Chainsaw Troubles? - Teaching Myself to Tune and Repair Saws on our Homestead

Hello everyone, welcome to the video, welcome to the channel, my name is Mike and it's a beautiful snowy and freezing day. I don't know if you can see the ice shining on the trees behind us. We had a small ice storm. We saved ourselves quite a bit of damage, we didn't really have much to do, but it revealed a weakness in the fact that all the

chainsaw

s I have, none of them work like they should if you're looking for the second part. on the way, I hope that's the next video on Thursday, we're not going to make this up, but it's what I plan to work on again, it's supposed to be beautiful in the mid 40s and sunshine and this whole mess should go away. so I hope we get back to the road hauling project soon, talk about these

saws

and the reason why I'm doing this one.

This is my Husqvarna 55

chainsaw

. I think I bought it last summer for just under a couple hundred dollars. The 55 is the predecessor to the 455 ranch that you see was sold in a lot of stores, it's a great little saw, it's definitely a very useful saw. I had some issues with it last year and we'll talk about that once we review it and I talked to lagerweight about it who has another youtube channel if you're not familiar I'll leave an info card in the description or a link in the description so you can review it. He found me some free 55 parts and I'm hoping we can make these two 55s.

This is the only reason we're trying to address all of this today. We don't really have a local saw shop that works with Husqvarna. We have one that dabbles at Husqvarna and every time I take him there, they are great people. Don't get me wrong, but the

saws

are not his main priority, so every time I take him there, it usually takes a couple of months for the cell phone to respond to me and many times it comes back with the same problem I sent it for. so I decided it was about time we learned how to do this ourselves so if you are here to learn something we are learning together and here is your disclaimer I am not a professional so if you try this and something happens to you to your saw.

You know you're fine, you'll want to consult a professional, we'll learn together, although if that's what you're here for, this is a Husqvarna 120 Mark II, it's an average 30cc saw, like the one a small arborist saw. I had a subscriber who actually sent me this, it's a renewal and since then what's going on, no joke, it's pretty exciting and since I've had it it works great, but as soon as you get out of the cut it closes. it went out so we're going to try to fix it and I have a problem with the chain breaking that we're going to try to fix and then last summer I also bought this used Husqvarna 372 on eBay and since I bought it it hasn't been idling properly or running properly correctly and I tried to do it in a video but I made a couple of very simple common mistakes when I was doing it, some of you pointed it out so I did some more research and got a couple more tools so I hope we can do it this good today.

One thing that a lot of people have suggested that I need to get this adjustment right, especially on the top end of these saws, is a little tachometer, so that's what we have. It came with some basic tools, some carburetor adjustment tools, the newer Husqvarnas have some sort of special end for carburetor adjustment, the old one is like this little flathead screwdriver, but we'll get into that as we go, we'll start using This everyone tries again

tune

d and working, by the way, if you are new to the channel, I limit

myself

to one outro and two intros.

That's it this was the second intro so the text alert remains let's get to work and see if we can figure this out let's start with the 55 rancher so this was the one I had and you can see here that's right since it's supposed to look good, that one is broken. I haven't separated it yet, but we are preparing. To find out that hopefully we can use the steering wheel out of this and replace it in this, it seems fine, Wade also got me some new parts to rebuild this so I could just put a new one on it.

There is a possibility and I just don't do it. I don't have the money for it right now but maybe this summer we can get through this second one and come out with 255 for the property which would be nice, I think it just sits there, I don't think they'll hold it. Nothing, here we go, there is a tool that I don't have. I have nothing to measure this air space. It's supposed to be 0.3 millimeters on the 55. You can find it in the tech specs online or you can buy a manual. Keep it at home or it's supposed to have a 0.3 millimeter air gap right there.

I have no way of measuring it, so we'll have to go with what it is each time we put the new one in. and then I ordered one, but it hasn't arrived yet. Husqvarna makes it a little bit, I mean, think of a credit card, but Husqvarna gives it the space that it needs and then you just fold it up and put it there. and you make your adjustments there, it's a really simple tool. I just don't have one right now, but when it arrives, we'll go back and fine-

tune

everything, as long as we can get this working together today.

I watched a lot of videos about this last night and a lot of them removed these ruffles the exact same way and they all said the same thing, that's not how you're supposed to do it, but it works for me, which made me laugh, I guess they want you to use a real flywheel puller. We'll practice on the bad one and hopefully figure it out when we get to removing the good one. They said to remove the screw or nut. but leave it still screwed in for verification. I want to get my little crowbar. I didn't realize the tip was broken.

