What to do B4 attempting to start a VERY old chainsaw?

[eyehearttrees]

You can run a saw lean with a air leak.

I’d try the old plug, get it started then figure out what needs replacing from there.

I’d never put starting fluid in a saw

Oh I thought that spraying that fluid at the air-intake helped, good to know! (don't actually have any, and am just using a Magic Eraser chunk as air-filter now!)

Re priming, because the carb is a 1-nozzle type (no primer bulb), and because of the funky way my fuel line runs-into the tank before the filter (does a full 360 spin inside the tank, I used a 90deg-bent Stihl fuel-line&filter so it's just inherent to that, all of the lines from my Universal kit were too small so busted apart a broken stihl hedge trimmer for appropriate line)

I've done 3 rounds of spray&drip of fuel into the open nozzle, however w/o a primer bulb I'm sitting here afraid to connect it because I know that whole fuel-line is just air, and I can't think of a way to get it full of fuel to 'prime' it so to speak!! Trying to 'funnel' fuel into the line....it didn't go well ROFL, will smell like gas for days I am sure However I'm still thinking it may be worthwhile/necessary to have that line already full of fuel, not air, when going for 1st-pull, does that make sense? W/o a primer-pump I'm just not seeing how the carb could pull all the air from the line that's in-the-way of its fuel!

//keep thinking of how someone (will appropriately reply later to all posts & with my pics ) mentioned to keep the "is this worth it?" mindset in the forefront, IE I've sunk enough hours into this guy that, were they spent working, I could've paid someone else to do this + more for me.....I don't see it as a loss, I knew this wasn't going to be "a cost-effective way of getting a >30cc top handle" from the start, the further along I get on this guy the more I'm realizing the journey/education is almost equally valuable to me and, on this 1977 saw, everything just 'makes sense' like I can actually look at the guts w/o seeing swaths of stuff that I've no idea what purposes are served by them!

OK I'm going to do 1 last 'trick', "pulling" fuel back-through (reverse-flow) through the fuel-line before connecting it, if I waste more than 10min doing that I'm gonna ditch that approach / mate the line to the nozzle & hope that some kind of inherent pressure from the starter-cable will "force the air out" of the line!!!

 

[Merle Nelson]

Fuel just goes in mouth of the carb to test start it.

A little cap full. A half a teaspoon. A dash. Hold throttle open and pull start till it pops and runs that out - pretty quickly.

Then decide if you have reason to do that more or if it proved out saw can run and it's time to make sure carb feeds fuel.

 

[Merle Nelson]

If you know fuel lines are now good. One or more cycles of running saw on a capfull of gas will pull fuel from tank through properly working carb.

 

[Merle Nelson]

Did I mention I have about 20 of this saws bigger sibling, the 25DA/AV?

To someones question I have yet to answer. DA I believe was Deluxe Auto. At first they were 25 Deluxe. Then when auto ouling came out I believe they got A added.

AV is definitely Anti Vibe.

 

[eyehearttrees]

Well that sucked!!!! Was feeling soooo good on that first ~1/3rd of a starter-cord-pull, before the cord bottomed-out!!!!!

Had completely forgotten that when I got it, there was like 2.5" of cord hanging-out / not under tension, I just tried "rewinding" it but it still lacks tension, going to have to put a pin in til tomorrow and replace the rope (I've got identical-diameter paracord so am just going to make a suuuuuper long rope from that so that there's no limit to the pull lol)

The time I was actually pulling it, it felt like it "wanted to"

Re the fuel & oil before reassembly, I actually found that an oral-syringe worked a charm (well, an intramuscular-syringe w/o a needle on it) for precision oiling of the choke-throat of the carb as well as down the plug-hole (I also put some down the exhaust's open-port as I still haven't reinstalled that, all this is being done under-assumption that, for this type of unit, the ambient dust in the air isn't something to be worried about, am not doing this outside in a breeze

Had always thought pull-cord assemblies were supposed to be a ton of pieces, this was just a metal coil 'built-in' to the casing, and then a plastic assembly that spools the pull-cord (and, on either side of it, teeth to engage the flywheel / cord-retractor-spring, depending which side)


I've got a good feeling this is going to turn over, was starting to take apart the pull-cord assembly but realized I can't turn it over this late so my window for the day is gone lol, 1st thing tom will put a 2X longer paracord on that spindle, place the spindle back-against the casing and crank it in the direction it retracts (that seemed to be 'tightening' the spindle into-place) and then suspect this guy will start )

Then I'll have to build the air-filter setup and all that but if it's running I will be happy as a pig-in-shit LOL!!!

Thanks a ton w/o the help here I'd never ever be remotely this far along on this!!!

 

[eyehearttrees]

Did I mention I have about 20 of this saws bigger sibling, the 25DA/AV?

To someones question I have yet to answer. DA I believe was Deluxe Auto. At first they were 25 Deluxe. Then when auto ouling came out I believe they got A added.

AV is definitely Anti Vibe.

That was me, thanks for making it so clear! Now for the hard part (for me to google, unless anyone knows off-hand!), finding which models are interchangeable in this series of 25's, which similar non-25-series of that time are interchangeable and which *non*-poulan models match which (for instance, one of the good youtubes for mine is on a Craftsman, though it's definitely not a true 25d am unsure which it's a true match to)

~~~~~~~~~~

Am banging my head against the wall with this pull-cord failure, it 'works' as it should but the cord bottoms-out at the end of a stroke too-early, and (probably far more importantly!) it doesn't engage when you start pulling and that's NOT just the slack in the rope (IE my pull-cord has like 2" of slack, but I've gotta pull maybe 5-6" before it's actually engaging...)

I've spent far longer this evening on this part than I care to admit LOL and am going to post this in-hopes of tips and then just swap to some more splicing (got a whole lotta new thimbles/ropes this week )

Last night I removed the cord's-wheel, exposing the tension-spring, and sprayed a ton of wd40 in there to penetrate/free/lube the coil. Most of the coiling is packed against the outside of the circular encasing, with the center being far too-inelastic to really 'pull' as I'd want it to. After ~1d of it having been lubed, I took a fine-tipped flathead and worked-through most of the coil, ensuring none of it was rusted/binded to itself or anything...it moves just fine - do these 'go bad'? If so can you hack them back or do they need to be replaced? Here's what I'm working with:


^that's after doing all I could to 'work-through' the tight edging wraps of the coil (which are like 80%+ of the total coil), winding the pull-cord onto its spool as tightly as possible, and seating it on the spring in the tightest way possible - this eliminated maybe 1" of the normal "hanging-out" of the cord from the case, but wasn't enough for it to make a difference :/

[For more detail here is an album with the newer pics, with details under each, showing how I had to use a Stihl's fuel-line & filter to get the line working and showing the fuel-line/filter/etc install: ***ALBUM:

https://imgur.com/a/xVdvmqH

****]

Well I'm done for today am gonna go splice some 5/8" (have never done >1/2"), expecting it to be easy & make me feel the evening wasn't a failure!! LOL that this is a 'good' sat-PM for me, was doing work/chores *I* liked ;D

 

[Merle Nelson]

You posted far more than I can remember to comment on. Of what I can remember:

It appears to me to have a small amount of scoring seen through exhaust port. I could have a 25 DA run a long time with a small amount of score like that though. (They do have double rings, whereas I believe this model has one.) I'd be happy with that color on my exhaust screen.

If this model has any other models/brands to do parts swapping with I am not aware of it. Whereas the much heavier 25 DA has at least three or four other variants you can swap a lot of parts with and scores of brand names it was sold under - Craftsman, John Deer, Wizard?, Western Auto, etc.

Slack in the pull cord is solved by pulling cord out a few revolutions of spool while looking at back of the pull cord housing. Reach in around the plastic of the housing and grab hold of the pull cord near the spool, pull enough slack that you can take cord .........Youtube search it for this or any saw.

As far as pull cord slipping when you pull it to start. Look to dogs (metal tabs?) on the flywheel. Lube those with something that will not attract a lot of dust later like graphite in a liquid carrier. Click them back and forth till small springs actuate them well and easily. The teeth on your cord spool is chewed up a bit from not fully being engaged but will work fine.

 

[evo]

You posted far more than I can remember to comment on. Of what I can remember:

It appears to me to have a small amount of scoring seen through exhaust port. I could have a 25 DA run a long time with a small amount of score like that though. (They do have double rings, whereas I believe this model has one.) I'd be happy with that color on my exhaust screen.

If this model has any other models/brands to do parts swapping with I am not aware of it. Whereas the much heavier 25 DA has at least three or four other variants you can swap a lot of parts with and scores of brand names it was sold under - Craftsman, John Deer, Wizard?, Western Auto, etc.

Slack in the pull cord is solved by pulling cord out a few revolutions of spool while looking at back of the pull cord housing. Reach in around the plastic of the housing and grab hold of the pull cord near the spool, pull enough slack that you can take cord .........Youtube search it for this or any saw.

As far as pull cord slipping when you pull it to start. Look to dogs (metal tabs?) on the flywheel. Lube those with something that will not attract a lot of dust later like graphite in a liquid carrier. Click them back and forth till small springs actuate them well and easily. The teeth on your cord spool is chewed up a bit from not fully being engaged but will work fine.

What he said

 

[climbstihl]

I've got a good feeling this is going to turn over, was starting to take apart the pull-cord assembly but realized I can't turn it over this late so my window for the day is gone lol, 1st thing tom will put a 2X longer paracord on that spindle, place the spindle back-against the casing and crank it in the direction it retracts (that seemed to be 'tightening' the spindle into-place) and then suspect this guy will start )

When replacing the cord with a longer one make sure that the rope reaches it's end before the spring does, otherwise you can break the spring.