OT-Stihl Chain Saw Trouble

Warning to new Stihl Owners..don"t leave the Stihl Dealer without having an authorized qualified Tech verify the mixture is correctely set..i.e. "leaned out" I purchased a MS 660 (7bph) saw last June ($1200.00, not cheap!) , it became progressivly hard to start and finally failed completely with less than 30 hours total run time. Returned the saw to the dealer who ended up rebuilding the saw under warrenty ($900.00) at no cost to me. The saw burned up becaused it was running too "lean" a mixture...came that way from the factory, the dealer apparently just assembled the saw and when it started considered it good to go when I purchased it. Cause of the problem was a bad Carb that could not be adjusted rich" enough to keep the saw from self distruction. Am happy that Stihl honored the warrenty and the Dealer did "good" by me!..but the lesson learned is that I should have insisted the dealer verify the saw was correctly adjusted/assembled and they should have not assumed the carb came correctly adjusted from the factory,so much for Quality Control! don"t repeat my mistake when buying such an expensive saw regardless of the manufacturer.

I just bought a new stihl farm boss. thanks for the info. I will check it.

Most dealers know how to change a sparkplug if you tell them which way to turn it to loosen and which way to turn it to tighten it...Other than that, most of em have no clue..I wouldn't want any of them around here touching mine-i'd rather just take my chances on how it was set at the factory..

My stihl book says to adjust high at 2 turns out form closed and if you don't know what you are doing to leave it there.

Never touched my adjustment and don't plan to--I
got the extended warranty by buying a 6 pack of
their oil at the time of purchase--did same on
Stihl blower i have--it is cold natured about
warming up and need a little fine tuning but noone
around here(three dealers) that i would want to
touch it..

Similar thing happened to me with a Husquavarna weed eater I pruchased at my local Kubota dealer. I found the misadjusted carb settings not to long after I had it when it was hard to start and set them like the manual called for and it has run well ever since

Isn't that something that also correlates with RPMS, and a small engine tachometer should be used to verifiy its within specification. I've always been happy with the brand, its a good thing to know when getting a new one, which may not be often, they are a tool you take pride in owning nice to know its right from the start.

my stihl weedwacker, blower and chainsaw run well,
also my Husky chainsaw,

however, I live in west ky and we can still buy non corn gas. So that may make some difference.

I know these machine will run on ethanol gas, but they will have to drag me kicking and screaming to the pump to make me buy it for my small engines.
we can still even buy the high octane non ethanol gas, which I do for my small engine.
____________
good point and thanks for the heads up,

I guess I would not know if my engine was right or not as long as it started up easy and ran up to the rpm's needed to do the job.

my local stihl dealer sells and services most of the commercial mowers used in our community: stag, grasshopper, brands, only the top of the line small engines and mowers,

so far I have had good service from them.

yea, Husq is suppose to be a good one--few yrs ago bought a new one--hard to start and chain jumped all the time--got rid of it and got the Stihl--been good so far--best thing i ever did was get the easy start recoil--some don't like it ---I do..

Don,
Two years ago my sister bought a high priced 2cycle weed cutter. She requested the hardware sales person to start it up to make sure it ran without glitches. That did not happen. She brought it home and it did not run!!
Owning it for about a year she asked if I would take a look at it. After a close look I found that it required a certain tool to adjust the fuel mixture. It took a needle nose pliers to adjust the mixture. This too was set way too lean. Now it runs as it should. Today we have inept box store sales people and tools engineered only to be repaired or adjusted by service departments. Not as it was in the good old days.
Mr. T. Minnesota

How big of trees are you cutting? I bought a 441 last year and thought that was pretty good size.

All the trees I"m cutting are 60-75 ft Eucalyptus trees, the largest ones are about 30-35 inches in diameter. A very heavy and hot burning wood, cut to stove wood length its all you can do to lift one piece thats 18 or more inches in diameter,also they drop alot of limbs, be grateful if they don"t grow in your State, mostly a warm weather tree. As to my saw size, I was struggling to fell trees with a 20 inch Big Box store when I happened to make friends on a Cruise last Spring with a tree topping logger from Washington State. In front of my wife he told me it was unsafe to be using such a small saw, that I should get a Stihl with at least a 32 inch Bar, "unsafe" was all the wife had to hear and she insisted I get the new saw! Could have kissed the guy! Got the MS 660 because the Stihl Catalog "implied/recommeded" that as the minimum proper size saw to use with a 32 inch or larger bar, although I probably could have gotten by with at least one size smaller saw with the 32 inch bar. After using the new saw I have to agree about a larger saw being safer because your spending less time making felling and bucking cuts than with a little 20 inch 50cc banger..with less time behind the saw less probability of something stupid happening. Its been a great saw except for the starting problem I had, a bit of a brut to manhandle at 17lbs for someone who"s in his late 60"s.

thanks for the warning. last year DH bought me a nice new stihl 18". last winter it fired right up, but last summer when i went to trim some low branches i had to tug on it a few times so i will check the mixture setting and make sure it's right. there is also a warning i would like to add: the first one DH bought me had that newfangled easy start on it, (what junk) so, on the second day i pulled the cord and it stayed out, and on the 3rd day of using it when i got it back the rope broke. i thought ok, no big deal, oh, was i wrong, what a nightmare, the first time i put it back together i pulled the cord it stayed out, the second time the spring popped out which is about 8' long and took me 6 hrs to get back together which i had to do because i knew if i just took all the parts back to him he would have told me sorry, warranty void. i was fuming when i took it back and demanded an old fashioned direct pull type, which he did and i love the one i have now. i have never fell a tree, DH has a 32" so he fells and cuts the trunk and i wield mine around on the smaller branches, but i have cut 36" trunks with mine when DH couldn't get his started. while we are on the warning, subject, i was reading somewhere about this guys mom had a tree fall on her driveway and when he went to grab his, he discovered that someone had snuck in his shop and had filled his chainsaws gas tanks with sludge. upon reading that i strolled out to the shop and emptied my saws gas tank and suggested to DH that he do the same.

You guys are buying stuff at the wrong place. When I bought my Husqvarna saw a few years ago they took me in the back as they fired the saw up and using a small engine tach adjusted it with me watching. Then told me to bring it back after about 10 hours and they would check and adjust as needed for free.

Rick

Bought my .046 Magnum shoot 10 years back or more and they still adjust it for free. As long as I own the saw....