Stihl 031 AV chain saw

I thought i would share with all you tractor people about what i did to my 031 saw. I mentioned tractor so it is tractor related. I have my dads 031 av saw that he bought new in 1973. It has sat for many years. I went through the carb and got it running. It would quit after it got warmed up, about 1 tank of gas. Refill it up and it wont start. Looses its spark. I know they dont sell points and condensers so im told and coils either. And the coils are known to go bad. I added an electronic ignition module from an old weed eater. Eliminating the points and condensor. It never wanted to idle very good either. Now it will idle all day long and will go full throttle when you need it to. It has hotter spark. My .02

With all the talk lately about chain saws, I will tell my story, Dad bought a big Lombard probably around 1960, it was a big heavy slow runnin old saw, you could almost count the teeth as they went around,it cut all our wood until 1978, I bought a big Mac cause we needed to speed things up, that was back in the Dutch Elm days and the country around here was full of them, and they were big, that big Mac with a 20 inch bar and a chisel chain would cut rings around my friends saws, I was the feller and did a lot of dropping for folks. Bought a smaller Mac also, wore them both out and no parts available anymore so like every one says buy from a dealer not a box store, good Stihl dealers here, so bought a Stihl. Did research on the net and wanted a MS310 or 320, told them it had to run the crap out of a 20 inch bar and I also bought a 16 inch bar cause I was only going to have one saw. They talked me down to a MS290 Farm Boss said it's the real deal. this was in 2008, I have to admit it's a good saw but it won't run the crap out of a 20 inch bar, it does great on the 16 and it's the hardest starting SOB I have ever had, it will pull the handle through your fingers and snap the recoil back so hard I can't believe it hasn't tore the cord off. Had it back right away and they said it seems a little worse than most. I also bought a MS170 and that is a sweet little saw. Some day when I'm driving by the dealer I will have one will a compression release, what would you recommend??

It's running too advance. Retard the timing some and it'll not snap back that starter rope. You might check the flywheel key...it might have bent just enough to advance the timing.

That happened on my 029 bought new in 1996.

The flywheel is cast aluminum and the key is cast integral with the flywheel.

When the key sheared, the only remedy was a new $90+ flywheel.

I recently replaced the 029 with a new 290. Before use, I removed the recoil and verified tightness of the flywheel nut with a few whacks of my DC impact wrench.

I used the 290 the first time yesterday and this morning noticed that it appears that the chain is not oiling. What next?

Dean

Pull the bar and chain and run it a minute, see if you have oil out the port. Then make sure the little hole in the side of the bar is clean.

Thanks, T.

Normally, I would check it out myself, but in this case I will take it back to the dealer, as this is a brand new saw that was first used yesterday.

I want the dealer to know that there is an issue in case further problems show up later.

Dean