GardenKit

Nice one Bob, how far do you have to travel from Mull to get yours?

Thats good news Dan, glad you are sticking with Aspen. I cant really see that the issue was Aspen at all, as it just cant cause damage, still it does'nt really matter as you are happy.

Thanks for that well reasoned opinion Andy.

I see, or rather I didn't as I didn't have me specs on. Thought you wrote 'dicks' not 'ducks'

You lost me there mate.

Shame about the porting Richard, still you tried. (thats more than I have!) First thing to look at on the Kwak is the exhaust spark arrestor.

We might be up as far as Evercreech Jon, as my brother moved there from Wales this week. Its not far to pop up over the Mendips, so you never know...

Happy Christmas Jon, to you and your family.

Believe me guys, I would rather be fixing whats broke, or better still, servicing what isn't, rather than Pat testing. But it has to be done, and now its behind me for 12 months. TBH, its the first time I have done it properly in 10 years, but now its done and documented it will be much easier in the future as some items will only need doing every 2 years. Just short of 100 items tested in all, but only around 20 actual power tools.

I think its a real shame that none of your local dealers appear to have wanted to take on Aspen, they are without doubt missing out on a profit opportunity. I am however interested to hear your opinion of Aspen, now that you have been using it for a while (obviously leaving out the supply issue). Would you be a regular user of it if you had a local supply, and if so, why?

All manufacturers of 2 stroke machines are having to meet strict emission controls and are redesigning 2 strokes to be cleaner burning, usually with a 'buffer' charge of clean air between the inlet and exhaust. They give them different names and 2-mix is Stihl's take on it. Yes they do burn much more efficiently than old generation machines and the exhaust gases are much less toxic. But do they do away with the need for Aspen? Firstly, there is no NEED for Aspen. All engines will run quite happily on a FRESH pump fuel 2T mix. (some do say they run just a little better on Aspen) But petrol is petrol, wether in a new 2-mix, or an old 2 stroke, and is subject to oxidation and ageing, which causes staleness, poor starting and loss of power, as well as possible long term damage to the fuel system (bearing in mind that the new carburettors are much less tolerant to stale fuel). If you use your fuel quickly (within 30 days) then pump petrol is satisfactory. Aspen on the other hand will stay fresh for up to 5 years. The other benefit of Aspen is the very low rates of benzene, sulphur and other nasties in the exhaust gases. If a 2-mix engine burns pump petrol cleanly, it will burn Aspen even cleaner, so there is still a benefit. In my opinion the benefits of Aspen are as important as ever, even with new engine technology.

I thought it might have Andy:001_smile:

IMO bearings love a bit of grease. The ones I see failed are always bone dry.

Sorry.thats a bit vague. As Landrover 101 says, could be plug, or coil, or it could be stop control wiring, or flywheel magnets, or HT lead. Have you done any tests? also, is it actually an 07, or an 070 076 etc? I'm also a bit confused by your name, I initially thought that 'chainsaw surgeon' meant that you mended chainsaws, but I am guessing you doctor trees with a chainsaw?

The infuriating part of it is that it has to be done to validate the insurance, but I have only found three little problems today. But I suppose rectifying those could have averted a disaster.

I cleared the bench yesterday, just a handfull of machines on the premises waiting for spares, and few more waiting for the owners to pick them up. It always goes quiet the week before christmas which suits me fine as I can get bang up to date and hopefully do some 'housekeeping' The task for today and tomorrow is the annual 'PAT' testing. This is the testing of all portable electric equipment and is a requirement of the insurance, as well as HSE. Portable equipment is anything that plugs in to a 13 amp socket, so not only drills and grinders, but extension leads , adaptors, chargers, phones etc. Its amazing how many of these we have around the place, I've been on it all day, and tested over 50 appliances, and it looks like there will be as many tomorrow. Its mundane, but it has to be done.

Be carefull, cus if it has spun, it will almost certainly have damaged the taper, and if that taper is not perfect it wont stay tight for long. Also, under no circumstances must the taper be lubed.

