spudulike

You can pop off the top cover and the air filter then rev the engine and push the throttle closed with the carb mechanism rather than the throttle and that should tell you if you have a throttle linkage issue.

The only thing that concerns me is that a 100:1 mix is all well and good but the amount of oil is so small, you are more likely to cock it up. I would always want to over egg than under egg the oil in a mix. Lowestoft FC used to sponsor the Amsoil Supercat powerboat and very nice it was to!

All two strokes can suffer in this way but the 372 bottom end is a pretty tough cookie. Not seen many issues with it but you can get slight air leaks on the clutch side but a new seal generally fixes them. Worth getting the saw pressure and vacuum checked if it has just started happening but you may get over it with a carb retune although this may just possibly mask other issues. I have found the XT version to sometimes have an unstable idle and personally think the coil fitted on these machines had a different advance coming off idle than the earlier XP version. It can backfire on starting which supports this theory.

I went to school with his cousin, she looked a bit like him as well!

Sorry, I missed your reply but am glad you sorted it. I have found the radial seals pushed in to the main bearings on the clutch side of the 346, 550 and 560 do have a tendency to start leaking after a few years. Glad you got it sorted and you are happy now. Thanks for letting us know.

Nice......but....back on subject....if you are using one of those "one shot" stihl options...just use 50:1 as it is damn easy as long as you use that fuel in around two weeks. Personally, I don't get through that much mix, even when I was running the business so used a small measurement cup and a 5l petrol can and measured around 500ml of fuel at a time and just "over egged" it a bit to get around 45:1 mix which worked in my workshop. As I said, it depends how much mix you use and how you mix it. 50:1 is fine and it is what the OEM recommends, just ensure a strato engine gets semi or full synthetic as they use less fuel meaning less oil to lube the main bearings in this type of machine. Keep the Red Stihl for older machines. Everyone will have his own methods and old mix kills two strokes so keep it fresh and only mix what you need for the next week or two.

Tricky, if it was just a weak idle then, if all else is OK, there is a fix that ADW and I have discussed before. Something I had worked out and he had "developed" at the same time with no connection....that may work. See if he can sort it. On the MS201/540XP...the MS201 is easier to work on and reasonably poky in the Mtronic version, the 540XP feels good and has the nice double clip for strop and belt but is a bitch to strip. I don't climb so have no views on that side of things.

I had an Euc for many years and hacked it back year after year at any time of year to the point the trunk was some 10" and the height was around 8' with no issues at all. The thing that killed it was the new owner of our house did zero maintenance on it, the tree went up to 40' tall and he had it down in the end! Oh....I got the logs and burned it...damn hot, lots of oil in that wood!!

Hi is in the public eye and I would think they are wanting and negotiating an apology from him and if none is forthcoming, they should sack him otherwise, they set a precedence.....as my old Financial Director boss said on more than one occasion. Ah, this brings back my corporate past!! Be interesting to see what happens.

Yup, 50:1 is all you need but I tend to give it 45:1 as that is what I do and rarely run much for any prolonged use now. My choice but 50:1 is all you need and don't use it after storing it for weeks, the fuel destroys the oil over time.

I used to work for a €38 billion company, you could not say anything detrimental about the company to anyone on social media, customers, workers etc, if you did, you were reprimanded or sacked as it was tied up in your contract. So, if Linekars contract states he can't express political views....end of, no argument, he signed it and took the £££ no argument!

With a fully synthetic oil, 50:1 should be all you need for a well running machine. You could use 45:1 as a bit of safety and depending on how you make up your mix and the accuracy of that method but if you use too much, you may end up with too much carbon build up so 50:1 should work as the manufacturer intended or 45:1 if you want that little more safety. A little note, for Gods sake don't say that 45:1 weakens the mixture as we have discussed this at length and don't want to hear it all again. I would rather go down the fish based responses again......perhaps I should have said for "Cods" sake!!!!

Best news I have heard in years, perhaps we will get something better on TV than football now!!

Best see if ADW can do it as I am not doing much now. Your dealer has a bit of a "scatter gun" approach to spares! When the machine is started and you give the saw a bit of a feathering of the throttle and a few big blips to get the heat up, what does the idle do when the throttle is let off. Is it a rapid stop, a weak idle that dies or a decent idle that peters out over 30 seconds or longer?