I would take the grinder off a little bit of the flat edge to see if we can get that to work there. I'll show you. but some parts of this are thicker than others so I'm going to go with a meaty section if I can get in there, work there and then they said just take a look at it and this is what they're talking about part of it's thicker other parts I put it under that fleshy section it came out right away what they want you to do would be my gas you see that little slit right there sits an extractor that comes down with a little claw on each side and you squeeze it and it should come out that's it probably what they want you to do, but you know we didn't do it.

I have an idea what would happen if instead of hitting the actual fan we touched this nut, you think that's enough vibration to do. Let's try it, I have to get something to keep them out of the way real quick. We'll just zip tie them out of the way, pull them back, see if we can't just hit that. I have a bigger hammer, but we are. No, we're just doing little taps here. Did we break something with that approach? No, it came right out, like I said, they probably want you to center a extractor right there in the center, that's why it has a detent on it and do it that way, but you know, one guy doesn't have a extractor.

I couldn't find the exact torque spec on this, but most of the saw shop channels I was watching just ran away with an impact anyway, so that's what we're going to do, I think it'll be fun, we'll be back to put this plastic cover on and then this will just click and you're going to have to stick these little wires underneath trying to keep that plastic in place, okay? Next is wading. I bought these parts and a spring-loaded handle. Now I want to go ahead and replace this one because you can see what it has. I mean there's no point in taking this thing apart and then pulling twice and breaking the string so the spring on the 55 is set up pretty good, it comes in a little plastic box like these, the springs feel like they're set up like party favors to catch you but they are pretty easy to use and then they just slide in just line it up on that but I noticed this new one has a little bit of a different pattern in that corner and it didn't fit well there and I probably could have taken spend some time with the file, clean it and reshape that edge. just a little to make it fit, but honestly the old spring really wasn't that bad.

I was more interested in just replacing the handle and the rope itself or the rope, so we'll go ahead and put the old spring back in there. Put a new plastic pulley on with the new rope, then we should be ready to make a knife knot tied at that end and this part is crucial. You don't want to do it like this unless you just want to practice. I get a little excited here doing a little premature knotting and once you're done with your practice go ahead and undo it now pull back through the handle and it's a good time to remember to go through the cover first before you tie it . to the handle and you just line that piece of plastic up there, you just wrap the rope around the bigger thing, you just make sure that the way you're winding the rope pulls against the spring so it retracts on its own.

Put this. screw it in the center and that's it, and the way I like to do it, I just run the rope through the handle and then tighten the rope a little bit and then I tie the knot and that just slides in. I ended up having to do this. twice the first time I did it I didn't tighten it enough so I had to undo the knot and redo it, but that's it, okay, let me do it and see if we can cheer up while I put this on. Back together, I'm just looking down here and lining it up so it's not on top of anything, which can happen and I've done this before.

You end up with something strange sitting in that plastic and tied up. In the seal grooves you can see the wear marks found there, so what I'm looking for here, well I'm looking for the screws, where did they go? I'm just looking for these to work very easily. They shouldn't try to close any space or close anything. I don't want the screws to do any work. I just want the screws to hold the cover if that makes sense. If I can get to this with the impact. I may have to use the and I'm looking, I don't want any space here, that's to put a screwdriver in to make it appear.

I don't want any space here, if I have anything there then any space there and that means I'm tied here or sitting wrong or crooked on something, I would just remove them, play around with it until it's placed where it needs to sit and then we'll see, I don't want let nothing fire. Up top, I just want all of this to have a lot of compression or the air gap off. One of the two does not have a breakdown valve. I could put one there if a guy wanted to, but a guy really doesn't want to.

Oh, deck, a guy needs to learn how to tie better knots, okay, take two, tell you what, let's go ahead and put a barn chain on this thing, see if we can get it to do something here. The air filter is not visible. Great, it does it here, so one thing's for sure: I definitely need a new air filter picked up. I guess it was really hard to get out just because it's like 12 and two degrees outside, it probably hasn't been turned on in four. months, hopefully, we're good, it's got a lot of compression now and I'm wondering, not from the force of pulling it, but just to save some strings, if a guy could add a decomposition valve in there, I have to look into that, so since It's running, which is exciting, let's take this little tachometer we bought and see if we can tune it.

