Homelite Chainsaws

[a. palmer jr.]

I would not run that saw with that piston, I would look at your local scrap yard for a donor saw, that would be the cheapest way.

From the looks of that piston I imagine the cylinder is pretty messed up too..

 

[67L36Driver]

Perhaps it'll just sit in the corner for a while until I find it a donor...

That's your best bet. Since new piston w/rings is available at a reasonable price, it all hinges on the condition of the cylinder you have there.

 

[Eccentric]

Yep. There's significant aluminum transfer from the piston. Probably a bunch of transfer on the cylinder. Hopefully the plating is still good. If so, then the cylinder will clean up. Gotta get that aluminum off of the cylinder walls (many threads in the CS section covering this.....careful application of muriatic acid is the key) and install a new piston/rings. Good time for crank seals too. I have a shelf full of these saws with pistons that look exactly like that. Comes from people not tuning the saws correctly. They run them way too lean, and this is the result. I have two Poulan S25-CVA's with transfer like that too. They look great on the outside, but....

 

[Toolslinger]

Right then... I've sent off the good news...

Hopefully one of the two saws I'm picking up Weds will be a runner, and I can just pass that along... He's good now with my Poulan so at least there's no hurry...

Thanks for the info.

-Tim

 

[ChainLightning]

How good are the CS-50s?

Have a friend that has one for sale. He already owes me 20 bucks and I might trade him what he owes a 150 in rough shape for it. Are these any good? Never heard of them. Says it runs and cuts good. A checked the Acres site and they did not have much on it. Looks to be from the 90s and is mostly plastic. Thanks

 

[leecopland]

cs-50 SOLO ?

Have a friend that has one for sale. He already owes me 20 bucks and I might trade him what he owes a 150 in rough shape for it. Are these any good? Never heard of them. Says it runs and cuts good. A checked the Acres site and they did not have much on it. Looks to be from the 90s and is mostly plastic. Thanks

I think this Homelite is made by Solo. I have two Solo made Homies, a 300 and a 47, but only one (47) is a runner. It seems OK. I think the CS-50 and the 300 are very similar.

Regards,

L:msp_smile:ee

 

[ChainLightning]

A friend of mine asked me if I could help him with his saw. He's got a Super XL. Says he can start it, but can't keep it running. That sounded pretty much like my XL-12 issue that was an easy fix, so I picked it up when I was down there yesterday dropping off some woodworking machines.

Generally it looks like it hasn't been abused. I just dumped the fuel right off before I remembered I was out of mix, so I haven't tried to start it yet. Have to get gas a little later today, so will cure that condition. I checked the plug, and it is the correct plug, and looks ok. Perhaps a bit oily, but not fouled, pitted, or burned. Gap is right.

Air filter is fine. Inside the filter in the carb are is nice and clean. Fuel line is still in good shape, and the fuel filter is clean and in place.

So I pulled the muffler to make sure the spark arrester wasn't plugged up.

I found some scoring on the piston. Looking around the cylinder I see no damage on the 2/3 of it I can see through the exhaust port.

I have no compression gauge. However, pulling it over, there was plenty of compression.

So, the question is... Is that amount of scoring on the piston a fatal condition to it? I know, you're all about to tell me to just drop a new piston in there, but I don't know that he will want to invest in parts, and I haven't been that far inside a saw (or any engine) to be eager to do so... He doesn't use the saw to heat his house, or pay his bills. He happens to live in the woods, and gets enough fall to need a saw, and this is what he happened to get.

So, thoughts on can this saw run as is with very limited use? This isn't a time sensitive machine as I dropped off one of mine with him, so he's covered. Just taking a real quick look on the bay indicates a replacement piston is going to cost more than he paid for the saw.


While he fully understands the quality of a vintage machine (we're both antique wood/metal working machine fans) I don't know if he's going to be a patron saint on a tired saw... I won't trash it, but by the same token, it might not be a viable fix for him or I without coming up with some real inexpensive parts at some point down the road. Perhaps it'll just sit in the corner for a while until I find it a donor...

Man that sucks! My Super EZ piston does not look much better than that. I would have to rebuild that since the body is in that good of shape.My heart skipped a beat when I seen that saw cause that looks identical to mine :msp_scared:. Good luck on it.

 

[Eccentric]

Wow.....the silly season really has started.

A friend here has a theory that the best time to sell a saw on feebay is between 10/01 and Superbowl Sunday. He may be on to something...

VINTAGE HOMELITE SUPER XL CHAINSAW, 20 INCH BAR. VERY NICE, L@@K | eBay

Vtg. HOMELITE SUPER XL Auto Chain Saw Great Compression! Looks & Runs EXCELLENT! | eBay

I have a saw about identical to the second one, and I think I paid $28 for it from a CL seller about four years ago. Cleaned it and rebuilt the carb and it's a STRONG runner. Mine is an earlier model with the better multi-piece manual oiler assembly too....

 

[a. palmer jr.]

A friend here has a theory that the best time to sell a saw on feebay is between 10/01 and Superbowl Sunday. He may be on to something...

