spudulike

5mm is around the minimum bepth that is needed - the tie plates of the chain should run on the rails - worth putting the bar in a bench vice and puting a straight edge across the rails at 90 deg to the bar. The edge should sit square to the bar - if one rail is longer than the other then the longer of the two needs grinding down to square it up. Usual signs of this are cuts wandering off from square, cutters on one side of the chain wearing faster than the other and the reluctance to keep cutting in big cuts with the saw just going full bore with no cuting happening.

Check the bar isnt bent - take it off and put a straight edge against it! Is the oiler working OK - lack of oil can make the chain tighten and eventually come off - first sign is overheating and a brown coloured chain that is stiff. Do you put a wood chock under the bar tip and push the saw downwards when tightening the chain - it pretensions it and stops the bar moving on the first cut. Are you doing the bar nuts up tight enough? Larger Stihls use 1.6mm gauge - are you sure your chain is correct and not wishing to teach you to suck eggs but make sure the chain is the right pitch - 0.325 and 3/8" are the most common. Make sure you have the right one.....I have seen a 3/8th on a 0.325 sprocket before:001_rolleyes:

Just finished checking over Burrells rebuilt 372XP, pressure/vac and compression checked - all OK, thoroughly cleaned the carb and then reassembled and adjusted - all seems OK and just needs him to break.......sorry .....test it:thumbup: Also got a small Efco topper in that just wont run - just pops a bit. Pulled the carb and cleaned it and also noticed the primer bulb was ineffective, reassembled it, refitted the fuel filter on to the fuel line and cable tied it in place - tried firing it up at 11.00pm last night and got abused by the wife about gassing the garage out and making the walls shake - it isn't even ported:001_rolleyes: From the little bit I ran it, it seems a lot better but will run it up at a more sociable hour:thumbup: Trying desparately to get a day off and service my mower and fix a power jet washer that has no jet or wash - just pulses so probably a pressure switch in the water inlet feed!

The saw runs on AC current, it is the frequency that needs adjusting - it is 50hz when it rolls out of the socket but personally find 43.5hz is the way to go giving more torque and top end power:thumbup:

Sounds like me - want to get the timing wheel on the 357XP and start tweaking the ignition timing - thinking of fitting a modified air filter but thats another story......just got a pile of normal work to do:001_rolleyes:

Those aren't contacts Rich- just magnets and the laminated steel core of the coil that picks up the change in magnetism to generate the HT - worth making sure it is relatively clean but they don't do any contacting matey:001_tt2:

The black plug suggests that the saw is running rich - lean it up on the H screw - it should be around 1 turn out - if it is this then check the airfilter is clean and if it is, lean it down 1/6th turn and try it again. The coil may be on the way out but worth resetting the coil to flywheel gap by using a thin business card between the flywheel and coil and loosening the bolts and allowing the coil to stick to the magnet and doing them back up. Try that for starters:thumbup:

Think I am doing these in my sleep now - the wife is distressed:lol: Will let you know when it has landed:thumbup:

Electric chainsaws are a way to cut wood without pissing off the people next door but the main drawback is that you can't go out and haul wood in from friends, family, farmers, out of ditches etc if the timber is away from a power socket. If you are lucky enough to have people dump 4" to 10" wood on your doorstep then they are a good way to process a bit of domestic firewood. I have used the bosch saw - seemed OK to me - bit fiddly on chain adjustment but did the job OK.

Always amazes me that no one apears to take this inner cover off ever and then wonder why this bar and the leafspring break and why the chain brake is so mushy:001_rolleyes: Never mind, it is only a safety device - all my services get this part cleaned and repaired where necessary:thumbup: Including yours Ed!

Side cover off, remove inner plate held in place by two small T25 screws. Put the brake on, remove the brake band and spring - best wear safety specs. Lift the handle off on end of the tie bar along with the steel hinge mechanism from the other end of the tie bar. Remove all the crap that has built up - check the tie bar isnt broken in two - make sure the leaf spring is in one piece. Slide the steel hinge mech back in to the handle end and line th eholes up, thread the mechanism in the handle, back in to the side cover and locate both on to the tie bar, refit the brake band, refit the spring and then refit the cover - take the brake off before screwing it down as it catches on the front screw. When fitting the handle you will need to push the leaf spring downwards so it clips in to place and also make sure the semi circle bit on the inner side cover clips under the semi circular strip near where the handle goes in. If it doesn't clip in tight, I use a heatgun to bend the side cover top in a bit until it clips in good and tight - most won't know or care about this but the handle will flop from side to side if not corrected and is usually damaged by operators not fitting the cover on the saw properly:001_rolleyes:

I try to turn most kit round in two weeks - sometimes a tall order and never make idle promises - two weeks seems pretty fair to me - the local guys I know have had kit back in 12hrs before now - haven't they Matty:lol:

I did three saws that came in from three guys once Ben, Joe and I think Tom, the next three were Tom Dick and Harry and it has sort of stuck - these two were Bob and Bill - just makes identification easier for me:lol:

Busy weekend, the ported 084, 026 and MS200t went back ot theit owner, started on a couple of dodgy running MS200Ts that I had in, did the normal checks, found a dodgy crank seal on one - looked OK at first but when the crank was rotated, it dropped 2psi so fitted a new one along with clutch springs as two had failed. The other one had a broken brake band and tie bar pluss the inner side case had a big hole in it so cleaned out loads of wood chip and will fit new ones. Both carbs were boiled for an hour in the US cleaner and both idle perfectly now: -

It happens - the MS200 can be a fiddly machine to work on and have a few known issues but are good machines and pesonally find them pretty easy to work on and fix - it is the first few that are difficult - after that....no problems:thumbup:

TBH - not done one for a long while but Gardenkit (Barrie) has a post a page or two earlier on how it is removed. The worm drive pinnion is removed by pulling off the sprocket and clutch and that was the part I recently found to be faulty on one I had in!

I would say that any change to the air filter would need a tach tune to make sure the saw isnt over revving or running a bit rich. I did recently tach a MS200 without an air filter and then with and it made a 1,000 rpm difference at top revs. It all depends on how the 880 was tuned in the first place - if it was my £900 saw I know what I would do:thumbup:

If you get a more efficient filter that lets more air through then you must tune for fourstroking at the top end and also use a tach to log max revs - luckily with a muffler mod, it is damn easy to hear the thumping at the top end:thumbup:

Sounds a little less conservative than Martins fruitcake but still acceptable as payment collateral:thumbup:

Sometimes the oiler worm drive arm rotates around the plastic gear it sits on - it should be a semi tight fit and only slip if the worm drive locks up - fitting a new one is relatively easy if it is this:thumbup:

I get the feeling that you will see this saw on my bench soon - whats the wifes cake baking like Alec:lol: Ah - just read it is fixed...all good!

Just breaking out the CD of whale noises, waves crashing on beaches and....stuff it Kashmir - Led Zeppelin......lets rock - full port job, muff mod and tach it to destruction:thumbup:

Simplest way to check the flow is to run the saw up and tach it with the standard filter - repalce it with a special one and see if it lifts the top end revs - if it does then it will have a positive effect. Funny - I was thinking about doing this on my 357XP - well...it has been ported, pop up piston, muffler mod....got to tweak the ignition timing and why not do the air filter:lol: