Check out my old Homelite XL

[JAXJEREMY]

Pulled the saw apart today. The last time I used it was probably 2 years ago, so it was pretty filthy. I was digging through my boxes of stuff an found a carb rebuild kit for it that I had never put in.

Turns out it is a Walbro.

I'm assuming I need a gasket for where the carb mounts to the casing, should I just use gasket maker?

Piston looked ok, didn't seem scorched or anything.

This is the carb after putting the new needle and gaskets in. Should there be some sort of gasket between that black plastic piece(not sure what it's called) and the carb?

This is the duck bill valve that creates the pressure in the oil tank, when I open took it out, that piece made of the pourous material between the valve and the tubing was push all of the way in..I'm guessing that might have been part of my problem with the oil continuing to squirt out even after the saw was off.

I still need a filter and that's about it. Is there anything particular I need to do to adjust the carb? Thanks.

 

[Rftreeman]

back when I first started climbing trees for ROW trimming we used these saws as our climbing trim saws, some of them had the double trigger....nice little saws that would leave your hands tingling for a few after using it...

 

[csx7006]

Yep i have my super 2 and she runs like a raped #####.

 

[JAXJEREMY]

Okay, I've rebuilt the carb, put in new gaskets, air filter, fuel filter and fuel line. I'm now in the process of putting everything back together.

My saw has the pressurized oiler and I had been having problems with it pissing oil every time I shut it off. I think I may have found the problem. There is a small nipple that inserts into the oil pickup, this was laying in the bottom of the oil tank, I reinserted it into the pickup when redid the oil lines, so I'll be interested to see if this fixes it.

Anyway, on to the real reason for my post. I noticed that the oil line runs directly underneath the throttle rod for the carb. When I pull the throttle, the rod pushes down a bit on the oil line. Unless I really screwed up, I'm sure the line is routed correctly. I'm just curious if that will do anything to interfere with the oiler.

Also, what steps do I need to take to adjust the carb? Thanks.

 

[JasonBmac]

Nice little XL. I've got a pretty nice XL2 myself.... I'll stick some photos on the end of this post.

The manual for the XL recommends that you loosen the oil cap when you put the saw up, to relieve tank pressure. This has proved reasonably acceptable on my saw, but I keep a few papertowels under it anyway - they're always somewhat incontinent.

Also, that brass fitting on which the duckbill is placed is a porous sintered material, like a filter. The more of it you leave exposed between the duckbill and the oil line, the faster the tank will de-pressurize itself after shut-down. Also provides some oil volume control when running.

For your carb setting, it's pretty simple. Most of these saws only have an idle speed and a Lo needle - the Hi jet is fixed.

Set the Lo needle to about 1.25 turns out from gently seated to start. Fire up your saw and warm it up. The idle will probably be pretty poor (rich).

Slowly turn the Lo needle in. THe idle should begin to smooth out and speed up. At some point, you'll reach a peak, and going further will kill the motor. Back the Lo needle off a little bit (1/8th).

Now, it's iterative. Allow the saw to idle a while. Goose the throttle. Note how it responds. If it bogs, sucks air, open the Lo needle a touch. If it smokes, coughs, sputters, close the needle a bit. When it'll idle a LONG time (a minute or more) and accelerate cleanly, it's good. Adjust the Idle speed (the other screw) until the chain doesn't run at idle. Revisit the Lo if necessary.

Since these saws have a fixed Hi jet, there's a limit to what you can do on that end. If your saw is quite rich, you can lower the metering lever height under the diaphragm slightly. Mine likes it best about 5 thou below the carb body (spec is even with carb body). Higher is richer, lower is leaner. The saw should 4 cycle at WOT no load, and 2 cycle under load.

Here're a few photos of my XL-2, also a freeby from a friend...

J

 

[JAXJEREMY]

Jason, great looking saw, and thanks for the information. Question about the brass fitting on the oil line. Is there a benefit to letting the tank de-pressurize faster or slower after shutting down, and if so does mine appear to be in the correct place? Also, will the oil line running right under the throttle rod cause any issues?

Good tip about leaving the oil cap loose. When I was using the saw on a regular basis I would do that, however it didn't seem to help all that much. The thing still pissed oil.

Once I have the rest of the saw back together I'll use you're procedure for setting the carb.

Thanks again.

 

[JAXJEREMY]

what about spark plug? Is there a particular brand/type I should be using?

 

[Metals406]

That's a real clean saw there. . . I got a kertrillion XL's and XL2's. I think they're a pretty fun little saw to run.

The first one I ever got was given to me by a friend. . . I had it completely rebuilt for 80 bucks at the local Husky shop, that included a bar and chain.

For ####s and giggles, I cut down a 24" DBH Doug Fir with it on time!! LOL

Talk about a beaver chewing at a stump. Hahahahaha

Also, as stated earlier, loosen the oil cap after use -- it helps some.

 

[JasonBmac]

The specified plug is Champion DJ-7J.

You got a parts list for this saw? If not, drop me a PM with your email.

I don't recall any difficulty in mine with the oil line interfering with the carb linkage... You certainly should be able to route the lines without interference.... But so long as it's not crushing the line, it should work OK, until it wears a hole in it... You should try to re-route it.

Which oil line anyway? There's a pressure line from the crankcase to the tank, a oil line from tank to the fitting on what became the diaphragm oil pump on later saws, and then the line from there to the bar mount... Shouldn't be any interference in there. The IPL may give you some clues here...

