Stihl repairs and restoration thread

[JOEPRO]

I suffered from SAD, saw acquisition disorder but it's now under control. Six is enough for anyone I think.

Do you have much trees to cut?

Best bit is I don't even have any trees of my own left to cut as they are all gone. And yet I'm collecting chainsaws

 

[pedrobedro]

Do you have much trees to cut?

I bought my first saw to cut down a couple of trees on my garden as it was cheaper than having someone else do it. Now I use them to cut firewood down at a farm to keep the fire going in winter. We cut and split for the farm and ourselves it's just something I like doing. I have my original Dynamac from Machine Mart, a Husqvarna 135 which I have had for about 10 years, a small top handle Chinese saw, Stihl MS460, 044 and 036. Covers everything I'm likely to need I think. The wood we cut is dumped by local tree surgeons, it's stuff they don't want to process for their own use.

 

[roofman]

I've just learned to accept this is my life now

Other men buy beer and dirty women...keep buying machines as you can sell further up the road. Cant sell hangovers or STD

 

[dobbslc]

Or the woman once she's been ragged around the block for a few years...

 

[JOEPRO]

It's a sad day today. I sold my MS391 on. For the same price I won it on an eBay auction before so the new local owner got a great deal too. I got my back trees all down with it and I now have the working 045 with 20 inch bar so no need for the 391 any more.

Occasionally I do make sensible decisions. Now I can buy a dozen more broken 70s chainsaws

 

[JOEPRO]

I had a spare half hour this evening to try the Tig chainsaw bar repair.

It worked out great. Got a bead added and filed back on one side. Still leaving a small bit extra to dress back along with the other side once it is also welded up. On terms of hardness the tig welds are harder to file than the bar so should work out well. I carefully opened up the groove again with a cut off wheel.

View attachment 468275
View attachment 468276

View of the worn side in foreground and built up area behind:

View attachment 468277

Update on this original bar repair.

I finished it this evening both sides built up with TIG and filed back into shape. Final bar dressing all around. Chain slides nice and sits perfectly level



Will sharpen the chain tomorrow and another test run.

 

[JOEPRO]

yea what i was thinking was knackard will wait till its running right before splashing the cash on them

mines was not running but a carb kit for 10 ish quid has fixed that all i got to do is set the mix fuel screws to get it running and onloy a sonic clean was needed

I got the carb US cleaned and rebuilt as you suggested. Working great now! It was a blocked L valve chamber I could see it when testing it with carb cleaner and compressed air.

So that hedge trimmer is finished now also and running like new with its new Stihl cylinder kit etc.

 

[dobbslc]

What's a L valve chamber?

 

[JOEPRO]

What's a L valve chamber?

Non technical terminology

The 'ole where the L adjustment screw goes. On the last 2 carbs which were having problems these were blocked.

 

[Kram]

@JOEPRO we are having issues with a couple neglected tools, perhaps you can guess the cause? Stihl BG86 handheld blower. It gets light use clearing saw dust after tree work and chipping. He has never previously cleaned the filter or checked the spark plug
The problem is at full throttle it bogs down and has no power, so only usable at 80% throttle. I checked the plug, it looks pale so perhaps lean, fuel starvation? The piston and bore look to have a bit of carbon build up.
I cleaned plug and adjusted the gap which improved it only for a couple minutes.
I think its 5-10 years old. I am wondering if carb or fuel line blocked, pinched hose or something like that?

Combi hedge trimmer, it doesnt idle well, comstantly stalling just as I get to the wobbly bit up a ladder!

I'll order some new bits for them.

 

[JOEPRO]

@JOEPRO we are having issues with a couple neglected tools, perhaps you can guess the cause? Stihl BG86 handheld blower. It gets light use clearing saw dust after tree work and chipping. He has never previously cleaned the filter or checked the spark plug
The problem is at full throttle it bogs down and has no power, so only usable at 80% throttle. I checked the plug, it looks pale so perhaps lean, fuel starvation? The piston and bore look to have a bit of carbon build up.
I cleaned plug and adjusted the gap which improved it only for a couple minutes.
I think its 5-10 years old. I am wondering if carb or fuel line blocked, pinched hose or something like that?

Combi hedge trimmer, it doesnt idle well, comstantly stalling just as I get to the wobbly bit up a ladder!

I'll order some new bits for them.

For the 86 check the exhaust it probably has an exhaust screen on it. These can clog up over time and would be the first thing to check for those symptoms. Either remove or clean it with a blow lamp or carb cleaner and brass brush.

