Chains saws

[jbaker]

What size bar you running on it Charlie?

 

[digger]

It came with a 24", but I switched it to a 20".
Just because I have chains and bars for 20's.
Zip those rakes down a little and that sucker throws chunks of wood out! LOL
It weighs a little more, but the power and smoothness of it, make up for it.

 

[mgwin]

Charlie,

I meant to say fuel tank vent. It is the part above the grip with #501 87 31-01.

 

[mgwin]

Guess I will post, since nobody has in over a week. Has everyone put down their chainsaws?
FWIW: I figured out what was wrong with my Husqvarna.
The fuel line was worn where it goes from the air chamber down into the fuel tank, and had a small hole in it.

It's amazing how such a small hole can cause a saw to run so poorly.

 

[jbaker]

Marty what model was that on?

 

[digger]

Marty G.
What model saw do ya have?

 

[mgwin]

Charlie and Jeff,

Now don't laugh Charlie, it's a 55 Rancher. (earlier version of the 455 I think)

I know it's not as nice as your saw, but I am only a sort of "weekend" user. It's a heck of an upgrade from a poulan! I cut firewood for the woodstove in my house,and only run the stove for around 3 months a year.
It is a good saw though. I have ran it pretty hard the past 10 years, and have done NO maintenance on it until now.

 

[wshytle]

Marty-

Back in '96 after hurricane Fran came through I bought a Husky 55. It's been a great saw. However, a buddy of mine bought a 55 the same day and his "blew up" after only a short while. I ended up with his saw as a parts saw for mine. Mine is still running strong but I did need to swap carbs the other day. The throttle flapper came loose in mine and it was just easier to swap them out vs trying to fix the throttle shaft. My small engine man down the road says it's one of the best saws they have offered for the money. Have you seen the prices for saws lately? I think I paid $260 for mine back then and that was high at the time. I think a comparable saw is over twice that amount now.

 

[digger]

Nothin wrong with that saw!
My 455 just didn't have the power I was looking for, hence the bigger 372.
The 455 does a great job for 12" and under, but I've been getting 18+ logs lately and it just takes to long.
Man that sucker eats wood like crazy!
I'm really impressed with it.

 

[bjamison]

Charlie - I'm late to this thread, but that 372XP is a GREAT saw. Don't own one, but have read lots of stuff on them. Good call on the 20 inch bar. That saw should handle wood like a hot knife through butter.

I run Stihl, Poulan, Echo and McCulloch chainsaws, but for whatever reason never swerved into a Husky. If I did, I might like to try a 346XP as I read they are a great all round firewood saw.

We burn a fair amount of wood at my house - two woodstoves and keep the chainsaws busy.

 

[digger]

Bill J.
The ONLY reason I went orange was the fact that I have a super dealer local (35 miles) away that can work on them if need be. That and the fact that he's a Cub Cadet dealer that buys stuff from me that he can't get from MTD, LOL

 

[mgwin]

Bill,

Two stoves? Man, you must have a big house! I have enough fun feeding one stove, I couldn't imagine feeding two.

Charlie,

Most of the trees I cut are pine, around 10 to 18 inches in diameter. Occasionally one will be larger. I was toying with the thought of a 372xp until I looked at the price, WOW! If I cut tractor trailer loads of wood like you, I wouldn't give it a second thought. After I cut all the pine trees off of my property, I will probably quit the wood cutting business, and spend more time on cub cadets.

 

[aaytay]

I love my Husqvarna 359. It starts easily and cuts wood like an eager bever.....BUT!

It hasn't been without it's problems...

Right after I got it, dad and I were doing some wood-cutting one day. His old Stihl was doing the bulk of the cutting, when we decided that his saw needed a touch-up on the chain with a file. He wanted to keep cutting, so he grabbed my Husqvarna to keep cutting while I grabbed his Stihl and took it in the garage to work on the chain.

I could hear him cutting outside, then he shut the saw off to move some brush out of the way saying, "Man, this saw REALLY cuts!" After a few minutes I hear him say, "What the @!#$#????" Then he comes into the garage saying, "Sorry, but I think I just broke your saw!" The pull-start was locked up. It would pull out about 1/2" and then stop with a clunk.

We pulled the recoil off the side of the saw, only to realize that the recoil was fine, but the engine was locked up. This saw only had about 4hrs of run time on it!

Long story short, this is what we found after pulling the cylinder-jug off the engine. It turns out when they assembled the saw, they somehow forgot to install the keepers on the cylinder/connecting rod wrist pin. When the saw was shut down the cylinder just happened to be down low enough that the wrist-pin slid out of the piston into the exhaust port when dad tipped the saw on it's side to gas it up, so nothing could move.

Here's what the piston looked like. As you can see, it looks brand-new, but you can see how the wrist pin just 'floats' around.

The problem is that the wrist pin had been 'floating' inside the cylinder jug, so it messed up the inside of the cylinder. The other odd thing is that there were "bubbles" in the cylinder casting. You can see them as the bright spots at the top of this cylinder. Also you can see where the wrist-pin was contacting the top edge of the exhaust port at the bottom of this picture.

Here's another pic of the same area. (Blue circle is the pits or bubbles in cylinder, green circle is where the wrist pin was hitting.)

The saw was still under warranty, so Husqvarna was very good about fixing it up in short order. The local Husqvarna shop did the warrranty work installing a new piston, wrist-pin, cylinder jug, cylinder bolts....oh, and the wrist pin keepers. (LOL)

The bottom line is that the saw is still a great saw with lots of power and I love using it, not to mention, Husqvarna did a nice job of standing behind their product.

 

[dfrisk]

ART - I suspect the "bubbles" are the chrome plating coming loose from the alum. parent material. I'm not a huge fan of alum. plated cyl bores. Too easy to scratch the chrome and then it ultimately breaks and flakes off. Once that happens your remaining engine life is measured in minutes if not seconds. But they can live a long time as long as good servicing of air & fuel filters is done.

There's other materials that they plasma spray that can coat alum. cylinders, Nikasil is one, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikasil But it's still really hard to beat good old cast iron with cast aluminum molded around it. The chrome plated cylinders just remind me WAY too much of a Chevy Vega engine. (even though they really weren't plated)

But, YES, wrist pin keepers are important for long engine life. Best design I ever saw was on our little R/C car engines. They used little Teflon buttons pressed into the ends of the wrist pins. They were a "Life-Time Part", new pistons & sleeves didn't come with the rods & wrist pins or buttons. We ran one engine 3-4 years and through 5-6 rebuilds and 2-3 rods and never replaced those buttons. Not bad for an engine that ran up to 32,000 (thirty-two Thousand) RPM.