Anyone seeing failures with MS 361

lcso10 · Jan 18, 2008

I had a MS 361 brought in the shop. The person that left it said it was hard to start and also wanted it serviced. When I got to it, I found the hard to start problem fast. No compression. Did the usual checks and fond the crank bearing on the clutch side had went out and ruined the cylinder and piston. Saw had a rough life being used 5 days a week and many different hands holding it and it was 14 months old. After telling the customer the problem and cost of repair, he said oh well just get me a new one.
I know 14 months is good for the abuse the customer puts on saws but was wondering if anyone has seen similar failures. They have a couple MS 361's, one 038 MagII, and several MS 260's. They run the MS 260's til they knock like a diesel. No problems with the 038 Mag II. They really put the test to there saws.

RED-85-Z51 · Jan 18, 2008

Shame that it had to die like that. What do you think caused the bearing to fail? Maybe a seal was leaking a little and some abrasive got into the bearing? Or is that even possible on a 361?

lcso10 · Jan 18, 2008

Dont think the seal failed cause it held pressure and vac. The bearing came apart and just hammered the insides. This customer cuts mostly small diameter stuff so I am guessing over rev. The always nasty air filters (if they are present) never help the situation.

Freakingstang · Jan 18, 2008

lcso10 said:
Dont think the seal failed cause it held pressure and vac. The bearing came apart and just hammered the insides. This customer cuts mostly small diameter stuff so I am guessing over rev. The always nasty air filters (if they are present) never help the situation.

that would be my guess. how does the intake side of the piston skirt look?

It doesn't matter how good the filter is if it is packed full of crap

spacemule · Jan 18, 2008

Freakingstang said:
that would be my guess. how does the intake side of the piston skirt look?

It doesn't matter how good the filter is if it is packed full of crap

If it were a Husky, it wouldn't be packed full of crap. :cheers:

bcorradi · Jan 18, 2008

spacemule said:
If it were a Husky, it wouldn't be packed full of crap.

I don't suppose they would if they sit on the shelf like yours do

.

lcso10 · Jan 18, 2008

Freakingstang said:
that would be my guess. how does the intake side of the piston skirt look?

It doesn't matter how good the filter is if it is packed full of crap

The intake side showed signs of wear but the big long groove from the bearing particals was the biggest problems.

lcso10 · Jan 18, 2008

spacemule said:
If it were a Husky, it wouldn't be packed full of crap.

Not trying to stir the mud but if it was a Husky it would not have lasted 14 months.

04ultra · Jan 18, 2008

spacemule said:
If it were a Husky, it wouldn't be packed full of crap.

Sure space..........No excuse for proper maintenance....

.

spacemule · Jan 18, 2008

04ultra said:
Sure space..........No excuse for proper maintenance....

.

That's what I'm talking about. Look how clean those cylinder fins are! :chainsaw:

04ultra · Jan 18, 2008

spacemule said:
That's what I'm talking about. Look how clean those cylinder fins are!

LOL.........sure...

.

RiverRat2 · Jan 18, 2008

here we go again!!!!!

:sword: :sword: :sword:

Lakeside53 · Jan 18, 2008

I've never seen a crank bearing failure on a 361, and we have sold a lot of these to local mills and timer yards. They have been dropped, run over, beat to crap, get started 80-100 times a day to cut off beams, and still keep on running. Never seen a seal failure either, and some of these saws are real high hours.

Lakeside53 · Jan 18, 2008

Filtration... if Stihl's X3 filtration sytem can be adapted to saws, then we'll have something to argue about. It's on the latest generation of cut-off saws. Change the filter once per year. One test they do at "Tech Gold School" -see how much Portland cement you can suck into the saw before it starts to loose power. Answer - 3.5 lb trapped in the filter... and a huge amount that didn't even make make it to the filter...

And no, it's not a Husky-like system...

ciscoguy01 · Jan 18, 2008

Ummmmmmm

If anyone says ANYTHING bad about the 361, this will officially be the 1st I have EVER heard that is negative. Guys around here swear by it for mid range saws...

opcorn:

wanab · Jan 18, 2008

i bet that saws life was hell. prolly never clean the filter until the saw starts to die.

think about how mant times the saw was run with strait gas or cheap oil not mixed good enough.

i dont think this saw died because of a stihl part going bad. any saw would have paid the toll. perhaps a diff. air filtration system would have helped.

spacemule · Jan 18, 2008

Lakeside53 said:
Filtration... if Stihl's X3 filtration sytem can be adapted to saws, then we'll have something to argue about. It's on the latest generation of cut-off saws. Change the filter once per year. One test they do at "Tech Gold School" -see how much Portland cement you can suck into the saw before it starts to loose power. Answer - 3.5 lb trapped in the filter... and a huge amount that didn't even make make it to the filter...

And no, it's not a Husky-like system...

What does anyone care about air filtration efficiency for? A good filter is no excuse for daily cleansing. :greenchainsaw:

SawTroll · Jan 18, 2008

spacemule said:
What does anyone care about air filtration efficiency for? A good filter is no excuse for daily cleansing. :greenchainsaw:

..but a bad one is a good excuse, if you need one....... :dizzy:

zr900 · Jan 18, 2008

Bad Owner

There is no excuse for a lack of basic saw maintenance. If that saws air filter had been blown out every day and the RPM was set right, and used a good quality gas and oil the saw might look rough but would still be performing today.

blsnelling · Jan 18, 2008

And since when is the filtration of the 361 in question?

Anyone seeing failures with MS 361

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