spudulike

Like you said - easily done and I value my eyebrows:lol:

Good point - I am sure many believe a saw will run on full choke unless told other wise - prehaps the saw is just flooded:confused1: The piston looks ok - maybe a little new but clean enough!

IMO the piston looks good - the lines are turning marks from manufacture. I can't make out the cylinder, bearing in mind this will be the inlet side, it doesn't look too bad - the pitting may be bits of carbon held in place by the fuel oil? Is the crown of the piston shiney and clean, if so it has probably had a new piston, if it is brown and has carbon on it, it will have done some work. To find out why it isn't starting you have to find out what is missing - spark, compression or fuel? When you take the plug out after trying to start it, is the plug wet? If you flick it at a piece of paper, do you get a spattering of fuel off it? If you turn the saw upside down with the ignition off and pull it over, does fuel run or spatter out of the plug hole? If you hold the saw and drop it just holding the starter, does the saw fall downwards fast or does it fall slowly especially when saw reaches top dead centre on each compression stroke. There you go - a bit more to do, what has the previous owner said, things do go wrong - a dried out carb can have a sticking needle arm making it a pig to start - had it all in my time!

Firstly check the spark, pop the plug out and put it in the cap, earth it on the cylinder head away from the plug hole (I have had flames 1' long:001_rolleyes:) and pull the engine over - you should get a nice fat spark. Turn the machine upside down with the stop button ON, and pull the engine over, look for fuel running or spattering out of the plug hole. Take the exhaust off and inspect the front side of the piston - it should be wet and light grey with no vertical scores or marking. Take the air filter off and make sure the choke flap closes when the choke is on, push the choke in and open the throttle - listen for a slight click as soon as you open the throttle, it will only happen once and is the fast idle start circuit clicking off. If all this checks out, warm the plug with the gas hob or plumbers torch and replace it. The engine should have a spark, it should dampen the plug in 5 pulls with the choke on and flood it in 15, you should get the engine to fire and die immediately with the choke on within 5 pulls and should then start within 2 pulls with the choke off. Spark, compression and fuel is what the engine needs to run. let us know how you get on with these basic checks - try to start the saw with the decomp out - it will raise the compression and should help it start!

The darker fuel is usually where the petrol has destroyed the properties of the two stroke oil. Red mix will go the colour of whiskey when it is old. As others have said, pull the exhaust off and look at the front of the piston, it should be a nice smooth and wet fuel covered grey colour with the rings nice and shiney, any vertical scores and the ring having similar scores and you have purchased a dud:thumbdown:

Sorry - closest fit is a Husqvarna 394/395 and 2100CD but both have 13mm wrist/gudgeon pin sizes and have open sides - drawn a blank on this one!

Sometimes when you are new to this it is worth taking the H screw out - around two turns and you will hear the fourstroking in abundance - then when you turn the H screw in, you will hear the saw clean up on the top end and the fourstroking become les and less, the art is in making sure it is still there and the saw isn't over revving. If you are not happy with the plug colour, take the screw out 1/4 turn and try another cut and see what colour the plug is.

Exactly my view - long knackered chains = grinder, small Picco chains = file!

Sounds a little like your metering arm is a little low and isn't letting fuel through when it should - could be that the diaphragm is a little worn and is causing it. I would pop the carb off and give it a clean up, take the metering arm up by around 0.1 - 0.3mm - if you but a flat edge across the top of the carb, it will be easier to judge. Check the gauze filter under the single screw cover - you may find fine crud in there. Whitst doing this, check your fuel filter and make sure your fuel pipe hasnt gone very soft plus make sure your tank breather is OK. There is a slight possibillity the coil has a problem but sounds less likely. When the saw is hot and it won't start, try releasing the fuel tank cap and replacing it and see if that helps, if it does, it points toward a plugged breather. Let us know how you get on!

It will break the glaze off the grinding wheel allowing the wheel to grind metal rather than just heat it up. Tool makers will break the glaze on grinders to give the same effect.

