Stihl chainsaw quit, need some suggestions.

[dirtyb115]

Hi all. I got an older stihl chainsaw (32V i think?). At any rate it was running great so far this year, then yesterday, it no longer wanted to idle. Then by the end of the day it would not start at all. I put new gas in it, changed the plug and it fired up and immediately died, then would not start again. Today i tried cleaning the carb out, air filter ect.., put it back together, and started up, then died after about 20 secs. Now it wont start again.. Any ideas here? Should i rebuild the carb, check compression.... i dont know where to begin, i am horrible with 2 stroke engines.

 

[Egon]

Have you made some adjustments to the low/high jets yet?

 

[montanaman]

I would start doing some tests before guessing at it. Sounds like you are pretty sure it is a fuel system problem and not an ignition issue. I would check the pulse hose from the engine to the carb and check the fuel line carefully. I have a vacuum and pressure pump that I use to check things out but you could get creative if you don't have the tools. Also, check the fuel tank vent to make sure it isn't clogged. If everything is OK, and you have good spark,then you will know you need to dig into the carb.

 

[Willis Fecon Bushhogging]

Hi all. I got an older stihl chainsaw (32V i think?). At any rate it was running great so far this year, then yesterday, it no longer wanted to idle. Then by the end of the day it would not start at all. I put new gas in it, changed the plug and it fired up and immediately died, then would not start again. Today i tried cleaning the carb out, air filter ect.., put it back together, and started up, then died after about 20 secs. Now it wont start again.. Any ideas here? Should i rebuild the carb, check compression.... i dont know where to begin, i am horrible with 2 stroke engines.

Its hard to do sometimes, but bite the bullet and take it to a repair shop. I have found that if you take it to a regular dealer, that stocks your parts, you will come out better. I use Husky and my dealer is 30 miles away, I tried taking it to another dealer (Sthil) but he had to order the parts, I had to pay frieght and I would have made out better, driving to my Husky dealer.
I know this didnt answer your question, but I had a guy working for me and he said he knew how to work on saws, so Im thinking (I will save money now)
Had a saw that wouldnt start, so I said take a look at it, he said the rings were bad, no compression. He took it apart and the rings looked perfect, I told him to put it back together, he couldnt figure out how to do it. So off to the shop it goes, $178 later and a $15 cutoff switch it was working again. I guess what Im saying, you can tear up more stuff, trying to fix something you dont know anything about, but this is just my 2 cents worth, gained from a school of hard knocks

 

[nathan812]

Try taking the air filter out and blowing it out. Lots of times you get saw dust in there from cutting. I usually clean the filter everyday before I go out to cut. Air compressors work very good for this.

 

[Erik_in_Hoyt]

bad gas mix?
i used to have a full bottle of homelite oil mix in a "premeasure" bottle - it had a top chamber that you could fill by squeezing the bottle and then dum the measured amount to mix. long story short, I couldn't get anything to run with this stuff. As soon as i tried a different mix, saw, weedeater, etc... all ran fine.

good luck.

 

[dirtyb115]

I have not messed with the hi/low jets. It always ran great where they are set now, i find it hard beleive that things would change that much in a day.

I was thinking i would check lines for any leaks next. Vent is okay, checked that already.

Bad mix is a thought, i am using a different 2S oil now, maybe that is the problem. (i hope). Ill keep you posted, thanks for the replies.

 

[Stimw]

Dump all fuel out into a clear container (I cut the top off of a 2 ltr Coke bottle) and check for water/dirt.
Take a piece of wire and fish the fuel hose and pick up filter out of the tank. Check the hose for spliting. Clean the pick up. Spliting hose is very common! This goes for a lot of 2 cycle engines.
I tried to work on 2 cycle concrete saws for my customers and almost went broke! The biggest problem was water in fuel. also when done with the saw they would toss it a side. This would knock carbon loose in the muffler which would scratch the piston and cylinder ruining compression. New piston,rings and cylinder for stihl engine was $200. Barely any money left for labor.

 

[art]

That saw is roughly 20 plus years old and if the impulse hose and fuel pick-up hoses aren't or haven't been changed they are sure due!
To check the compression without a gauge is easy, take the starter rope and the saw, let the saw go, if it drops to the length of the rope quickly then you have little or no compression. The slower it drops the better the compression.

 

[John_Mc]

One relatively quick thing to check: often times the spark arrestor on the muffler will load up with crud. Removing and cleaning that is a relatively easy thing to do. Might be nothing, but might save you a trip to the repair shop.

John