Hard starting Jonsered 361

[promechanic]

Bear with me if this is a long post. I have a very clean Jonsered 361 (Frontier, Husky, Skil,etc) that has been in the family since I was a kid. It has been hard to start as long as I can remember.
After sitting on the shelf for 20+ years I decided to get it running again. The piston and cylinder look great. 155 lb compression on my tester. I replaced both crank seals, rebuilt the carb with an OE Tillotson kit, replaced the fuel filter and line, cleaned and set the points to .015.
After all that, the saw is still very hard to start. 20+ pulls before it fires on choke. Once it fires, it runs perfectly. Idles smoothly, good throttle response, plenty of power (for a 35cc saw). It will hold pressure and vacuum overnight. What am I missing?

 

[Treeman2021]

Bear with me if this is a long post. I have a very clean Jonsered 361 (Frontier, Husky, Skil,etc) that has been in the family since I was a kid. It has been hard to start as long as I can remember.
After sitting on the shelf for 20+ years I decided to get it running again. The piston and cylinder look great. 155 lb compression on my tester. I replaced both crank seals, rebuilt the carb with an OE Tillotson kit, replaced the fuel filter and line, cleaned and set the points to .015.
After all that, the saw is still very hard to start. 20+ pulls before it fires on choke. Once it fires, it runs perfectly. Idles smoothly, good throttle response, plenty of power (for a 35cc saw). It will hold pressure and vacuum overnight. What am I missing?

well if i work at it meaning keep trying to get it started it will after a time start, since it's not needed right now, i have just parked it when i really need it i will again get it running.

 

[Old2stroke]

Can't tell from the photo, is there some method of latching the throttle partly open for cold starting? A cold saw will NOT start with the throttle closed.

 

[holeycow]

Unless it's automatic and can't be over ridden, I never start saws with the throttle open warm or cold. Choke, yes. Throttle, no. The first saw I ever owned, a jonsered 590, still starts without a high idle. I didn't even know a high idle was possible until 20 years after I bought the thing. I have two. I have primed one of them. Once. I have never set the high idle. Never on any saw that doesn't force you into it with the choke linkage.

A minor pita, but maybe the op's saw should be primed on first cold start. It would save a lot of pulls.

 

[holeycow]

The problem with the OP's saw could be as easy as opening the lo screw a bit.

 

[Old2stroke]

Unless it's automatic and can't be over ridden, I never start saws with the throttle open warm or cold. Choke, yes. Throttle, no. The first saw I ever owned, a jonsered 590, still starts without a high idle. I didn't even know a high idle was possible until 20 years after I bought the thing. I have two. I have primed one of them. Once. I have never set the high idle. Never on any saw that doesn't force you into it with the choke linkage.

A minor pita, but maybe the op's saw should be primed on first cold start. It would save a lot of pulls.

Unless it's automatic and can't be over ridden, I never start saws with the throttle open warm or cold. Choke, yes. Throttle, no. The first saw I ever owned, a jonsered 590, still starts without a high idle. I didn't even know a high idle was possible until 20 years after I bought the thing. I have two. I have primed one of them. Once. I have never set the high idle. Never on any saw that doesn't force you into it with the choke linkage.

A minor pita, but maybe the op's saw should be primed on first cold start. It would save a lot of pulls.

There’s a reason that practically every saw has some method to set fast idle for cold starting