Thats bad luck Rich, its so easy to overlook things, especally if interupted. I sometimes spend as much time rechecking things as doing the job. That mistake is likely going to cost you a new flywheel, ouch:thumbdown:

Yep, i agree with Spud on this one,can't see it being a clutch problem from your description MDT

The most common failure on the 136 saw is that the little impulse hose perishes and splits. 5 minutes work to get to it behind the carb mounting plate and the part is around £4.00. Whole job takes less than 30 minutes. Of course there could be other problems, especially as it has not been used, but defo worth checking this out first IMO. (see my post on Spuds bench thread a few days ago)

Just the same as your modified plug Steve, when used as primary spark tester, just shinier and loads more expensive:biggrin: But it can also be used as secondary spark, so you can observe the spark intensity while running, thats quite useful.

I'm not into this porting lark, so am going to change the subject briefly. Yesterday I posted about compression testers and the need to have an idea what to expect and use the gauge to back up diagnosis. A similar issue recently arose using my spark tester. I suspected that a saw had a duff coil, so put my simple spark tester on, between the HT lead and earth to use as the main spark, but there was no spark at all. So I ordered a new coil. When the coil arrived I tried to start it once again before fitting the coil and it started, but not well and soon failed, which still indicates a failing coil but does lead to slight doubt as to the correct diagnosis. So i decided to invest in the Stihl ZAT3 tester that I have been toying with the idea of buying for several years. This tester has an easily adjustable electrode gap so you can have a small gap of around 2mm to get a good fat spark when running as a secondary spark when earthed through a plug. or can be increased to around 6mm to prove the primary spark. Using it to test my suspect coil proved that the coil could only generate sufficient power to jump a 3mm gap, any more than that and no spark was produced. The result was the same, the saw still needed a coil, but I was able to give the customer a bit more info than just " yer coils f**ked* i will still use the simple tester for initial tests as its cheap and I tend to get through 2 or 3 a year. Will keep the Stihl for special occasions!

There is no reason not to run your saw on Aspen, and no reason why it should not run. Aspen fuel is highly recommended by Husqvarna and most saws throughout northern europe will be running on Aspen or some other alkylate fuel. I am obviously concerned over your initial failure and am interested to know more details of the failure. You say it was replaced, presumably under warranty, so was any reason for the failure given by the dealer or Husqvarna?

This wonderful thread of Spud's has often mentioned testing kit of various sorts, which it seems, many of you have then bought and added to your tool kit. This is very good practice, but be warned that test results can be misleading and are no substitute for a general knowledge and understanding. I mentioned on a post a few nights ago that my compression gauge was reporting faulty results. Since then I have bought another, but it got me thinking. My elderly Draper gauge had always given results around what I expected, but a couple of months ago I bought a new Sealey gauge to back up the Draper and to be able to double check results. Initially I found the results from both new and old gauges to be consistant within a psi or two, and made the new one my regular tester. But in the last couple of weeks I was getting some results which just did not seem true, everything seemed too low, even when machines were running OK. So I compared the two gauges again, but which was right? i made an adaptor so I could plug them in to my compressor, and they both recorded the same results on the gauge, but using them on the same (new) engine and the Sealey was around 30 psi low. I traced the fault to the non return valve in the plug hole end of the hose. The old draper held its pressure in the hose and could be released by pushing the centre of the schrader valve , but the new sealey was not holding pressure in the hose. The Sealey does not use a standard schrader valve but has a non removable, non serviceable valve which was leaking. This effectively combined the volume of the hose with the unswept volume of the the combustion chamber, therefore lowering the compression. The Sealey is now replaced with a Gunson Hi Tune, which appears to be identical in manufacture to the old draper one (except the clock face) and most importantly has a reliable (and replaceable) schrader valve.

I am glad you guys had an epic adventure, sorry I did'nt make it this time. It's 30 yrs since I last went to the Tuckers, maybe its my memory (or my colour blindness) but I don't remember the cider being that colour. Little wonder that Matt baulked at his orange juice sunday morning.