My tuppence.....same as ADW. Your symptoms sound very much like the impulse line has come off and, like him, have seem the brass nipple come out. It is possible the dealer found this and put it back with a bit of glue and has blocked it? Other than that, a machine that age may have a bit of wear on the piston and ring. These early machines did suffer from ring wear and have had to replace them on a couple of machines as it makes the idle unstable and prone to stall. Did the dealer give you the CST printout from plugging in the autotune? If he did, show us a pic as you can tell the running hours and more importantly, the autotune fuel settings which will show you if the machine is compensating for an air leak.

I was impressed when I saw it on Dragons Den but don't think they got funding...can't understand why.

The one on the top is basically raising and dropping the needle on the slider valve assembly so it is adjusting the idle adjustment. The other one is the High speed adjustment and is for mid to high speed running. If your HL94 is not revving out correctly, changing the fuel filter is the best first thing to do...plus cleaning the air filter and if this doesn't cure it (it often does), try adjusting the H speed screw (anticlockwise). I would also strongly suggest checking the carb internal gauze strainer as it often gets clagged up with fine chip.

So what do people use to seal between the splash back and basin or bath, between the shower enclosure and base or between the bath side and tiled floor? Got me baffled that one

Fit your own replacement panels, it really isn't that difficult. Dose the seal with WD40, run a blunt knife around the rubber seal, not to cut it but to lubricate it. Purchase a beading tool that you slide in to the beading and twist to pop it out...Longest one first. Pop them all out and take out the panel, fit the new panel...spacers as necessary (beware on doors that need to be "toe and heeled"), pop the beading back in and all is good. Lots of vids on Youtube but I fitted all my windows and doors so that's where this came from. Your porch is fine single glazed...it is a porch....in reality you have a 4 foot double glazing gap with the porch!

Yup, my wife said that today, sunflower hearts do indeed hit the mark. I have also seen them getting excited over clover in the grass as well. The point is that if you want to see Gold finch, you need to supply Niger seed, sunflower hearts or support a natural environment that will support their typical food source.

If you want to see Goldfinch, put out Niger/Nyger seed. I am guessing the two names are because of other connotations! Goldfinch can't resist it and it always hits the spot. Long Tailed Tits like a quality fat ball. Get plenty of both where we are.

Well at least you have learnt a bit about saws and their fuel systems. The simple way of testing a line is to plug or clamp one end and to use the Mityvac on "pressure" and see if it leaks. It will only test for integrity of the line and not the overall condition but it does prove if the line is holed or not. Sounds like you are getting there.

The correct part number is 158927-9 and you can purchase here, L&S are a good supplier so don't take the "not in stock" for they can't get them in. Generally it means that they will put an order in to the main UK Makita distributor and it will be days away. This seems to be the only OEM part available : - Clutch Drum Comp .325 Ea43/Ps Makita OEM No. 158927-9 | L&S Engineers WWW.LSENGINEERS.CO.UK Clutch Drum Comp .325 Ea43/Ps Genuine Makita Part OEM No. 158927-9

As HTB said, the best is OEM, then Meteor, then Hyway then...the rest. I have tried Farmtec and did a little porting on it and the plating is pretty thin and soft whereas the OEM, Meteor and Hyway are much harder and good depth. I had a quick look on the Bay and there isn't much available apart from US listings. Piston wise, the, the same applies. Meteor are pretty much as good as OEM...Caber rings....great pistons, Hyway are also pretty good then the likes of VEC and Golf will be OK....I believe both are Indian and from the same factory. I would take the top end off and see what it looks like. If you can get a pic up, it will show us what we are working with. The basic rules are that the bore needs to be free of scores......a score is where the plating has been worn through to the aluminium bore in a thin vertical line and not to be confused with the aluminium transfer that the melted piston has deposited on to the bore. Roughly speaking, I would reckon I managed to save around 90% of seized saws that came in to me. One did fail a few years later....the guy ran over it with his landy!!

You could clean up the cylinder and fit a new piston. There has been a fair bit written on this subject on a number of chainsaw threads on this site.