pleasant

Looks good. 👍

Part number for the heated handle stator is 537 07 18-02. Not cheap though

I dont disagree with the previous comments. Although as a matter of course i would hook out the fuel filter and change that for new and whilst doing that i would inspect the pick up pipe for cracking/crumbling. I am no expert on what fuel grades are used in canada but if it were the uk and fuel had been left in the tank that long the ethanol in the fuel would have begun to compromise the integrity of the hose and the filter.

Your should get a few quid back from the 028 as parts for those are getting rare and they are a popular collectors saw...and still a good saw for hobby/occasional/demo use. When i got mine for my collection it needed a brake band, but they are obsolete and are rare as hens teeth as they did used to break quite often. I found one on the bay and had to pay over 20 quid just for the band I still need a better condition orange air filter casing for mine as it has a small bit of plastic missing from the one on it on the lower part where it curves over the rear handle....

A jobu. There are jobu collectors out there, but as an investment purchase they never make great money. Its not a rare model in the range either...to the right person maybe worth...£50-£80.

Why don't you take it to a dealer to do the diagnosis work, then you won't be buying parts that may not cure the problem? We offer an estimating service which cost upfront £35 which allows us to accurately diagnose what the issue is and then quote for the repair. If the customer wishes to progress, then the £35 estimate fee is deducted from the final invoice costs, or if they don't want to go ahead or wish to repair it themselves they can have the machine back and we keep the £35 for the time we spent of it so far. Sometimes it takes us a matter of minutes, sometimes it's a mornings work to diagnose correctly, but its still the same £35 so some we win and some we lose. If a customer wants us to go ahead with the quoted repair and we then fit a new carb for instance, and it doesn't cure the issues, then the cost of that is borne by us, as it is then us who have made an error (doesn't happen often!) It's a win win for the customer.

Try a genuine carb

I wouldn't go for that to be on the safe side. That's early with that style chain cover and those are the ones they had issues with (not all, but don't risk it)

Show us a pic of the chain cover...as a rule of thumb the later, better MS261 had a revised chain cover....was still available as a traditional carb or mtronic, so you could have both, before they went completely over to mtronic. Either way, as long as it's the 'mark 2' version (the chain cover will confirm that) then you will be fine. ps. the chain covers aren't interchangeable, so you won't risk buying an early model done up to look like a later one Here is a pic of a mk2 ms261...still a carb version (note the three carb adjustment holes) but with the different chain cover to the earlier models. Get one of these with that chain cover style and it will be fine

The MS170 which is still/was a current model which this competes with/replaces had/has the older style (and more reliable) screw on caps

We do, but not near you. And as for anyone near you who would, then sorry I wouldn't know.

As long as it's capable of being ridden on a public footpath at great speed weaving between pedestrians, without the trivialities of having a bell, or the foresight to actually operate one, I am sure any current bicycle should fit the agenda.😇

Has anyone ever got any free wood from Arbtalk? ..well...I haven't mentioned this to anybody until now, but there was quite an in depth discussion on here about the internals of an MS460 and I must be honest, I did get a bit of movement in the pants department over it.

Never done one on a McCulloch as we don't take them in for repair, but looking at your photos and the attached parts lists breakdown (which helps you to work out how to take it apart) it looks pretty straightforward (well, for a modern compact saw anyway) Maybe you can see now, why places like ours charge £50 per hour labour to work on these things? https://www.ersatzteilplan.de/ersatzteilzeichnungen/zeichnung_bilder/zeichnung/McCulloch-Euromac/McCulloch-Euromac-2011/Benzinkettensaege_McCulloch_CS350_966760314.pdf

Right all.....an update (as we all like an update on a problem- well, I do!) The OE Echo drum and worm drive for the pump duly arrived and was fitted and is a tight fit into the drive lugs of the worm drive against the body....no air gap or end float as there was before, so the previous place had fitted an incorrect drum...not only that, but we had also noticed the old drum was also like a prick in a bucket on the crank. The new drum was initially 'dry fitted' as we couldn't get the old needle bearing to fit the OE drum as the external diameter was larger than the hole in the drum for it to fit. We ordered a new bearing as well, replaced that, and now fits perfect with no play at all. So wrong drum and wrong bearing......managed to salvaged the burred over drive links on the chain for the customer, and just got away without replacing the damaged oil pump...despite the groove worn in it. If the customer had carried on using it for any longer then he would have been looking at a new pump, and quite possibly serious damage to his crankshaft what with the floppy drum flaying about. Cost him just over £100 in the end for the repair, but cheaper than a new saw.