I looked it up in the Husqvarna manual online. The bottom end, which is the island, should be 2500 rpm, the top side should be 12.5. 12,500 rpm 12,500 however you want to put it, that's what it's supposed to be, let me put this cover back on, yeah, we're going to want them to pick up an air filter, sure, oh, that sun stays there, like this is. The difference the temperature makes today, you know, I mean, it's 12, but with the sun it feels like 12 and a half, so before I started this, I had never used one of these before, but I read the instructions, so I started it.

For me and I watched a couple of videos, let's say you're supposed to get as close to the spark plug as possible. It comes with a little wire, if a guy wants it goes to the back like this and then you can put the wire in, I guess you could stick the wire here next to the spark plug, maybe if you want to do that, they also make some versions of these that have little alligator clamps that clip in here to hold it down, we'll play with those. See what it does okay let's see if it's easier to get started now that it's been started once like I said I've never used a tachometer before and honestly I've never tuned a chainsaw before and a lot of people say no.

I don't need the tachometer for the bottom of the tuning, but I think since I'm new to this it might be good to have an accurate metric and since there are stats or specs it gives me a good picture. for reference now I'm just going to explain what I'm doing here and this is based on some tips and tricks I got from some friends but first I start with the air idle screw, if the chain is spinning I turn it until the chain it just stops turning, if it doesn't turn I turn it right before it starts turning, once I figure it out I'm going to double check the numbers on the tachometer and see if it's close to what it's supposed to bespecifications once.

I put it idle where I want it, I go to the low side, so I'll turn it back and forth and try to find a sweet spot between lean and rich, when it gets too lean it will cut itself. When it's too rich it's obviously going to cut off so we're looking for that sweet spot on the low side between the two once I find I also check my numbers on the tachometer and also check the trigger response if it's on the optimal point. if it's where it's supposed to be there should be a decent activation response, it should activate pretty quickly and that's what I'm looking for.

I'm going to run it back and forth a few times so I can listen to it a little bit. a little better and then we'll just go to the high side and that'll be all with tach uh and then once I get to the high side where the tach is supposed to be, I go back and tighten the idle screw longer to make sure the chain is Come to a complete stop once you release the trigger and that should be it, so I think the 55 is ready to go, which I'm excited about, it's probably the saw I use the most.

I'm going to take this one, I'll probably take it home and knock it down and just see what the inside looks like, maybe I'll take my little telescope and look down and see what the cylinder looks like on the inside and maybe get some parts and have 255 , I think it would be worth doing, let me clean this up and then we'll see if we need a 372 here and tune it up and then I have a dead persimmon tree on top it broke off from the ice that went through, we'll go ahead and leave the rest on the ground that way we can stick them into the wood and see what they do.

Many people commented that it sounded. Like it wasn't tuned properly and was running fine everywhere according to the comments section, so I figured since it's a pretty expensive salt I'd stop using it until I had a real tachometer and could get hard. numbers on what this thing is doing that way i don't burn it spark plugs here this one has a decompression valve on there just to start, let's start it up, put it on idle and see where we are and how far ready we are and then we'll make adjustments from there, let's make sure you actually have enough gas to do this, oh, don't have gas, amount of gas, lots of gas around, hopefully, that'll be enough to tune this thing.

It's flat where it fell, the gas comes out the top here, that's what it's supposed to do, I thought, so I think so, I like to take the cap off and just fill the gas inside, make sure it has enough. Looks like that's what I did when I pulled the plug um ah um okay well we made progress it was frustrating getting there yeah it was pretty frustrating but I think it sounds good the low end looks good the high end was saying 13,000 at Husqvarna, but what? They know this and not what they think, but what do they know?

Should I leave it at 12,000 a little low since I plan on grinding in Alaska? That will help reduce the chances of burning this thing prematurely if I leave it. just a little bit lower on the top end, what do you know about that? I need to know that because I don't know okay let's do the 120 next so this one had a couple of problems the simplest one was that I broke it. Look you are a fancy jb weld, you even tried to match the OEM colors, just kidding, that's why the jb world comes about, but what a happy coincidence, that's the other thing, like I said, as soon as I come out of a cut, she goes off every time. so let's see with this tachometer and a little adjustment, we can't get it out of it like this, take off my glove for this part, there's a little screw, bro, there was a little screw. screw, come on, that's got it, but where and you'll see how it just swings as this little guy slides here and it's just a spring that moves, there's a little detent and those spring rods and that little detent now has some pressure from spring on it or if it goes the other way around maybe I bet it is like that that would make more sense because it's supposed to lock it oh no you know this video is turning out to be a good thing jb well it didn't.

