spudulike

Nice to see someone planning ahead, the younger you do it, the more time it has to grow and support your old age!

The labour comes to circa £100 and on discussion with Josh, have decided to fit a new sprocket and muffler as both were pretty gone. Both parts will take a bit more time to fit and the saw to test but will leave the price at that to keep it realistic. I tend to find most customers are more interested in getting decent and effective service rather than screwing down the cost to nothing.

The 181SE is an old school 80cc Husqvarna with no decomp - they are a bit tasty when pulling over!

That is all the FLUID in the machine, it needs drying out so take the muffler off, take the plug out and pull the little bugger over in all positions - upright, on its sides, vertical etc and pull it over hard. Put the plug back and pull it over softly and see if it will spin. Next we can start on how to get a flooded oily saw started!

If the saw will spin over freely with no plug in then there are no mechanical issues so checking clutches, flywheels etc is pointless if the issue only happens when the plug is in and doesn't when the plug is out. The only thing the plug is doing is sealing the cylinder combustion chamber. Either the plug is too long and is acting as a piston stop or there is fluid in the engine or thick oil in the bore making far too much compression.

The muffler looks similar to the old L65 or 298XP and probably many others of that time. The best options are to take a similar one and mod it, repair the one you have or to make a bespoke one. None of these is particularly easy so good luck!

It was actually 30 seconds and was making a cup of tea and reading the newspaper whilst doing it

Nope as it will be connected to the carb. Quite like the idea of the piston cupping the oil/shyte though. I guess it may puddle there and then fall to the bottom of the case once righted and then it would blast up the transfers when pulled over and voila - hydro lock in the top end! That is why I said turn it over slowly first to see if it would turn rather than giving it a full pull. The laying it on its side or standing it on its front so it runs out may work! Funny that a 10 minute workshop job takes a week on here

Looks very nice but without some serious porting, has pretty much the same performance as a standard saw! Stubby - show him yours

Try taking the plug out, taking off the recoil (Starter) cover and turn the flywheel round slowly with your fingers and see if there are any tight spots. There will be some attraction between the magnets and the coil at top dead centre so expect that but it will be smooth. If this is OK, Turn the saw upside down with the plug out and turn the engine over via fingers and flywheel and see if any liquid comes out of the sparkplug hole. If it is still free, put the plug in but very loosely and turn it over the right way up using the same method and slowly. If it is OK then do the plug up and turn it over again. You should be able to turn the saw over very slowly even with the plug in and even a slight hydro lock will give if the rotation is slow enough. See where this gets you.

Been working on this saw today, first impression out of the box - exhaust bolt had snapped off and the top cover was cocked over at a jaunty angle. A quick inspection and the top front AV mount wasn't siting right and had a screw sticking in the middle of it. I took the exhaust off, squeezed the AV back in to place and fitted the correct retaining bung. The back of the exhaust was pretty shagged after it had been rattling on one bolt so needs a new one, the bolt was replaced. The sprocket is pretty worn so needs a new one. Anyway, on to the running issues. When I read the description, I thought carb issues or accelerator pump. I did check the new coil and found it had a massive coil to flywheel gap so set it correctly. The fuel line and filter were checked and were OK, the bore looked OK and compression was punchy. The carb was stripped, new diaphragms were fitted, gauze filter was OK and the accelerator pump was significantly worn. The low speed welch plug had a slight leak so was resealed. There was no gasket between the manifold carb plate and the carb so reckon the impulse and inlet could have been leaking a bit. I made one as I didn't wasn't to wait for a new one. Parts now changed (Bar the sprocket and muffler) and the saw idles and revs out as it should, I reckon the coil gap and accelerator pump were the main running issues.

Mmmm, now that's what I call a business plan, wonder if he is up for it, reckon with a little more practice he could do it in 20 mins. Strange thing is I have only done around three of these and wonder about the reliability of the saw if he has "done hundereds" of these!

You sure it isn't a 181SE - now they are a bit brutish to pull over. A little girlie can pull these saws over, if it spins over with the plug out but not with it in then it has to be some sort of hydro lock in the bottom or top end of the saw unless the plug is too long....this could run and run

All I can think is that the crankcase is full of fuel as a 35cc saw should be relatively easy to pull over!

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!