Dan Forsh

Does anyone know.... If it is possible to fit a piston and cylinder from the Stihl HS 75, 80, 85 series of hedge trimmers onto a HS 74? By possible I do mean with a little friggin. Reason I'm asking is that I'm finding it very difficult to find replacements for this series, ideally cheap/2nd hand and I know much of the other bits are the same for that other series which seems to be much more common. Or is it fundamentally not possible due to stoke or something like that. Cheers, Dan

Agree with the first reply; if you aren't too bothered about speed, anti-vibration and (probably) lack of a chainbrake, then it will do what you want it to. It's an old saw from the time went torque was King, but running well, with a sharp chain and not used too often (unless you want to lose sensation in your fingers) it will eat plenty big wood for you. I'd be happy with a good one under £100

No need to call him names, the guy is only trying to think outside the box

I bought this a while back because I thought it looked like a cool old saw and in pretty good nick for its age. I think it's a standard 122. I paid £43 for it and it runs.

I have a Stihl Contra that is I believe from either 63 or 65 (can't quite remember). Either way it's older than me. So that would be either nearly 50 or just over 50 years old.

I think, if I recall correctly, the ignition units had a lifetime guarantee for the original owner. That said, I frequent the American forums, so there's no 'guarantee' that it's the same over here (if you are over here of course?)

I'm not even sure if anyone has been offended by anyone here? Who's for a pint?

There endeth the lesson

Thanks for the added vote of confidence in the Huztl carbs. I thought I'd read on here that people thought they were very good at the price. I might have been a little disingenuous about the delivery; my first purchase took 3 weeks, but looking at my last item bought from them it was only 10 days. Sod it, I'll buy two!

Thanks Ray, sounds like it should do the job then. Cheers

Quick question. I've an old Stihl 024 that I'm going to be rebuilding soon and I recall nicking the carb off it for another one a while back leaving the other problematic carb with it. Since this carb already got kitted and is still shyte, I'm thinking of cutting my losses and buying one of those Huztl Zama ones on ebay. For less than £15 it's not much of a punt to take, but the only thing I'm uncertain on is that these carbs have the top cover with the supplementary air intake that plugs into the back of the air filter. This is an older 024 with the standard cap and smaller air filter, so my question is, can I just exchange the caps, or would I need to add the newer air filter, which then leads on to the question of will the air filter cover then need to be upgraded too? checked the IPL and it looks like either cap is an option on these carbs, would just welcome someone's advice/confirmation. I'll get it ordered anyway since orders from Huztl take about 3 weeks to get here. If it doesn't work out for this one I'll just keep it for the next 026/260 needing one. Cheers, Dan

Meteor kit? STIHL 066/MS 660 "METEOR" CYLINDER KIT - 54 MM | eBay

Just a heads up in case anyone is interested in a project. Stihl 660 Parts Only Grimsby | eBay

Hi Alex, I fitted a new one and bedded it with some Dirko for insurance, just left it to cure for a few days before using it. Seemed absolutely fine thereafter, so maybe just the new pipe did the trick. Dan

I've been meaning to ask if anyone had tried these kits and how they had found them. I know the pistons have always been well regarded, but I haven't seen these P&C kits until recently. That Dack chap has started selling them on ebay, think his price might upset you though. HUSQVARNA 288 - 54 MM "METEOR" CYLINDER KIT | eBay So how are these kits then?

How's that? I'll take the brake arm off if you don't want it. It'll be a damn sight easier to post too. PM me an address. Dan

Which bit do you want? The outer cover?

Whole unit 1106 080 2810 £77 plus the vat. You can get just the housing if that's all you need, £38 + vat. The good news is your clutch springs 0000 997 5616 are only £1.32 ea + vat. Prices from MS

Just to play Devil's advocate here; I wonder if you'd all be making the same statements if he'd come on with a 40 year old, non-chain braked, Stihl? Doubtless some of you would be cooing over it rather than telling him to chuck it in a skip.

Looks good, similar to one that I made, complete with blood pressure bulb. I managed to find a nice compound gauge on ebay.

Not quite, I believe Stevo can

Thanks, I'm still learning obviously. I'm still not too sure what this is though, if I'm understanding correctly, are you saying it it a wider diameter section at the top of the cylinder then? I always thought that when someone said they were cutting the squish band, they just meant that they were reducing the clearance gap. I get what you both mean on the contribution that worn bearings or pin might make to compression. It makes sense now that you've said it. Just how bad would they need to be to make a significant difference; just worn or really bad? Thanks for the info both.

I'll jump in here based only on what you have said. First question is: are you sure your comp tester is reading correctly? 2nd question: Does the saw have a decomp valve and if it does, is it okay? If in doubt remove, replace with a blanking bolt for testing and re-test the comp. After that: The squish band as I've always understood it, isn't an actual 'thing', it's just the measurement between the piston crown and the top of the cylinder. I've never done this but my understanding of typical squish is that it is usually <1mm so the standard method of measurement is to take a piece of solder, bend it into an 'L' shape and put it in through the plug hole and pull the saw over so that it is 'squished' by the piston against the top of the cylinder bore. Remove it and measure the thickness of the now squished solder with verniers to determine the squish band. Approximate squish with the base gasket removed is simply measured squish, minus thickness of base gasket; or just remove the gasket and do the solder thing again. If you have already removed the gasket and found no issues with things hitting each other, then I'm assuming that you might be good to go, but measure the comp again (assuming your gauge is accurate). Reducing squish should only really be considered as a customisation or modification though; if you have to do this to a saw with new rings fitted (btw compression has nothing to do with the state of the bearings) to get the compression up, I'd really be questioning the accuracy of your comp tester.

You'd then be putting all the stress into the flywheel key, if you don't break a few fins off in the process.

Hi and welcome. I'm sure others with more knowledge of that saw will add some good advise later, but for what it's worth, here's my advice. It's an old saw and if you don't know it's maintenance history, I'm be checking fuel hoses, carb diaphragms and impulse hoses (if it has one). Hoses will rot and diaphragms become stiff. Before you do all that, and still assuming that you don't know its history, I'd probably just pull the exhaust off first just to be sure you don't have any bigger issues with the state of the piston and cylinder.