3 saws to repair, 2 Stihls & 1 Poulan

[Michael E]

I will rarely use the saws, so I need to look into how to store them, whether I should just add a fuel stabilizer, or drain the fuel when I'm done, or ?

Just use canned fuel (like Stihl Motomix). Even if your saw sits for a long time, it will start and run. Plus you have the environmental and health benefits. If you are rarely using the saws, the higher fuel cost ist neglectable.

 

[Coralillo Lo Pro]

Regardless of what the handyman may have done, a saw thats sat a lot & then doesn't want to start &/or run properly needs the fuel system/carb going over or you have a good chance it will be under fueling & then lean seize. In this case I'd be thankful it was a disposable saw & not something of real value

Actually I was using it a few weeks ago and it was running fine, started right up, used it awhile on some brush til it threw a chain. Always ran fine when I used it since I first used it new. I was using my MS251 mostly so I didn't bother with replacing the chain, then when I got around to it, it didn't want to start. Tried again a few days later and seemed like it was flooding actually, got it started finally holding throttle down. Shortly after that it seized. I read old threads here about a similar size Echo doing the same thing after ten months without the guy ever messing with it. Dealer insisted it had to have been straight gassed or bad mix, which he said wasn't the case, and people attributed it to Echo's being tuned overly lean out of the factory. Maybe the same with this saw.

 

[Wood Doctor]

OP said, "One saw is a Stihl 025 that I know has had problems for many years. The owner took it to a shop at least a couple of times, it would run okay for a while and then start having problems again. I tried to use it recently, it seemed to cut okay, but the longer I ran it, the less it would idle."

Just ran into this problem two days ago with a Stihl 025 that had good compression and a good spark. I found a new 025 carb in my supplies and installed it. The saw's engine then started on the third pull and ran flawlessly. Tune up I gave it was minimal. Problem solved.