pleasant

300 tanks of fuel is an awful lot for a lightweight domestic spec saw like an ms231. That's 15 years or so use for the average specified user cutting a few logs a couple of times a year for their wood burner

Don't mess around. Honda carbs are notoriously fussy with anything other than fresh, clean fuel. If fuel has been left in the carb for an extended period sure as eggs is eggs you will have carb issues. These horizontal Honda engine carbs are really easy to remove and replace...easy access and nothing difficult. A 10mm socket and long nose pliers to remove the rods (take pics first if not sure) and off. New carb (genuine Honda) around £60-£80.......you will pay near that for just a carb clean with no guarantee it cures the issue. Just get a carb on it and be sure it will work first time out the trap. Give me the engine numbers and I will tell you what part number to get.

I remember talking to my Husqvarna rep years ago when we were main dealers for that brand I said why do you provide grease holes and Stihl don't? He said 'if you don't grease the bar sprockets through the little grease hole on Husqvarna bars from day one, then never do. If you decide to from day one, then continually do it....it's either or, but never both.

It's an industry rule of thumb that the ideal bar length is roughly one third of the saws cc's So, your 50cc 550 ideal bar length would be (around) 16" certainly no more than 18"

You are correct. Always mix according to the oils recommended dilution ratio...not what old handbooks state.

Like i said....thats because a 20 year old mountfield isnt a modern mountfield

Releasing the opc lever (operator presence control) does not 'stall' the engine. It operates the same way as a petrol car, by cutting out the the ignition circuit to the spark plug. Stalling the engine is done by artificially richening the fuel by effectively putting the choke on an already warm or hot engine.....not good for any engine. 2 or 4 stroke. As and aside.....it would have to be a pretty awful b&q job, if you consider a modern mountfield a step up as they are shite nowadays

I collect classic and rare chainsaws. If you want to pm me i can give you an idea of value. But condition can be more important than rarity. I may be interested in what you have to add to my collection

That engine is fitted with a manually operated choke via the throttle lever on the upper handle. The choke should 'flick off' once the throttle lever is moved back to the max revs position via that spring to the upper left of the pic. The plastic it is attached to on one end of the spring is the choke butterfly. You should be able to observe that plastic 'lever' flicking off when you move the throttle control off the choke position. If it doesn't move, then the choke is staying on whilst in use and will run rich which will cause the plug to foul. If not sure it is flicking off when the throttle lever is moved away from the choke position, simply remove the air filter outer cover and the filter itself and observe the choke butterfly through the intake hole inside the filter casing. If the butterfly doesn't move when the choke is taken off, then that is no doubt your issue...however in 25 years on working with Briggs engines like yours, I would be surprised. Yours is an early model hayter and there should a small slotted screw to the front of the carb that will control the fuel richness. It is actually on the front of the carb underneath that pic of the governor assembly. A small long flat bladed screwdriver is what your need to adjust the fuel flow via that screw. Anti clockwise with richen it up, clockwise will lean it off. Do a quarter turn at a time. If someone before has over richened it then you will get a fouled plug, but them may have done that to overcome another issue with the carb such as a hunting issue. Below is a pic of the type of carb, and it is the brass screw you should be looking for.....it's only the early carbs that had this....yours may not have one, in which case it is a fixed jet carb and as you have changed stuff I would suggest already then I would be scratching my head without physically seeing it or hearing it running.

I would seriously hope they aren't using that. Old engine oil is just full of swarf and various other engine deposits that will very quickly fail your pump, block oil holes and burn your bar up.

Who did the work?

Requiring a 16" bar on a 'budget' battery chainsaw is pushing it a bit...particularly for the budget. That's a lot of load on a cheapie....can you get away with a 14" or even a 12" bar?

That's a genuine Echo product.

Agree. Sold loads of blower vacs over the years and you must educate operators that they are only really effective to collect leaves if it is dry and the leaves are blowing around. If they are stuck to a surface because it is damp, then they will stick to the guts of the machine and clog, thus reducing efficiency and making the collector bag (and the operator) wet, which if left in the bag will rot it, then wet dust, leaves and grit will harden like concrete in the tubes and in particular around the impellor so even if it does spin it will have a reduced suction.

Genuine Countax/Westwood switch is only £35.00, but obviously unless you are near to a supplier you will have postage on that. They are a very common failure item.

Chainsaw design legislation within the UK and EU dictate a chainsaw must have an operating chainbrake designed to stop the chain within a given time. As these hand helds do not have a chainbrake they cannot (and should not) be described legally as a chainsaw, which is why the manufacturers describe them as 'pruners' because a 'pruner' does not have to have a chainbrake fitted. Which is why an extendable pole pruner is described as such, rather than as an extendable chainsaw.

