They're must have been some bad batches built of these poulan's saws, I hear people talking about their bad experiences with them all the time, it does happen,
I remember back in early 80's buying a new push mower from Wally-mart, Back then you bought the mower and it came packed in a card board box , was some assembly required, (The handle and wheels,) and then came with a quart of oil to put in, I got the mower all together put in the oil filled with gas pulled it 1 time and started right up,.... Blew oil out the exhaust and smoke up the neighborhood, needless to say I called Ol-Wally to tell them about what the mower had done,
They told me to bring it back in and not to bother to box it back up and they would give me another, would be sure to assemble it for me, when I brought the other one back they took one look at the oil all over it
and took it around to a stack of other returned mowers setting on pallets.
I ask did all them have same problem, he said yup! and this was the second batch they have received, Seems as though during the engine assembly someone or people forgot to install the rings onto the piston,:confused2: This was the start of the B&S black engines era everyone became so Leary of,
Back to the Poulan chainsaws...... I have not seen any major problems in my 2 poulan saws, Basically simple maintenance issue, spark plug/fuel lines etc,etc,.,, I wish I had a way to post up video's, I could show you 2 poulan saws that will crank on 2nd or 3rd pull each and every time,:thumbsup: although neither of the 2 are the wild thing, the 16" is actually called the Anniversary Poulan , however is still 42 cc saw, basically I think is same engine but the older of them, this saw is 14+ years old, My 20" is even Older,