Wait, could you imagine no, we're going to put it on anyway? I'm going to have to order another one. I just have to be gentle while we put this together. It will continue like this. I have to grab a chain. I can still use the chain. break I just can't pull this side I have to favor this side I'll just have to order a new handle yeah yeah that's the problem with the ice it breaks the trees okay I can get that lower model where it has What to be, I get the rpm where it's supposed to be on the low side and on the idle screw as soon as I mess with that high side and get it to where it's supposed to be, you let go of it, it goes off, ah, okay, So I need your help with this and I apologize.

The road microphone has already been turned off. The cold is taking the energy out of everything today, man, but I'm not sure I can get that low end where I want it and where I think it sounds good. and adjust the idle air screw, everything matches the tachometer at the bottom up to three thousand. Good trigger response. Everything they say you should have on that end. You can see it well. I feel like I'm doing that part from above. In the end, I get it to match where it's supposed to be in the rpm, but you see as soon as I release the trigger, she's done and I feel like we've been doing it long enough, it's hot enough, it's already warmed up, so that no I don't know, like I said, if today we are learning, we are learning together, so if you know why, if you work with saws, this is the key, okay, we are all listening to this part, if you work with saws and you are I'm very familiar with this and know why it does this.

Leave it in the comments. I want to know. It's a useful little saw. It is a good sized small saw for clearing trails, clearing and making cups. So here are the trees. Two fairly good sized persimmon trees. for the persimmon trees they are definitely dead there was a top right there now it's here it fell with the ice now we'll go ahead and put those two on the ground so the rest of the top doesn't fall on us unexpectedly It would be a good test for the mountain range, we'll use the 55 on that small side and then we'll try the 372 on that, just put them on the wood and see how they act, we won't do a lot of cleaning, I just want to test the saws properly, so, yeah, I'm very happy with that one, let's try 372 on the other, plus tonight is Saturday, I have to post this video for you tomorrow, it will be a long night.

Beautiful things. and everything I keep, you can, just break a toothpick and we'll leave it this high, we'll leave it here. Chelsea forges the fungus of her. These probably aren't good for it, but if it has fungal activity there, it'll probably grow a little more right there maybe not much holding on let's do whatever it does um now wow hmm I think they worked pretty well if you cut all the days or use saws every day, let me know how it sounds like in the video, if they sound good to you, I'm very excited because it was the learning process a little frustrating, yes, learning processes are always frustrating, but driving 20 minutes until the city, they drop you off, you get a call in a couple of weeks and maybe you get it. getting it

repair

ed the way you want it

repair

ed in about a month is also very frustrating, it's more of a frustration.

Investing today was frustrating, but from now on it gets easier if I think I have a problem, if I think it's no longer available. melody I can go straight to the barn I can get the tools I can take everything out and I can go through them and every time I do it it will be faster and faster and faster and to the point that one day I imagine I could just take it out of my pocket and do it real quick ear to spend the day in the woods and then you might go take out the tach one day and do it that way the more you do it.

The better you do it and the faster you do it, it took me about four hours to do all of this today, which is a very long amount of time, but it will save me a lot of time. in the long term and I think it's worth learning can be difficult, but not knowing how to do things is also very difficult, you have to choose strongly, you know what I mean, tomorrow, like I said, Chelsea and I are leaving. to do some work on the goat barn and chicken coop, we'll give you a video on that at the end of February, but I want a big progress video from when we started moving dirt to when we got a Bunch of posts, lumber, and boards.

I want a big progress video, so I'm going to wait until the end of February when we should have a lot of that done and then on Monday I'll put it up, not say finish. touches, but make more progress on the road drag so the second part of the road drag, put it in the gravel if we can find some to put it through its paces and see what it does so it'll come on Thursday. I hope you are enjoying the channel. you're enjoying whatever you're doing today, hopefully the jb solder is dry on the gimbal of the little mavic mini and we'll get you a really nice flight on this thing, ice can cause problems, but it brings a certain amount of beauty too and when you're here in the middle of nowhere, that's a nice thing, yeah, you take others good enough who I work for, it's me, I work for me, do it, so you.