The brass part should let the tank depressurize faster if more of it is exposed. THis would also serve to reduce the oil output (as the tank will be at a lower average pressure)... Honestly, though, mine is a piece of brass tubing now, with no bleed-back. No matter what I did, it always leaked some bar oil. I've come to accept that. The oil rate is similar to the fuel consumption rate, and that's good enuf for me.

I see a few posts back that you were missing the air filter? I made mine by cutting up a replacement Briggs and Stratton foam element so it fit. Cheap and available. I'm sure the OEM is available from somewhere (maybe Calvin?), but I hate buying what I can make.

My intake gaskets are thin cardstock. It works.

Good luck!

J

 

[JAXJEREMY]

I do have a parts list for the saw. Unfortunately, it doesn't show the routing of the oil lines. I only have two lines, the one that is interfering is the one from the tank to the oil fitting that oils the chain. The only way I can see it routing is directly under the throttle rod..I'll snap some pics tonight.

I was able to find a guy on ebay that sells all the obsolete parts and scored the filter and some other parts from him. Thanks for the spark plug info, I'll snag one of those this weekend.

 

[JasonBmac]

I'll have a boo under the hood of my XL2 too (well, I'll peek in thru the choke lever slot, anyway! The plumbing is very similar.

J

 

[DSS]

Those are cool old saws .Good job on the rebuild. I've always wanted one of those, also a poulan xxv. No, I don't know why, I just think those little top handles are neat. :spam:

 

[JasonBmac]

You want one because they're cool
Under 10 pounds wet
almost all magnesium
simple
Nice styling (sorta sporty lookin', I think)
The XL-2 is both a top handle and a rear handle (2 triggers )
it's fun to accomplish big things with small tools (wife's been sayin' that for years)

and you can get one for next to nothing!

In my neck of the woods, (not far from you, in Southern NB) there is nothing it can't take down. Coastal, very stunted growth. Imagine it's not alot different on the Island....

J

 

[HorseShoeInFork]

Those are cool old saws .Good job on the rebuild. I've always wanted one of those, also a poulan xxv. No, I don't know why, I just think those little top handles are neat. :spam:

I'm not trying to rub it in or anything, but.......

 

[DSS]

I'm not trying to rub it in or anything, but.......

Ouch.....you are a horrible man....nice diaper on the poulan.

You want one because they're cool
Under 10 pounds wet
almost all magnesium
simple
Nice styling (sorta sporty lookin', I think)
The XL-2 is both a top handle and a rear handle (2 triggers )
it's fun to accomplish big things with small tools (wife's been sayin' that for years)

and you can get one for next to nothing!

In my neck of the woods, (not far from you, in Southern NB) there is nothing it can't take down. Coastal, very stunted growth. Imagine it's not alot different on the Island....

J

Yeah ,nothing too large on the island ,either. Kind of a nostalgia thing with me. Some older guys I used to go to the woods with when I was young had those top handles. Those guys are all gone now and so are the saws...don't know where all the old saws go on this island, but they are rare. Someday I'll find some, lotsa fun looking anyway...LOL

 

[JAXJEREMY]

Pulled the case apart again and here's how it looks.

Shot of how the oil line was.

Here it is with the rod. You can see how it was pushing down on the oil line.

I was able to rotate the fitting the oil line goes to. This allowed the line to sit further down.

After the fitting was moved you can see the line now passes between that arch in thc rod and it's not interfering. I think this should work.

 

[roncoinc]

I'm not trying to rub it in or anything, but.......

Well,,i dont either,,but what the heck

 

[JasonBmac]

I got into mine last night too, much to the wife's chagrin... And I think I solved my oil leak too!

Wow, the plumbing on the XL is much simpler than on the XL2... The XL2 has both tank lines ending almost side by side at nipples on the engine casting... They're straight shots. Then a rigid aluminum line from the pump body, around the carb insulator, to the bar mount.

I was gonna suggest shortening your line a bit... but your solution looks good.

I was messing around last night, and found I could easily pressure test the oil system of my saw using a syringe. I used a 10cc syringe, and blew pressure into the crankcase pressure line, while plugging the oil outlet at the bar mount. Bubbles showed immediately at my cap, so I replaced the dried old cork gasket with an o-ring (Suspected this leaked...). Re-testing showed a pin-hole in the oil line where it entered the pump body... So I replaced that.... And now she tests tight!

Seems that line would slowly dribble oil onto the motor's crankcase, and from there it would slowly run down and out the bottom of the saw case... Messy stuff.

I'll run'er thru some wood tonight and see if it's less incontinent now... That'd be nice!

J

 

[JAXJEREMY]

Luckily my wife was out last night, so I had my 3 1/2 yr old daughter helping and she doesn't seem to mind working in the garage as long as I give her a tool..

So, after I get the new plug, I'm going to gas it up over the weekend, set the carb and see how it does. I forgot these things use 32:1 so I'll need to mix up some gas.

Hopefully the oil line is far enough down that it shouldn't be an issue

Sounds like you're on the right track in figuring out the cause of the leak. Now you have me thinking I should probably replace the cork gasket on mine too. I'll be interested to hear how that works out.

 

[DSS]

Well,,i dont either,,but what the heck

You got two beauties..................:censored::censored::censored:. Nice old saws, send them along anytime.