VINTAGE HOMELITE SUPER XL CHAINSAW, 20 INCH BAR. VERY NICE, L@@K | eBay

Vtg. HOMELITE SUPER XL Auto Chain Saw Great Compression! Looks & Runs EXCELLENT! | eBay

I have a saw about identical to the second one, and I think I paid $28 for it from a CL seller about four years ago. Cleaned it and rebuilt the carb and it's a STRONG runner. Mine is an earlier model with the better multi-piece manual oiler assembly too....

I have one almost identical to the first one that I bought for $10. Thinking I got such a great deal I took it home and found out it had nearly 0 compression and no spark. Oh well, it looks pretty. I took the bar and chain off and used on another saw.

 

[Eccentric]

I have one almost identical to the first one that I bought for $10. Thinking I got such a great deal I took it home and found out it had nearly 0 compression and no spark. Oh well, it looks pretty. I took the bar and chain off and used on another saw.

I have another one that's identical to the second saw, but has a smoked P/C like yours. Came free to me with four other parts saws....

 

[a. palmer jr.]

I have another one that's identical to the second saw, but has a smoked P/C like yours. Came free to me with four other parts saws....

I've never actually ever had a chainsaw that had no compression and no spark at the same time. I was kinda wondering how this can be? One or the other would cause the saw to not run but surely not at the same time!

 

[Eccentric]

I've never actually ever had a chainsaw that had no compression and no spark at the same time. I was kinda wondering how this can be? One or the other would cause the saw to not run but surely not at the same time!

That's the infamous 'blue coil' electronic ignition modules at work. They die on their own with little or no 'reason'. Heat seems to shorten their life as well. Could be that the lean running that killed the P/C of your saw cooked the ignition within an inch of failure, and it went the remaining distance on it's own while sitting on the shelf...

 

[67L36Driver]

A friend here has a theory that the best time to sell a saw on feebay is between 10/01 and Superbowl Sunday. He may be on to something...

VINTAGE HOMELITE SUPER XL CHAINSAW, 20 INCH BAR. VERY NICE, L@@K | eBay

Vtg. HOMELITE SUPER XL Auto Chain Saw Great Compression! Looks & Runs EXCELLENT! | eBay

I have a saw about identical to the second one, and I think I paid $28 for it from a CL seller about four years ago. Cleaned it and rebuilt the carb and it's a STRONG runner. Mine is an earlier model with the better multi-piece manual oiler assembly too....

Wow, that's out there.

I'm puttin' my SXL on Craigslist for a couple benjamins. Got to be a bargin' with a new piston and rings.

Things went saw crazy around here when the weather turned cool.

 

[a. palmer jr.]

That's the infamous 'blue coil' electronic ignition modules at work. They die on their own with little or no 'reason'. Heat seems to shorten their life as well. Could be that the lean running that killed the P/C of your saw cooked the ignition within an inch of failure, and it went the remaining distance on it's own while sitting on the shelf...

I can see where this might happen but I would have never thought of it on my own. I'll go ahead and check the ignition when I get a little more time but I imagine it's toast. This being a newer saw of this type will probably not have points so there won't be much to check.

 

[Eccentric]

I can see where this might happen but I would have never thought of it on my own. I'll go ahead and check the ignition when I get a little more time but I imagine it's toast. This being a newer saw of this type will probably not have points so there won't be much to check.

Yep, and the crank won't have the points eccentric machined into it so you can't swap back to points without also changing cranks. You can mount a points coil and use a Nova type module to trigger it however. I may end up doing that with my late SXL-AO and Super E-Z AOW which both have good P/C's and dead 'blue coil' ignitions. I have spares on roached parts saws to try first, but they may be as dead as what's on the saws now....

 

[Eccentric]

Wow, that's out there.

I'm puttin' my SXL on Craigslist for a couple benjamins. Got to be a bargin' with a new piston and rings.

Things went saw crazy around here when the weather turned cool.

I've seen "Old Blue" late SXL-AO's like yours go for really good money on feebay. May be a good time to sell it Carl...

 

[Buck1278]

650 Super

I'm currently on the hunt for parts for a 650 super, and I'm looking for parts from 650's, 650 supers, and 750 that are interchangable. I guess a shorter list would be for parts from the 650 and 750 that won't go on the 650 super. Can anyone provide any info what parts these might be? Along with specific part differences, what other design differences are there between the 650 and the super?

 

[a. palmer jr.]

Yep, and the crank won't have the points eccentric machined into it so you can't swap back to points without also changing cranks. You can mount a points coil and use a Nova type module to trigger it however. I may end up doing that with my late SXL-AO and Super E-Z AOW which both have good P/C's and dead 'blue coil' ignitions. I have spares on roached parts saws to try first, but they may be as dead as what's on the saws now....

Yep, I've done that procedure on a couple of saws this summer. Those Novas work well, sometimes you have to change flywheels on certain saws or they'll be out of time. You can also remove the key and set the flywheel advanced about 20 degrees.

 

[67L36Driver]

I've seen "Old Blue" late SXL-AO's like yours go for really good money on feebay. May be a good time to sell it Carl...

Well, not untill I give it a tank or two of run time out at Albert's farm. Then I'll likely put it on Craigslist.

 

[homelitejim]

picked up a unusual homelite for my area. I found a XL870 at the scrap and picked it up along with a XL925, unfortunately I think the 870 will be just a parts saw as I see corrosion on the piston through the exhaust, oh well the parts will go to rebuild the 925. I will post some pics later on.