Is there a Dolmar guru in the house???

[eyeinstine]

thanks for the tip.. I cant see why that works but it sure the heck wont hurt to try!!!

Ron

Ron: When I have a dead solid state ignition I first do a trick that has worked about 75 percent (in about 50 instances) of the time for me. I pick up a lot of saws at garage sales, flea markets, dumpsters, etc that won't start and hence are either real cheap or even free for the taking. If there is no spark, then I would rather it be a points-and-condensor type, because they are almost always an easy fix -- just clean and gap the points. The electronic types have about 50-cents worth of transistor components encapsulated with the coil, but when these chips fail, the entire unit must be replaced. It would be great if the electronic stuff were in a replaceable external plug-in attachment that should sell for $5 or so, not the $50 to $100 that the modules usually cost. Most of the dead modules I have encountered are not actually dead, they are asleep. Many can be revived by the following process. Remove the spark plug and attach the plugwire to either a grounded test plug or the grounded plug. Add a squirt of oil to the top of the piston and distribute it in the cylinder. Fit a socket to either the flywheel nut or clutch nut, whichever is available. Put a socket adapter in an electric drill, preferrably a 1/4 inch drill (reversible if attached to the flywheel nut)that turns up 2000 or 2500 rpm. Make sure the kill switch is in the ON position. Use the drill to spin the crankshaft while watching for a spark. Sometimes I get the spark restored in a few seconds, sometimes it might take up to a minute. This is worth a try before shelling out for a new ignition module.

 

[eyeinstine]

What kind of compression tester are you using? A lot of automotive ones will displace too much volume of air to give an accurate reading. The best way is to hang the saw by the starter cord. If it will hang on compression alone or slowly pull out, your compression is fine.

yes, i am using an automotive one.. Its a good one from Mac. I guess i should try it on a known good saw and see what kind of number i get...

i tried the hang it by the pull cord today.. It seems to be pretty good.. It does drop, but its slow.. you can feel each compression stroke as it slowly drops.. i checked all my other saws for comparison, and they are all about the same.. this dolmar 100 was the fast to drop, but hardly noticeable. I think i'm just going to tear it down anyway, and if everthing looks good i may just lightly hone the cyl and clean the piston and put a new ring on..

Thanks for the tip,
Ron

 

[rmihalek]

Be careful with the older (1980's era) Dolmars. The parts are hard to get. I have a 119 that I bought new in 1981 and, two top ends later, I still have it. It's a strong runner, but I have to search hard for parts.