Very true....some of my customers who are retired and then start a little gardening round. Buy a 200 cheapie mower stick it the boot of their car...which hasnt got business insurance....and then charge themselves out at 8 or 10 quid an hour. A mower running for an hour is going to take most of that in fuel, then you have the costs to get there and back........they may as well devote their time to the ground of an old peoples home or churchyard and do it for nothing for charity. Pity the younger guys who have got all the accreditation, expensive, decent kit, a van, insurance, van and liability...then tax on income.

What will an ash woodland look like in 10 years time? ..well, if it's in the South East it will have flats built on it!

Using your post muddy, as an example, you can see why, as a dealer it is cheaper in terms of labour to simply replace failed parts as a unit rather than trying to repair. Get a lot of carbs with issues...cheaper for the customer for us to simply fit new. Customers ask 'before you fit a new carb, can you attempt to repair the old one as it will be cheaper' No it won't if you have to pay us to remove, re-build, re-fit, then potentially remove again and then fit new, you are looking at two lots of labour plus the cost of a carb kit which didn't improve things. As Muddy is not costing in his labour, then not an issue and will be interested to see how it all pans out, but pricing up the labour involved to do what muddy has done so far would be eye-watering in a workshop. (Just a very mild rant at some of my customers that think labour cost nothing)

It includes tyres? There's a novelty...I know the 661 can be quite heavy, but putting wheels on it is taking things too far.

This could simply be wear in the pumping mechanism...is it the original pump? If so, then it's getting on. The reason it's not pumping is because the internal pump 'gearing' teeth are worn I should imagine. See it a lot on these 460's. You can blow air through so no blockage, but still not pumping, because it isn't actually a blockage, but the gap between the mating surfaces of the pump have worn down to a point that they aren't actually doing anything. New, genuine Stihl pumps come out at around £75 plus vat.

Has to be pre 1989 due to the early metal riveted nameplates instead of the later grey plastic ones, and most tellingly the stihl metal badge on the recoil cover has made in west germany on it. West germany ceased to exist when the wall came down in 1989

Right. I sent the photos to customer last night explaining we know what is wrong, but cannot work out why. I asked if he has had some work done on it recently elsewhere? Customer rings me this morning to inform me he took it somewhere else last year and had a new drum fitted by them and has had issues with it since then! Would seem the previous repairer may well have fitted an incorrect drum. I am now going to order a correct genuine drum and compare. Keep you posted.

Replied.....thanks. Things have moved on since last night after I text the customer. See my comment below.

Strange one today, so any advice and suggestions would be welcome. We have taken in an Echo CS420ES saw. We aren't familiar with them as we are other brands, but a good customer who also has brands we are main agents for, so didn't want to upset him by not at least offering to take a look. Guy said on idle the chain was still spinning. Removed the chain cover and bar and chain and could see the chain had 'slid' off the sprocket teeth on the drum and was effectively on direct drive hence the spinning. This during recent use has caused the chain drive links to grind out a groove in the alloy oil pump body as well as wearing down the nylon oil pump drive gear teeth. Removed the clutch and drum and really couldn't find anything wrong per se. However despite replacing the clutch and tightening it right back up again there is around 4-5mm of 'end float' between the teeth on the sprocket and the teeth on the oil pump gear in the body of the saw. You can pull the drum in and out-thus, away from the nylon oil pump gear teeth- this is why the chain has come off and got jammed and would be why the oil pump isn't working as the gears aren't meshing. I will attach some pics of the air gap between the two. No washers are missing and the teeth on the sprocket don't look worn down in terms of width, although not knowing these saws too well I am not sure how wide the sprocket teeth should be...they do look quite short compared to the ones I usually deal with but the face of the teeth between the drum and the body don't look ground down shorter than factory? Ideally i need a sprocket with wider drive teeth to take up the play between the drum and the body, but never had to address that before- ever.

They are interchangeable as long as you change both the bar and the chain as a pair, as the 171 runs 1.1mm chain and the 181 runs 1.3mm, so be careful