bmp01

Thanks chaps, I'm sure Spud will have some thoughts on this and hope he will comment on the thread when he gets a chance, no need to drag him away from his paid work just yet.

Simple question, what ignition timing advance would you run on a tuned 395xp ? Except its not that simple is it, because you need to know what tuning has been done...ok, well briefly, Muffler mod, gutted internals with twin outlets Transfer ports opened out at the entry. Inlet port cleaned up to remove flash line. Exhaust port raised slightly. Squish band machined 0.45mm Cylinder base machined 0.8mm Base gasket 0.25 (std is 0.5ish) Squish is 0.5mm after all this, compression pressure - dunno, cant pull it over without deploying the decomp valve. With decomp open I get 100psi. Ran pretty strong with standard ignition timing but started to behave weirdly after a good long run (its a milling saw), with the idle speed unstable. Air leak. Replaced the crank seals. Inspecting the old ones - the flywheel side had been leaking, sawdust between the dirt lip and the sealing lip, sawdust inside the seal and on the face of the b/e bearing. Clutch side seal in contrast was nice and clean. I'm happy to have got away with that (air leak)... not so happy about stripping the key out of the flywheel though. 100% sure flywheel was seated and torqued up properly. My mistake - I think - was not degreasing the crankshaft taper... New flywheel is 200 quid so that's not happening. Cutting to the chase, timing light says I have a tad under 20 degrees of advance. Given the high compression of engine it might be I don't need huge advance but everything I've found thus far suggests 25 - 30 degrees BTDC. Comments? Thanks, bmp01

Admire your tenacity mister ! I suspect it's the carb somewhere , from what you are saying about fuel consumption, black plug etc. Have you checked the second butterfly is opening at anything above closed throttle? As you've had it apart you'll have spotted the second butterfly/port only supplies air to the cylinder (no fuel). This second port is more than double the area of the small fuel/air port - if it wasn't opening you'd get massively rich engine and little air flow to the cylinder, so no power. I'd guess it would misfire something chronic. Could also be a bad coil with timing gone bad or my current favourite topic - sheared flywheel key giving messed up timing. Plenty other options...

Sounds familiar, is this the same saw with the same low power issue posted about on 21/11/19 ? https://arbtalk.co.uk/forums/topic/118088-stihl-ms-211c-with-low-compression-issue/#comments I think you're going to need someone in the know to have a look at it. You might have more than 1 thing wrong with it which will make it next to impossible to diagnose remotely. At a push a video of it running and cutting might help. Need to see the saw dust chips too.

Compression seems ok then. I just went and checked my 211, exactly as per your description, takes nearly 30 seconds to completely unwind the starter cord. Personally I'd still check the piston. If it's the bar or chain as suggested how new / old are they ? Is the chain overly aggressive, rakers set too deep ? Is it oiling the chain, bar getting hot ? Has someone changed the sprocket to 7 tooth ? Simple engine things, swap spark plug, air filter clean, checking fuel lines, fuel tank breather, carburettor tune up. Beyond that its anyone's guess - there's no substitute to seeing the misbehaving saw first hand. bmp01

As Spud says, pull the muffler off and check piston for a part seized piston. Piston can seize in a couple of seconds during a single run, so just because it was fine when you last saw it, that's no guarantee its still good. If the saw ran ok (post rebuild) and then started messing about that's the first place to look - no point risking further damage for the time it takes to do a quick check. Your saw has that easy start contraption on it I think, which is a shame - it means you can't do the quick and dirty compression test where you pick the saw up by the starter cord. bmp01

Thanks for replies. Watching the guy use it - it looked like a handful. He was plunge cutting with it a couple of times, didn't kick-back but you could see he was fighting the reaction forces. I guess the hook thing on the bar is intended to help with reaction forces, looks like it would be in the way most of the time though.

Just stumbled across this, new one on me. Does anyone know the history and application of this type of saw. I came across the picture then had to watch the video of a beekeeper chap using it. Picture attached and video at: youtu.be/NnMELNP7mB0 thanks, bmp01

As others have said, lovely wood. Just got to question the logic of the world (again) if such items can be had for "beer money", (Lot of beer mind you). Plenty of people making beer these days, seems its quite good currency .... bmp01

Hi, Well, it made me smile - I like it ! I expected a 1 pull wonder followed by endless resetting etc, etc, so I think that's quite an achievement to have created a thing which presumably keeps pulling until the user switches off the drill. Operational concerns, - Mechanical reliability of the starter mechanism on the tool you're starting - I know some people just keep yanking on the cord but really the first stage of the pull should engage the starter pawIs before the real tug of war begins. And that's after you've found the correct starting point. - Structural reliability of what ever your starting device is pushing against, you have to remember if a tool can be misused it certainly will be, I can imagine someone leaning it against a fuel tank .... - Safety issue of the machine you're starting jumping about at start up, there's good reason every manufacture of chainsaws states the user must hold the saw firmly when starting. Starting on the floor requires foot through back handle and hand holding forward handle.... - User response time after engine start up is shockingly poor, you need to be able to operate the controls of the machine as soon as it fires up, crucial for a chainsaw. Sorry, that seems quite negative, I think it's a great achievement to have got this far but equally I'm not convinced of its practicality in the world of chainsaws. bmp01

