Andrew L

New parts fitted, all seems good. Thanks to all for advice. A

Yup Heard last night, FRJones,,, Oh well. It wasn't a massive parts order.

still waiting for the parts,,, Does anyone (also) think that there maybe a shortage of Husky 550 Mk2 plastic work drives for some weird reason?

pump assembly and worm wheel ordered

💡 Lol. Going to admit I didn't take it apart but took the saw to FRJones who broke it down until he found the cause and then ordered the bits. Very helpful.

It was the oil pump assembly, this plastic plug thingy was welded on, once off crank turned as normal. replacement bits ordered, thankfully only £20 or so. Design fault?? That drive sprocket is the original from new. Not exactly worn out??

Thanks everyone. Turned motor over by hand, then defeated the hood safety switch, gave the starter a tap and bingo! All good, very grateful. Just bent jockey wheel mounting point to sort and we are good to get out there,,, A

450hrs, regularly serviced but not been used for a while is due its annual service in next week or so. Battery fully charged (but it is the original battery from new, must be 4+ years old). Diesel 3 cylinder Lombardi engine. Go to start, glow plug light glows and then goes out after about 10secs as normal and then I turn the key. Just get a click, nothing else. Belts are disengaged (tried tensioning and untensioning just to be sure). Tried with a 500w lithium Halfords battery booster; made no difference. If "we" cannot find a way to get it going, does anyone know a dealer or mobile chipper mechanic near Sevenoaks Kent (J4 or 5 M25)? JASWilson want me to pay £500 up front before they will look at it plus 5x£33 travel extra if they need to go away and get more parts (wtaf!!!) Cheers Andrew

Thanks all, (spudulike) the chain/bar/ side casing are all off and the clutch still cannot spin the drum/sprocket. The melted oil pump drive gear sounds most likely since I have been greasing the crank bearings and the usage is not huge on this saw. Will delve deeper and let you know,,, A

Thank you. So definitely that and not the oil pump? If so, is it a dealer workshop job to swap seized bearing for new? Cheers Andrew

Hi, Scratching my head at this one. Just over a year old 550 Mk 2. Starts and idles fine and throttle picks up but chain will not spin, as if the chain brake is on. Removed bar and chain, and side casing off still happening. Grease point at clutch regularly greased, not done hundreds of hours. Unable to turn clutch/sprocket housing manually,,, Could it be the oil pump has seized? Thank you Andrew

"Guilford or Leatherhead", it appears, having googled Lawinds,,,

Hi Whereabouts in the "south east" please? Cheers Andrew

It would be great to see an installation diary if you could find the time. I think lots of pepes on here would be vvvv interested. It would give you a record of it as well and maybe make potential problem solving easier, if you needed it?

Completely ignorant on the topic so forgive the foolish questions but we do have an almost limitless supply of wood here and are in the sticks, so how much was it to set-up initially (if you don't mind me asking?). Currently on oil, heating a very leaky 5-6 bed house,,, A

I have stopped using Rotatech chains and bars. I have had a number of bars suffer abnormal wear and metal fatigue seeming to indicate that the bar was not properly hardened? After the 2nd bar, I gave up with them. Equally the chains seemed to have markedly different wear properties: some would last well (in terms of retaining sharpness) whilst others just refused to hold their edges. Did my 32 and my examiner was scathing about the quality of the gear and stopped using them. Still use their chain oil though in 25L lumps (originally cos of the tart on the sticker, sooo un-pc it made me laugh cos I am a kid). Use Chainsawbars now. Quality gear, rapid delivery and what Rob doesn't know about chain or bars isn't worth knowing. And have made a deliberate decision to move to semi-chisel chains for nearly all the saws (except the top-handles). Why? Because sooner or later in tree surgery as opposed to forestry, you are going to hit a hidden nail or chain and sharpening a big bar without a vice is such a pain. And despite investing in my crew so that there are more and more CS30/31 ticket holders, I still find it's me that's sharpening the bloody things the night before a big job,,, Andrew

In answer to the original question, I bought a 2nd hand Venom 22ton splitter which runs with a 6.5hp B&S engine. Less noise than a lawn mower, nothing like a chainsaw. It operates either on a horizontal plane or you can make it vertical for big rings to save you having to lift them up. Road wheels good for "45mph" (??) but you'd need a lighting board. Only weighs 150kg so we just hoike into the back of the transit if its coming on site. Its mostly used to split hardwood back at base though. Power? We have yet to find a crutch/knot or anything woody that the splitter cannot split or actually just destroy. Its scarily impressive. Hope that helps Andrew

I am not sure I can hold by breath that long,,,, hurry up!!!

Just looked online and no LOLER course listed (sorry if I am being dense). Andrew

I am interested too,,, Andrew

The vast majority of human beings consistently make poor personal choices eg eat wrong food: get fat, buy a car or house bigger than they need and wonder why they are always in debt etc. During WW2 the nation was at its all time healthiest: why? Because rationing took away the personal choice regarding food and the war took away the manpower meaning everyone had to get their finger's out and physically work for the collective good. At the war's conclusion, everyone had experienced the "hard times" and resolved "never again" just like after WW1 but memories fade, people refuse to read and learn from history and so history repeats itself. Hence the cyclic pattern. The solution is better education both of history and self-management IMO.

Might be best to quietly chat to him and find out if something is wrong? Is this new behaviour in an otherwise good worker or has he been persistently slow? Employed or subbie? Usually best to start quietly, offer suggestions to help and then if no improvement, set targets with defined outcomes if he does not meet them.

Got to say as someone who suffered a broken leg from a hung up tree, I think anything that keeps the operator further away from suddenly moving massive bits of timber is a good thing. I personally go for the longest bar and lots of hard thinking/talking about possible scenario's with team before going for it very carefully. Hate them+++

Going to stick my neck out here but I think you cannot judge any race or group of people and label the whole group as such. In both my NHS career and during tree work, I have met some decent gypsies. My experience is generally: if you treat people with respect, you will be treated respectfully in return. Having said that, we also caught 2 blokes in a white Transit on our Farm "looking for scrap". They were prevented from leaving, and the police called. One known to the police. They got a verbal caution for trespass and that was it because they had none of our gear on their Transit. We were advised to keep the main gates chained going forward: which at 6am in the dark on my bike is a pain in the arse but??? Same crew turned over a big house about a mile away about 6/52 later that was unoccupied except for the builders,,, Same Transit and id meant the police had something to work with. A