Stihl 031AV will not rev up, idle is fine

[955Lincoln]

I've found over the years that condensers hardly ever fail.

That has been my experience also and I have always had tons of stuff with points and condensers. However, just last year the condensers went out in both my Homelite Super XL saw and a 60's vintage 4 cylinder generator and both had the exact same symptoms as your saw. I had to do some internet searching but I finally found a replacement for the saw.

Just a few weeks later the genny went out and I was actually quite unlucky to find a NOS condenser (ordered only that first) and complete magnetos for it because all of the condensers were bad because of age...brand new in sealed packages. New carb, new plugs and wires, 2 new magnetos with new condensers plus another condenser in a rebuild kit, I was just about to give up until I noticed the points looking a little black on one of the new magnetos that had only run for a few minutes.

In the end, old carb and magneto back on. A trip to NAPA for a standard automotive condenser is all it took. I wish I had all of those aggravating hours back. :laughing:

I feel that you did have a condenser failure but something has changed during your rebuild to make it work again. At least you will know right where to go if your saw acts up again.

 

[JimLev]

We always use to change the condensers and points in our old pre-computer cars every ~10-15K miles.
The condenser in my Stihl is very small and mounts to the body under the flywheel, I never took it out or even unhooked it.
I still have the old points, maybe some day I'll stick them back in and see if they were what was causing the problem.
Can't beleive they charged be $27 for a set of points and 7" long sparkplug wire!
It runs, I'm happy.

 

[JimLev]

Just a follow up, I used the saw for the last 2 days, only needed to tweak the low speed carb setting. Seems to need an adjustment from winter to spring temp. It's running fine, starts on the second or third pull and idles just fine. I still want to stick the old carb back in, just to see if that was the real problem.