Husqvarna 359 questions

[domfijac]

Yeah that sounds great. I have no problem bending or drilling a section, I thought my only option was to get some aluminium pipe and bend and drill it to fit. Any idea what the best model might be? I can probably get the 357xp/359 front handle from a husky dealer, but it might be three times the price.

 

[Bob Hedgecutter]

I'm not sure about the 365 wrap handle, but many similar saws can have the aluminium handles modified to suit... it just might not be pretty. There can be slight variations in the plastics on some of the equivalent Husky/Jonsered saws that mean other parts like the wrap handles are slightly different too... not sure about the 359, @Bob Hedgecutter will probably have a good idea though

Nope never tried- Husqvarna wrap bars on Jonsered is never pretty, short tails wrong bends, extra holes.......
Can be done but kind of always looks a botch up- have even seen bits of broken wrap bar tails welded to Husqvarna bars to catch the bottom mounting hole.
365 bar on a 359? Never done or tried- but imagine the wrap is physically bigger for the bigger body saw.

Depends on what you want as a final outcome- a nice tidy saw you can be proud off as staying true to an original example- or some kind of piglet that can pull a chain around a bar.

 

[J D]

A handle is one of the things I'd have very little hesitation in buying aftermaket... they're cheap, easy to change, & if it's not a perfect fit they're not hard to tweak a little bit.

 

[Bob Hedgecutter]

Yeah that sounds great. I have no problem bending or drilling a section, I thought my only option was to get some aluminium pipe and bend and drill it to fit. Any idea what the best model might be? I can probably get the 357xp/359 front handle from a husky dealer, but it might be three times the price.

Its a wonder Famertec do not do a cheap and nasty copy to get you going until you can find genuine off another wreck or something- but it would appear they do not.
In my experience- aftermarket wrap bars are soft and VERY easily bent or pulled out of shape.

 

[J D]

In my experience- aftermarket wrap bars are soft and VERY easily bent or pulled out of shape.

So you can make them fit

 

[Bob Hedgecutter]

So you can make them fit

Yep- but average Joe- gets a bar pinch- what does he do?
Give the Pong handles a decent yank and they are going to give well before the AV's tear out- so guess that is a bonus!

 

[domfijac]

I couldn't find an aftermarket handle. I called two local Husqvarna dealers who wanted between $120-$184 AUD for the handle alone. I was getting ready to pull the trigger when a 359 came up through a pawn shop on gumtree for $300. It was about 1.5hr drive away, so I offered him $150 and he said he'd take $180. So fair play to him, I got a genuine handle in good nick plus the rest of the saw for the price of the handle. I'm pretty sure it's been run either too lean or with straight petrol bc the piston and cylinder is scored on the exhaust side. The tank had straight petrol in it when I bought it. I will likely rebuild the carb as I've got a spare k24 kit, and I'll use the entire intake assembly bc the original had a stripped thread in one of the screws hole that connect the carb and air filter manifold to the intake boot of the saw. Plus the choke lever I bought is not correct. I still need to buy the metal clamp, but Repco here in Australia has a 31-35mm clamp that should work with even pressure on the boot.

This is the first saw I've ever worked on and I'm having a lot of fun. I'm going to take whatever is good from the two to make one as good as I can. But... I'd still like to get the other up and running at some point. Hopefully just an aftermarket piston and rings kit will do. I will post photos of the P&C soon (I left the piston at work and the cylinder is still in the car, I just got home). I will try to sand the scoring out of the cylinder... Does anyone have a 345, 346xp, 350 etc or a 365, 372 etc AND and a 359 or a 357xp that could tell me which of the two chassis handles would be closest to the 359? I'll probably just keep the saw I bought for parts for now. But it'd be nice to get it going too after I finish getting the first one sorted

 

[J D]

I'm pretty sure it's been run either too lean or with straight petrol bc the piston and cylinder is scored on the exhaust side. The tank had straight petrol in it when I bought it.

I've known of several occasions where someone looking to sell a saw has knowingly put straight gas in it just to demonstrate it runs (cos "just running it for a minute won't hurt anything") creates a whole lot of issues when the buyer goes home with a "running saw" thats just been straight gassed

Does anyone have a 345, 346xp, 350 etc or a 365, 372 etc AND and a 359 or a 357xp that could tell me which of the two chassis handles would be closest to the 359?

I'll have a look tomorrow if I get a chance to

 

[domfijac]

I looked into the tank and it was clearly straight petrol. I never even tried to start it. I just broke it apart to look at the P&C and to take the handle off and check if it was the same carb as the saw its donating too. I reckon I'll have the original saw up and running by the end of the weekend. I'll investigate sanding the cylinder wall and look into a AM cylinder and ring. If I can get a chinese handle for the parts saw, I'll consider trying get it up and running and fix the thread on the intake etc. and I'll end up with two running 359s. I'll get the original saw running then probably grind out the lower transfers to near the gasket witness marks. But I'll just get it running for now.

 

[J D]

Just had a quick look at the handles... 365/372 is notably larger & much like the 385/390 is straight where it attaches behind the clutch cover.
340/345/346/350/351/353 are very similar but slightly smaller. They look to have the same curved profile & mounting behind the clutch cover. The mounting bolt holes underneath are about 6mm closer together. Overall height & width are 5mm-10mm less so may not work for you if you have big hands or wear thick gloves... but in a pinch I'd say one could be made to work (an aluminium one at least, maybe not a plastic one)

 

[domfijac]

Just had a quick look at the handles... 365/372 is notably larger & much like the 385/390 is straight where it attaches behind the clutch cover.
340/345/346/350/351/353 are very similar but slightly smaller. They look to have the same curved profile & mounting behind the clutch cover. The mounting bolt holes underneath are about 6mm closer together. Overall height & width are 5mm-10mm less so may not work for you if you have big hands or wear thick gloves... but in a pinch I'd say one could be made to work (an aluminium one at least, maybe not a plastic one)

Thankyou. I appreciate that. I'm in Sydney, Australia, I barely use gloves. I'll buy one of the AliExpress 350 handles just to get it "complete" and useable. I'll focus on fixing the original one for now and strip the donor saw, until I've got the one with the good P&C fully up and running. But it's great info to be able to fit a cheap handle. I'm pretty surprised at the price of the OEM handle here in Australia.

Thanks again