After that, dump the fuel tank out. Fill with fresh fuel.

It is really surprising how quickly modern fuel goes off. Sometimes only a few weeks especially if it's got ethanol. I buy super unleaded for my garden equipment as it has no ethanol. I use too much fuel to switch to the modern can type.

 

[JOEPRO]

I have my 045 running great now. All it needed was the carb rebuild and bar weld repair to make it a perfectly usable saw and starts very easily. I noticed that the idle issue was actually that for some reason the carb linkage doesn't always fully return to its idle stop. I think the original spring on the carb has weakened after 50 odd years. So I added a spring and now it drops to idle properly no issues at all.



Literally the best £20 I spent in my life

 

[JOEPRO]

The 031av turned up today. I made an offer of £65+ post and the seller accepted. I am very pleased with the saw. It's still got its original west Germany made bar and it looks almost new. The saw has very high compression too. The chain is new on it.



The plastic fuel cap was broken off. I got the remaining thread removed with no damage to the magnesium. I had ordered a new fuel cap but they sent me the wrong size so will keep looking.

There is an issue with the starter recoil. It keeps slipping.




In the above photo I had painted the surface with a sharpie to see where the pawls were acting on. Looked OK. I believe the issue is a very small amount of wear on the pawls themselves which means they are just below 90 degrees. I will need to get access to them and file them flat again.



But otherwise I don't see any reason why this saw shouldn't run very well. Looks like it has not ran in at least 10 - 15 years. As long as the ignition system is happy then everything else so far looks AOK to me.

 

[JOEPRO]

031 AV update - I checked and verified that yes the worn pawls did want to jump out of the slots with pressure on them




So I TIG welded them up and filed them back to a square edge.

Welded and filed on left, worn on right:



Testing now they both grip as intended. Nice to see a regular looking ignition coil on this saw and no points! I will steam clean the saw now it's apart this far. Then replace fuel lines and impulse hose. Then re-assemble and see will it fire up on its own.

 

[JOEPRO]

PS apologies for posting a repair which involved welding. I know welding posts are frowned upon here

 

[Beanwood]

PS apologies for posting a repair which involved welding. I know welding posts are frowned upon here

What is this "welding" of which you speak??

 

[JOEPRO]

What is this "welding" of which you speak??

It's using angry pixies and converting them into molten metal smoo

 

[JOEPRO]

I got another 10 mins fettling on the 031AV tonight. I was curious to test for spark.

So I first hooked up my tester which is this type:



This was showing a very consistent bright flash. Great, I thought. Then I tried a spark plug but no matter how fast I turned it over on a drill (spark plug removed) it would not spark on a plug. Bizarre but shows this type of tester is not reliable you have to use a plug also.

I thought this saw was points free - but checked and darn it!



All is not lost. This could be converted to electronic ignition using a cheap universal chip. But I figured nothing to lose to carefully use 400 grit paper and clean the points. It's likely no one has been in here for decades.

After cleaning I tried again and now I am getting a good consistent blue spark on the spark plug. So seems like a clean has gave me a functional ignition system.

I will go ahead and order a carb kit and take care of a few minor things when it's apart before trying to start. With the exhaust off at least the piston visually looks mint/ perfect condition. Got to love the build quality on these old saws.

 

[JOEPRO]

I spotted another MS201TC available running but needing bearings cheap locally. Collected it today haven't looked much at it or tried starting it. February 2022 production so it's a fresh enough saw. Seller said the main bearings are worn out. These saws have needle roller type main bearings which can wear out quickly if the chain is too tight. I'd guess that was the issue here until I get stuck into it & confirm the issue myself.

This one will be repair, service and sell it again for a few £ towards the other vintage Stihl saw projects!

 

[Turbo]

I spotted another MS201TC available running but needing bearings cheap locally. Collected it today haven't looked much at it or tried starting it. February 2022 production so it's a fresh enough saw. Seller said the main bearings are worn out. These saws have needle roller type main bearings which can wear out quickly if the chain is too tight. I'd guess that was the issue here until I get stuck into it & confirm the issue myself.

This one will be repair, service and sell it again for a few £ towards the other vintage Stihl saw projects!

Does the tc mean it's twin cam? When you rev it will it go brrrrrr, mem, mem, mem, mem?
Will the mercs not get jealous when you go out doughnutting with the twin cam on a Saturday night?