Resurrected Stihl 026 Pro

[ttyR2]

Just put the finishing touches on the 026 Pro I picked up on ebay a few weeks back. Out of the box, it had low compression, a trashed clutch (including a missing bearing cage), non-functioning kill switch, and the typical dirty mess.

Put a new piston/rings in it, upgraded to a WT-194 carb, replaced the chewed up cylinder head cover with another one off ebay, replaced the sprocket side cover, cleaned everything in solvent, and I think I have a runner!

I probably put more into the saw that it was worth, but I know exactly what shape it's in now, and it was a lot of fun. I'd highly recommend taking the plunge to any of you lesser-experienced folks out there who has a project saw and aren't sure if you can tackle it.

One of the issues I ran into was that when I replaced the carb, I also ordered a replacement "bushing" block that the mixture screws go in. The one I got was much longer, and I ended up cutting it down. After re-examining the IPL, I see there is another block that is shorter and is probably what I needed to order.

 

[logging22]

Clean saw man. Looks good.

 

[wigglesworth]

Got one thats identical, down to the 18"ES bar and all. Great saws. Should last you years.

Gotta ask....did you pressure/vac test? The FW side seals like to go bad on them, which could have been the cause of your low compression in the first place.

 

[chopperfreak2k1]

Got one thats identical, down to the 18"ES bar and all. Great saws. Should last you years.

Gotta ask....did you pressure/vac test? The FW side seals like to go bad on them, which could have been the cause of your low compression in the first place.

yup, thats smart thinkin

 

[ttyR2]

I had both crank seals replaced, just to be safe

 

[bcorradi]

Great job on that very nice looking 026 pro. They are great saws no matter what ST says .

 

[Steveo_supremo]

Looks Great!

 

[porsche965]

Nice job! Nice to know what you have is solid.

 

[ttyR2]

I ended up using a new OEM gasket from my local dealer that mic'd out at .020". The ones I got from Bailey's were .015" and either made the squish band too small for comfort (.013"), or huge at .030" depending on whether I tried or or stacked two.

 

[HittinSteel]

Very nice job. Looks great!

 

[kev1n]

great looking saw, your motivating me to go out and rebuild one of the 026s in the shop.
kev1n

 

[ttyR2]

Having never worked on an engine this small, I was expecting a fight getting the cylinder back on, fighting the rings, etc. It couldn't have been easier with the ring compressor kit I got from Baileys. Cheap too.

Nothing like the pain fitting the huge cast iron rings on the low pressure piston in the old 1940's vintage Curtis two stage air compressor I rebuilt a few years ago.

The service manual said 7ft/lbs for the cylinder-to-case bolts and I don't have access to a torque wrench that will go down that low. The local saw shop said "just get them snug" which I did (I have a decent feel for bolt torque). If I check them one more time after a good warm up and cool down of the engine, should that be fine? Just seems like an awfully low bolt torque, but they are small bolts going into aluminum.

 

[stihlbro]

Nice job,looks good!

 

[Mac B.]

Do you have any before pics??

Mac

 

[ttyR2]

I jumped into the project before taking any, but the original ebay auction is here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...htPCk44%3D&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK:MEWNX:IT

Fired up the saw for the first time today and she runs veddy nice. Was seriously overoiling the chain and noticed I'd left the pump set wide open. Set back to the E position (have a Rollomatic bar on it now) and cleaned up the mess. I don't have any logs handy, but tuned the carb for safe high rpm running until I can get it dialed in under load.

After warming it up all the way, I let it cool down and pulled the muffler. The piston looks perfect (just wanted to make sure no scoring showed up).

I'm a happy dude. Now...on to find an 036 Pro and 046 Mag to round out the family

 

[wigglesworth]

great looking saw, your motivating me to go out and rebuild one of the 026s in the shop.
kev1n

Rats...I was hoping he was motivating you to send me one...

 

[01cummins]

What piston kit did you use and what solvent to clean the saw?

 

[ttyR2]

Meteor piston kit from Bailey's, piston pin bearing from the local Stihl dealer, plain stoddard solvent as used in solvent tanks. Stripped the saw down, left the cylinder on, plugged the inlet/exhaust, and went at it with solvent and a brush. Had the crank seals replaced after cleaning.