Husky 394XP New Project

[cgraham1]

Yeah cgraham, Trinity county, how about you?

We’re practically neighbors... I live in Weaverville.

 

[Thommo]

The clutch is left hand thread

 

[cgraham1]

Mastermind method looks brilliant, I'll pick up some emery cloth on the next trip to town.

Just don’t overdo it, especially around the ports... it’s easy to take off the plating if you’re not careful. Buy a Meteor or OEM piston. The cheaper AM ones are not worth the risk.

 

[WolfMann]

Thanks Thommo, forgot to mention that after figuring it out, might help someone else sometime.
Cgraham how about that, I'm outside of Hayfork, have to look you up next trip to tops.
I'll make sure to take it slow, much harder to put the material back. I was looking at the meteor piston. Someone was telling me they stopped making oem pistons for these saws, that's not true is it?

 

[cgraham1]

Someone was telling me they stopped making oem pistons for these saws, that's not true is it?

Not sure... @spike60 ?

 

[rupedoggy]

Fit a 2100 piston for more performance.

 

[WolfMann]

Does a 2100 piston require any special mods?

 

[WolfMann]

Hey everyone, time for an update, spent the last two weeks waiting on parts and new tools, sure enough everything came at once (yesterday). Felt like a kid at Christmas. Picked up a DTI TT20k tach to take guesswork out of tuning, along with a Mityvac 8500 to properly test crank seals. Got a little spendy but I figured good tools pay for themselves over time, and I like the fact that the tach has a replaceable battery, and the vacuum pump has a rebuild kit. So that, alongside the gasket/seal kit, new meteor piston, and a few odds and ends (like rubber boot that fits around intake tract of carb) meant that I could get back to work on saw today. So I finished cleaning the transfer out of cylinder using the "mastermind" method you all recommended, and that worked very well, thank you. Also got the carbon deposits out of exhaust port. Piston and cylinder went back together without any trouble, but unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the process (forgot about this thread until after the fact) but here's a couple shots of where I'm at now. Took a break for lunch but next step will be pressure testing old seals to see if I should replace, if so the new ones go in. After that I'll keep getting everything back together, it may take one more day to finish as I need to get to town for an air filter the hardware store is holding for me, but we'll see how it goes. After that two week hiatus I'm feeling pretty patient. Hope everyone's doing well.

 

[WolfMann]

Crank seal on ignition side was audibly hissing under pressure, no need for soapy water, after a wrestling match and a few choice words it popped out. Getting the carb back in place proved to be more of a challenge, had to hacksaw up a hex wrench to get the last long bolt through carb, but it worked out. Photos below of progress (and old crank seal), hoping to finish up soon.

 

[rupedoggy]

Use the allen wrench with the ball on the end. The notch does one side and remove the kill switch for the other. Mike

 

[WolfMann]

It runs! But not quite 100% yet. Looks like I need to replace fuel vent, would only stay running with fuel cap cracked slightly open, Compression felt strong on the thumb test. I imagine I'll spend another couple days double checking everything, still very exciting, hopefully can put the saw to work soon.

Thanks Rupedog, that's a good tip. I'll keep it in mind for next time.

 

[WolfMann]

Update, I made it to town yesterday and picked up air filter and fuel vent plugs. Made it back and disassembled carb, installed new fuel vent plugs, and double checked crankcase under pressure and vacuum. It checked out ok, holding both pressure then vacuum. Today I put the bar and chain on, set carb to factory tuning and fired it up. It starts and runs just fine, sure sounds mean with some throttle, and I did a little work limbing some trees around shop. However, after 20 minutes or so I realized it was leaking oil behind clutch, it seems to be steadily leaking

 

[WolfMann]

Sorry hit post reply before finishing...

 

[WolfMann]

It seems to be leaking from bottom left corner of oil pump assembly, I'm letting it cool down now and plan on removing oil pump and checking things out but wanted to reach out here first for any suggestions of what to look for. Thanks guys.

 

[WolfMann]

A picture

 

[WolfMann]

Here's what I'm looking at behind oil pump.

 

[WolfMann]

So after looking at/cleaning up the oil pump adjusting screw I realized the retracting pin wasn't hitting it's fully extended position, I'm not sure but I figure this was the problem, somehow letting oil slip by and pool up. I cleaned up everything else and with my thumb over the oil inlet I couldn't see any other leaks, going to reassemble and check it out. Still if anyone notices a plug or something I may be missing in those photos I'd appreciate hearing about it. Thanks guys.

 

[WolfMann]

Alright guys, I hit a pretty big wall today, wanted to get some time on the saw, started cutting up a large snag that dropped awhile back, got about 3 gas tanks in and the saw seized up on me. I got heated and started tearing into it to see what happened. Same situation as I found it in, piston rings were seized to groove in front of exhaust port. Looked worse than last time, pictures below. I'm kicking myself of course, but realize the only thing to do is keep moving forward. I'm hoping you kind folks with more experience than I can help me figure out my mistake. My sense of it is that I missed a tiny bit of transfer in the cylinder and that's what caused this. I thought it looked spotless, and even checked with a bore gauge, I thought everything was where it should be, 60mm, 59.9 on the worst spot. Still, here I am. I did notice some sparks from muffler first couple times running, didn't think much of it at the time, but in hindsight I suppose those were the rings hitting transfer? Other questions, I was running a 50:1 fuel mix of husky oil, and had a larger air filter on with carb set to factory tuning. 1 1/2 turns out H 1 1/4 turns out L. I was waiting to tune with tach until it had a little time to break in. Do these settings/mixture sound correct or should I have compensated more for larger filter? As always thank you for input.

 

[WolfMann]

Along the lines of moving forward, I'm wondering if I should try again, cleaning out cylinder and putting in a new piston, or if it would be more practical to install a 395 cylinder/piston? Any advice on either is appreciated.

 

[WolfMann]

Pictures