Find a dealer which sells Husqvarna or Stihl. Ask them to try both saws, buy the one you like. I have both the Husky is nice for smaller sticks, get the Stihl when the stick diameter is greater than 12". You will like either of the saws, they are what the professionals use.

You probably have a vacum leak in the crankcase, the base of the carburetor, or a faulty vacum fuel pump diaphram.

for $149.95 go to Lowes and buy a Poulan 16". Unless you're "Joe Woodchoppper" it does just fine-Mine has cut up arould 4 hurricane's worth of trees & limbs. I agree a Stil or a Husky is a good saw, but for those of us home hobbiest with light occasional sawing Poulan is pretty good-and they're made in Shreveport LA

Unless you enjoy working on them get a stihl and cut wood fast and easy

quote:

Originally posted by CAJUNLAWYER:
for $149.95 go to Lowes and buy a Poulan 16". Unless you're "Joe Woodchoppper" it does just fine-Mine has cut up arould 4 hurricane's worth of trees & limbs. I agree a Stil or a Husky is a good saw, but for those of us home hobbiest with light occasional sawing Poulan is pretty good-and they're made in Shreveport LA

Sorry....gotta' rain on this parade. I don't know about the rest of the country, but around here you can get a small Stihl for about 30 bones more(on sale) than the Poulan and it's a lot more machine.

Brian~

Stihl

You won't be disappointed.

a couple of weeks ago, my 5 yr old leaf blower wouldn't start. I bought a carb kit ($20) and set off to overhaul the carb for the third time in 5 years. Still no start. I changed the little fuel filter in the fuel line down in the tank. NO start. I changed the fuel cap. There is a rubber check valve in there to make sure the tank gets a little crankcase pressure. NO START.

Now, I've got $30 in parts and three hrs in this thing. I told my wife that I don't deserve this crap, and I'm going to buy a new one. Anouther $100 later, I have a working leaf blower.

THEN, I went to start my weedeater. NO START. I took all the NEW matching parts off the blower and installed them in the weedeater. It starts and runs fine.

SAVE YOUR SELF. Take it far away and tie the old chainsaw to a tree, so that it WILL NOT follow you home.

peace.

a forty year old chain saw, chunk it, go to loews or home depot,,,get a new one

Gunsmith 11 gave the best advice...toss it and go buy a Stihl. I made the mistake of buying a McCullough chain saw and a McCullough weed eater, and both were junk. The Stihl 041 is 25 years old and still going strong. The discount house stuff ain't no bargain...You get what you pay for.

Try giving it a shot of starting fluid that might get it going.
Steve

I got a lot of good service out of my Mac, but when it died I got
a Stihl and love it (seems to be a majority recommendation here).
However, nobody mentioned starting fluid. I agree w/ all of the cleaning ideas, but I keep a can of starting fluid around my machines and it helps get things started. Good sawing...

I know you didn't want to hear the awful truth but the people here are correct. It's time for a new saw. Put the old one on a shelf somewhere and it will always remind you of your dad. I was given my grandfather's old McCulloch saw after he died. I start it once a year and put it back on the shelf. I won't get rid of it but won't ever use it either.

Any of the professional quality saws will do the trick for ya and they all of the updated safety features which your old saw doesn't. Stihl, Husqvuarna, Johnsered, etc. The only way to go.

I don't know a professional who doesn't use STIHL saws. Besides the people who sell them usually service them.

I guess it wasn't worth tearing mine down. I replaced rings, oil seals, sprocket, diaphragm, fuel filter & fuel line. Also bought the 20" bar. W/the mulla and sweat from cutting wood I could've bought a couple of "real" saws. Picked up the last of the 12" PooLan w/o any of the safety devices. Lowes, $89.95 as I recall. I think they bested waly-worlds price. It was the one hand, if needed, answer to the old Min-Mac. I'd given thought of buying one of the betta saws, but neva got a round tuit. Haven't fired either up in a couple of years. They both still have a couple of trees left in 'em. If I was gonna cut more than that I probably would go w/new, lighter and easy to start. I still have the original one-piece 16" bar for the Homelite. I could always move ole blue from starter to closer.

quote:

Originally posted by n4zov:
I don't know a professional who doesn't use STIHL saws. Besides the people who sell them usually service them.

It's probably regional as well. Stihl is third on the list around here. I work with a lot of different loggers and most use Husqvuarna or Jonsered.