Crank bearings/bottom end

[FlyingDutchman]

Doing a Chinese top end swap on a Stihl MS290 and I noticed that the flywheel side bearing is a bit rougher and has more axial play than the clutch side of the crankshaft. It's not horrible but noticeable. The feel improved significantly with a little 2 stroke oil dabbed in it but...

Other side seems like 25-50% better than suspect side. The difference in axial play would likely be in the 100ths of an inch. The roughness feel is just... There.

I don't know what to expect for the rod bearings. They seem sloppy but roll smooth.

Cause of death originally was a bad carb and leaning out. P&C looks fine.

Replace this bearing and others? Replace just crank bearing? Don't replace and just send it?

 

[user 122190]

Taking a ms290 apart is no trivial thing. Do it once, do it right, replace all bearings, seals, hoses, gaskets, etc.

 

[Skavenger]

You'll be doing yourself a favor replacing all the seals and bearings once if you go cheap you'll get by for a little while and will probably have the opportunity to do it all again.

 

[FlyingDutchman]

Thanks guys. Ordered the bearings $27 each and the seals $12 something each. It's true. This saw has been a total bear to work on and the thought of re-tearing it apart is unpleasant.

 

[user 122190]

I haven't started on my ms290 yet. But I have watch videos and compared to the Husky 350 I did earlier this year, I am not looking forward to doing this 290. In fact I am going to spend the few dollars and get a gauge to measure the vacuum/pressure of my work before complete and final assembly. I resisted this earlier this year because of the expense. Since then I have found that it can be done quite cheaply. Check this out at 5:07.

 

[FlyingDutchman]

Thanks for the video Bill, I actually have an old 032 that I think those seals are out of out of. Great idea. Im assuming that you could test the motor seal before even installing it more easily than if it was partially installed. I wonder why he questioned his work anyway once he got it in the saw.

The 290 is just a train wreck of parts to remove and every crevice is full of sawdust cake. Kind of hate working on it. I was hoping to flip it for a little money but at this point it was worth way more as parts than running.

I also have a husky 350 I'm working on, which also has a broken rod or a bad crank bearing. I was going to big bore that too... Dont tell me that's awful to work on too...

 

[user 122190]

I only did the piston&cylinder on the 350. Not my saw, did it for free, so I wasn't going to do much more then that, or spend any money on tools to complete what was rather simple.

I realize that the 290 is a bit more involved so I will wait til the right time, when I know I won't need it for a while, in case I need to order some part(s) or some other priority comes forth.

 

[a. palmer jr.]

I've torn apart and repaired several 290-390 saws and can tell you the main part with me is cleaning all the parts once it's torn down. It does take some time but once you know where the pieces go it's not all that bad...Now the newer versions like the ms311 I don't care for, too many changes and for what?