Dont start taking the barrel off without an idea what you are doing. Unlike 'normal' saws the piston and the crank bearings arent caged...they are small individual needle rollers which just fall out unless to have the stihl tool or are pretty inventive. Once fallen out they are a bastard to refit.....even if you can. Seen loads of repairers give up on the 009 010 011 and 012 models which are similar in design once theyve been taken apart that far

Just had a 'final reminder' from ebay regarding the sale of 'bladed' articles which takes effect on the 11th. They have said 'as I am currently selling bladed articles' I need to add age verification for the buyer and then i must send these so called bladed items out tracked and age verification delivery. Only courier currently offering this highly priced service is ups. The dont have drop off branches and only collect from a senders address, which means you have to be in to hand it over and the buyer must be in to prove their age. Now, i dont have any bladed articles for sale (and if i did it would be a complete used chainsaw for collection only) so which in the email there is a link to click on to take me to the items affected that need verification, i did so, and the items are a chainsaw starter recoil assembly and a chainsaw ignition module. Neither are bladed articles and neither come under the government list of age related items. . But now, as ebay have included ALL items listed in the 'chainsaw' and 'chainsaw parts and accessories" categories as 'bladed items' whether they are or arent, you wont easily be able to sell....and importantly buyers wont be able to buy. Particularly a used saw now, which will be age verified delivery only...not collection. So if you want a simple spark plug and its listed in the chainsaw parts and accessories section people just wont bother selling them or it will cost you a fortune and you will have to be in with your age id before its left. Want that expensive part to fix your saw and dont want to buy new? Unlikely to find it listed on ebay anymore.

These are an absolute nightmare to 'rebuild' Years ago we attempted to rebuild a few, but they never assembled how they come from the factory very well and we ended up taking them apart several times to get it sort of right, but were never happy with them. For example, you would extend the head, but then the inner drive shaft wouldn't extend with it, so you lost drive and all sorts of other things. In the end as it was our name on the repair, we just ordered a completely assembled shaft inner and outer then just reattached the engine on one end and the pruner or hedge cutter head on the other.....saved a fortune in labour for the customer even thought the fully assembled drive tube was dearer, and we could guarantee it would work.

Yup....I can get tanaka parts no problem. Hitachi use the same part numbers.

IF it has a decomp valve fitted, then it is a 'comfort' version of the 230, which will also have a primer bulb fitted, tooless chain adjustment, and (crucially) the soft starter recoil system, whereby you dont give the rope a good, hard pull to start it, but instead you pull the rope in a more, slow progressive pull to allow the secondary recoil spring to kick in at the top of the extension of the rope to spin the flywheel. Pulling a stihl soft starter in the normal way will quickly knacker the springs and pawls.

Correct. A groundworks business only use any land they have for storage of the plant they need to earn money. The land doesnt earn them money to be able to run their business, the plant does. A farm is exactly the opposite of that

Surely inheriting a farm is inheriting a business to support a family and pay tax into the system. Its not like me inheriting my parents property when I already have my own home and job. Ok I know i will have to pay a degree of inheritance tax which is a bummer, but i wont lose my job or my home because of it. Putting inheritance tax in the way labour have to farm is taxing the tools of the job. No different to taxing the tools in the back of a plumbers van. No farm, no job....bonkers . Then no other farmers would buy up other farms land for going over the allowance, so swathes of land will go unsold, go fallow, and then the government will procure it to build all these houses on. Cynical? Me?

My wife works in a primary school, and teaching anything now is way down the list of 'priorities' firstly, she is considered a care worker, then social services, then a nurse, then a policewoman, then a surrogate mother, then a counsellor......all for the new breed of kids...who incidentally arent used to being spoken to and are even less likely to communicate back other than a grunt. Sitting still and listening are a thing of the past unless they have an electronic device. Communication is something they havent learned. When my wife started all new intake had to be toilet trained. If still in nappies, they werent accepted. Now they are told they have to accept them......so after all these years of campaigning to protect kids from kiddy fiddlers parents are happy to let complete strangers have a rummage around with their child to take them to the toilet and change nappies My wife has refused....who want to be accused of that!!!

I believe it will. Which means a colossal hike in postage costs as age verification courier delivery is a fortune (I've checked) and they won't leave it as you have to supply proof of age at point of delivery. TBH I haven't had any saws listed for nearly a year, but because I have a chainsaw recoil and a chainsaw ignition module listed, it has picked up on 'chainsaw' and sent that email. I can see a lot of issues unless they sort their algorithms out. If it just picks up the word chainsaw in the chainsaw or chainsaw parts and accessories listing categories, then it's plausible even selling a spark plug for a chainsaw could need age verification to buy, and to deliver!