Well you've got the first one - pulse the grinder on the cutter rather than use a single prolonged grind, this stops the cutter overheating. The second pointer is to break the glaze that inevitably forms on the grinding wheel. To do this you need a diamond file and just brush it over the grinding wheel - you will be impressed with the increase in sparks produced after doing this. Those two simple things will make a grinder work 1000 times better:thumbup:

Think I may stick to my Jonsered 630 - it will still be running in 20 years time......and tuneable with a screwdriver:thumbup:

Flippin heck - that was easy......NEXT:lol:

Sounds like the chip needs to be re-mapped:001_rolleyes: looks like I will need to swap the £0.50p screwdriver for £1500 laptop and ancillary software/hardware to fix saws now - what a life, they call this progress!

Good advice - I have had a 1 foot flame leap out of the plug hole before now when testing the spark - gave me a bit of a surprise - the hair grows back after a while so no harm done:001_rolleyes:

Sounds like it is slightly lean on the L screw - does it improve once the saw is warm? Get your dealer to give it a tweak - assuming you can do such things with these new saws:001_rolleyes:

Ding Dong:thumbup:

Take the plug out, turn the machine upside down and pull the saw over a few times - chances are puddled fuel will run out, if not let us know. Dry the plug, a gas hob works as does a plumbers torch. Test the spark by pluging the plug in to the cap and earthing the base and pull the saw over - a spark should be present. Replace the plug, if the saw kicked out lots of fuel when upside down, put the saw on fast idle but NOT choke. If there was no fuel present then put the saw on full choke. Take the decomp OFF and give it a few brisk pulls. A saw needs compression, fuel and spark, if the saw is missing one of these, you need to work on the missing element.

I am assuming your chainbreak handle is the plastic one, if it is the metal one, just bend it a bit....after checking the AV mounts:lol: If it is the plastic one, pull off the carrying handle and see if it bounces in to a bent shape as soon as the bolts are taken out. Had a large Stihl a bit like this and had to straighten the handle in a bench vice. Think it had been dropped out of a tree! Almost wrenched the bench off the wall:001_rolleyes:

Been here before, it is an old tale, the lads out in the trees all day swear by their files, the techs behind a bench all day swear by their grinders. The truth - IMO, small saws like the MS200T with small cutters are easy to sharpen by hand and it takes no time at all - same can be said for most chains that have just gone a little dull! When you get to 24"+ with full chisel and the saw has hit the dirt or a nail etc, a grinder is a Godsend as it will bring each cutter back in to spec again. You can't grind out in the field unless the grinder is battery operated but you do get a good even finish when one is used correctly - I am not saying this can't be achieved by using a file but I find it easier to take 1mm off a large number of buggered cutters with a grinder! Those that say the grinder will blue the cutter or produce an unwanted grinding flash are not using the tool correctly. I use a relatively cheap grinder but have a few techniques that ensure the cutter doesn't get overly hot and stops the thin metal flash forming on the cut. Like most tools - get to know how to use them correctly and they will reward you.

Use this - http://s30387.gridserver.com/partsDiagrams/Husqvarna%20285.pdf get the part number and do a search for the part - the saws are getting a bit long in the tooth now - you may find pulling parts from the US is the best option.

There have been a few instances of chainsaw carvers seizing their chainsaws due to using them at part throttle. Two options - tune for a rich H setting and use 3/4s throttle or tune normally and use full throttle - most will use full throttle when cutting.

Yes Jon, I know you want it done...I don't mind tuning up my saws and had a fair few issues with this one - mostly carb related but got there in the end. There are probably others better qualified in the tuning field that will have greater knowledge of tuning saws than me - I know the theory but havent done much of this type of work but if you get stuck, I can give it a port, reset the squish and sort the muffler but I don't profess to be an expert at tuning!

Suggestion - get a dremmel, grind out one of the two location teeth on the Ryobi one and fit:thumbup: or am I missing something:confused1:

Seems like forever since I ported & muffler modded my 346XP (50cc), after recently replacing the diaphragm and taching to 14,600rpm, I had the chance to use it on some unseasoned beech that came my way. It had already been ringed up but needed to noodle it to get it in to liftable lumps to get it in to the car. It is blindingly fast and has a fair bit of stonk now - keep the revs up and it flies through the wood - nice job I think! Will promise to get a vid soon:thumbup: