws. In short, it had many issues, bankrupted the company and even sadder, it was found that the injection wasn't the issue but the dodgy crankcases were! Time will tell if fuel injection is the answer. On a technical note - fuel injection takes away any inlet duration timing constraints as the duration is set by the electronics rather than the position and height of the inlet port assuming air and fuel is fed straight in to the crankcases rather than the cylinder. Interesting development!

Probably best to fit a new modified one. Just text or email me and can sort something out.

Sorry, no. I wasn't being a smart arse BTW, thought you may be interested in the machine!

Not a problem, either PM me or contact me on [email protected] and we can get the ball rolling .

That muffler has been modded before it did that. Was it one of mine?

I think the coil may be a wild goose chase as the symptoms you describe sound more carb related to me.

Got a fully working one in good order!

That looks like the uprated part to me. It does fail if you like dropping the saw down on the strop hard but the part is relatively cheap and fitting, fiddly but 1-2 hours. Around £70 to do.

Answering these questions just shortens the fun of recommending anything between a McCulloch 335 to a MS880! Never really liked the MS362 much, 560 XP is a bit nicer.

The most common issue will be with the carb but it is possible that compression is dropping off with heat after use so measure the compression when it has lost power and expect 140+ and if this is OK them most likely a carb issue but don't rule out coil, HT lead and plug as previously mentioned.

Can we confirm that it has a new OEM kit on it or some other Chinese poop and it is also worth making sure the piston was fitted the correct way round!

Either both carbs are faulty or you have HT issues. The crank seals may be leaking but these tend to give idle issues and don't tend to leak that much. The HT lead can breakdown where it goes under the pump, seen that before. Only seen one coil go, tend to be pretty reliable. You can test the lead with a spark tester. Jumping the spark over the testers bigger gap shows any insulation breakdown in the HT lead. Worth changing the plug and checking the tank breather as they can get partially blocked. Carbs can give issues and these C1q carbs need a few specific tests to ensure they work well and not just a new kit fitted.

Most likely that the metering arm needs a tweak, try lifting it around 1/2 mm. Worth pulling the H&L screw and blasting done WD40 or carb cleaner down there and wind them out around 1 & 1/4 turns, should be one turn but if it is lacking fuel....

You can split the engine part from the gearbox side and the clutch will then be accessible. I think you access the bolts from under the starter cover and was fairly obvious when I did one some time ago. Sounds like the clutch has seized up.

Damn, that would be one big otter to have a liver that large.