Thats a result, well done, and thanks for posting the info and solution. My only concern is that the clutch drum has been moved a mere 1.00mm and i had imagined it needed something in the region of half the width of the brake band to fix it. But, you've been into it pretty thoroughly and tested it so i guess that's all it needed. Nice one. bmp01

So what, you been on holiday or somethin' ? ? Thought I'd seen some posts on here during the summer, but in hind sight I must have been searching some old posts. ... on the XP395, they're still there of course, yonks old.... Brains going, going,.... going ... and gone.

What's going on here then ...looks like there's been some serious editing - i mean deleting of posts - in this thread ? 12 March jumps to 27 Sept....

That clarifies it nicely. Does sound like the clutch drum is in the wrong place relative to the brake band or the drum is wrong. Trouble is you'd expect the clutch drum to be wearing through the clutch cover... Worth swapping your mates clutch drum over to your saw ? (not a 2 minute job with outboard clutch).

As you've swapped plenty of parts and I'm assuming you swapped your mates clutch cover onto your saw (not clear) and that behaved the same then I'd guess the reassembly of the clutch cover onto the saw isn't going quite right. Is the clutch drum catching on the brake band at the top ? Brake band might now be distorted too. Is the clutch drum a genuine one and definitely the correct one? Might be better to post this in the chainsaw section. .... Good luck with it. bmp01

Same. Picked it up as a non-runner, out of curiosity mostly, split hoses in this one too. Next time I attempt to use it there'll probably be something else to fix ?

Just back from holidays otherwise i would have replied earlier...... This situation is very similar to the one i was faced with just recently, link: https://arbtalk.co.uk/forums/topic/116207-ms200t-valuation/ Advertised mine at 400, got the usual "what will you take for it, mate" reponses plus genuine interest on here. It went for asking price to a local guy as he could collect 'next day'. Plus he got to inspect and test it, I like old fashioned cash for goods arrangement. Yours looks like 400+ from pictures - the right price is what people will pay for it, nothing else matters.

If you are interested in how the cab works have a look at the attached Walbro info. Briefly: On choke setting fuel is sucked into carb and the intake port by the piston on its down stroke. During normal running, one half of the carb operates like a pump, lifting fuel from the tank into the other half of the carb - the metering side. Once you have fuel in the carb (and in the saw) from being on the choke setting, if you then take it off choke and the saw runs for a few seconds (while the fuel is used up), then either the carb settings are way out or the carb isn't pumping fuel from the tank. Walbro.pdf

The chain is harder than the file, that's your conclusion. Is it the chain that's too hard ? Could be, if the chain has been sharpened with a grinder and grinding stone hasn't been dressed, it will generate a lot of heat, the tooth shows the steel tempering colours (or worse) and can become very hard as a result. But equally the file might not be up to the job. You didn't mention a brand so does that mean its of unknown origin? Even if the chain were extremely hard i wouldn't expect to see wear on the file unless it's used extensively. All assuming a regular chain material, not one of the carbide tooth jobs. Try the old file. Try the new file on another chain. Get some new files. ... you'll get to an answer quicker than waiting for a response.

Yay, nice one. ... and thanks for info... A good way to diagnose a faulty carb, coil, plug etc is to swap in a known (or tested) good one from a correctly running saw, even a new untested part gives a degree of uncertainty. Not an easy thing to do with a carb though, so usually its a drop of fuel or 'easy start' down the intake and see if it fires.... then go through the fuel system, cheapest / easiest bits first. Glad you got it sorted.

HT130 version, i striped down to clean, put it to one side for a week then spent a sunny afternoon trying to figure out how to put it back together. Bloody nightmare. Can't be sure but I think centre shaft was one piece. Surely if it's broken though, the broken ends will be a bit gnarly, maybe the high points rubbed smooth but unlikely to be like the flat machined ends. I'd expect there to be some debris, if the broken ends have run against each other for any length of time, black pasty yuck if there's any oil/grease around, sliver filings if completely dry..... HTH. Be good to know the answer to this when you get one. ... bmp01

As per bottom of page one...... Shame really, the chance to help others with a snippet of info is lost. Must admit with the detail of the first post i thought this one might be different.

Ok, what happens if you do ? Been thinking i might give that a go, or not if it wrecks the tube ?

This is no plaice for language like that. .... Yeah, ok, I'm leaving now. ..

As far as using the original side cover and chain tensioning mechanism I think you are pretty much screwed with out that feat ure on the bar. It's not a common set up, I'd be surprised if there is a work around. Original spec bar required unfortunately. Hope you get it sorted.