Hello, I'm new here! Also: Husky 266 carb gripes

[Nailgunner]

Hello all, I've been lurking for weeks and thoroughly enjoying the site. Loads of interesting and useful stuff here, and who knows, given a chance I may generate some to give back

I'm involved in heavy groundswork and I cut a lot of firewood for myself and my parents.

My situation is this: I've had a succession of saws. the first one I was involved with was a very old Stihl 011AV which I'm beginning to think has finally died; no spark ... perhaps I'm wrong, I should probably open it up and look. Secondly there was a big old McCulloch thing which fell to bits regularly, made an evil, evil noise from its improvised exhaust and finally died of coil failure; good riddance. Third, a Stihl MS170 (actually belonging to my employer). Still going strong, lovely little saw. Fourth, my own Homelite Super XL auto, a 60s design with a 20" bar. powerful, noisy and completely lacking in safety features. I wasn't entirely sorry when it siezed although it ran very well and cut up logs like they were cake.

Following a week or so of actually not owning a viable chainsaw (imagine it!) a colleague gave me his old Husqvarna 266SE. He's recently bought a brand new saw, not sure what type, and hadn't used the husky for over a year. I fuelled it up and tried to start it but it wasn't having it; the compression was poor and there was almost no spark. Only one thing for it, take it all to bits and see what's up. So far the following have been observed and remedied as best I could without breaching my budget of £0.00 plus whatever's in my toolbox:

- rock solid with dust and oil; cleaned out
- coil pack drifted away from flywheel; spaced back correctly
- bar all wirey-edged; filed back
- cylinder has a stripe of piston in it; polished out
- piston galled, ring stuck; freed up and polished
- carb all full of muck; stripped and cleaned.
- New gaskets and Loctite 574 sealant

Apart from that it's ok The compression is right back up and it fires easily on the choke. I can't get the thing to run though ... It's got a Tillotson carb, and I have no idea at all what the starting setting should be. Usually I'm pretty good with 2-stroke carbs but this one is really having none of it.

Any clues? Thanks in advance, stay safe.

 

[Saw Dr.]

- cylinder has a stripe of piston in it; polished out
- piston galled, ring stuck; freed up and polished

Whatever caused the piston seizure is likely still at play. I would pressure test the crankcase, and make sure that your carb diaphragms are nice and flexible. Otherwise, you will sieze it again. The cleanup you did on the piston will work for a while, but you really should at least replace the rings. Ideally replace the piston and rings. £0.00.... Isn't that like $150 US anyway?

Also, I'm not familiar with the 266, but if you put a pile of that gasket seal on, you may have blocked the impulse passage to the carb. More is not better on gasket seal. I prefer none.

 

[andrethegiant70]

+1 Do a carb kit (they are cheap and easy), inspect fuel lines and fuel filter.....make sure carb stack it tight. It probably has a Tillotsen HS... start with one turn out after seating the needles gently. Make sure your idle set screw is at least cracking the throttle a little.

And B200 driver is right, watch out for the gasket stuff. You would not be first to plug the impulse hole with gasket material.

His comment on the piston/rings is a good one. The top end is probably ok for troubleshooting the fuel system and getting the saw running. Sanding down the piston makes it smaller...they rattle around in the bore, don't seal properly, and are prone to additional failures. Aftermarket used ones are cheap these days, so its not a big financial hit.

The 266SE is a very good saw and is worth the time spent to fix it.

 

[sawdoctor]

Sanding down the piston makes it smaller...they rattle around in the bore, don't seal properly, and are prone to additional failures.

They sure are, had a 2101 come into the shop seized, customer didn't want to spend much on it, so we did the best job we could..

Came back 2 years later with no crown on the piston, broke off clean in the cylinder at the top ring groove!

He had no problems with it failing, I was surprised he got 2 years work out of a botch job though.

 

[Nailgunner]

Thanks, some good points. I was quite careful with the gasket sealant, I've used it before and its performance is really excellent, I wouldn't have bothered otherwise. I realised the crankcase hole was there for a reason! it's still there. Piston and pot; probably a temporary luxury, yes, I'll see how it goes but the reality is I have no money at all for the next few months. I'll replace it when I can, but that's not now.

Settings: 1 turn out seems to be about right, I remembered that the old Homelite had a Tillotson carb, and it's exactly the same pattern so I copied the settings off that one: L=1 turn, H=3/4 turn. I applied these to the Husky and wore out my arm again as it coughed and farted at me. so i checked the fuel line; bit nasty but not too bad; checking inside the fuel tank didn't show anything much... in fact, it didn't show anything at all ... not even petrol ... wooly-head numpty here was trying to start a saw with no fuel in it. Laugh all you like, everyone else did

Anyway, long story short, I fuelled it up properly and after a few good tugs it barked once on the choke and blasted off in grand style! after a bit of fiddling with screws and stops it became very obvious that there's a LOT more power here than my old Homelite. Crank sealing is ok, I imagine, since the idle is very clean and consistent. I've spotted a few folks on here who use 266SEs. They go well, don't they? Much happier now than this afternoon anyway, I'll have a proper play with it tomorrow. for now ... Thanks again for the help.

 

[andrethegiant70]

Don't worry, we'll not laugh in front of you, only behind your back Congrats on a very god saw you got on the cheap. The 266 is good chainsaw booty.

 

[Nailgunner]

You're very kind

news is good. I sliced up four trailers full of redwood today and it just kept going. there's bags of power, it always starts and the balnce and weight are fine. It's everything I imagined a good saw should be.

 

[WRW]

"Carl, see if you can see what's wrong with this mower. Scooter's been working on it for an hour."

"Ummh. Ain't got no gas in it." :greenchainsaw:

 

[blsnelling]

LOL. All well that ends well. That piston may last you a long time. I've seen it done before. It's not the preferred method but it does work.