Need guidance on Dolmar ps341. /401

[david newbie]

I just picked this up on ABay, in it’s in great condition and the piston looks really good. However, the starter rope is kind of hanging out like it needs a couple more winds. But do I have to remove the flywheel to do that. Do you know if brake bands are available for this model ? I can live with out brakes, but it would be nice to pull the starter cord better. Runs on prime

 

[J D]

Can you just pull a bit of chord out & feed another wrap around?

 

[david newbie]

Can you just pull a bit of chord out & feed another wrap around?

Possibly if I remove the coil? there is not enough space between the coil and flywheel to squeeze a rope past. Very unusual set up. I hope I'm wrong

 

[david newbie]

Any other ideas? Anyone ever worked on this saw?

 

[J D]

Remove handle, twist a short piece of wire on to rope & thread it round another turn.
Or just shorten the rope if it's plenty long enough

 

[david newbie]

Remove handle, twist a short piece of wire on to rope & thread it round another turn.
Or just shorten the rope if it's plenty long enough

thanks, I will try ir

 

[J D]

I'd probably rig something up or pull a bit extra out & tie it off to something to ensure it doesn't unwind itself if you accidentally let go or loose your grip

 

[david newbie]

I removed the coil which allowed me to thread it through and gave it a couple wraps. Then the rope was too short!! turned out that there was a bunch of old gunk around the recoil pulley or spring. I didn't wasn't to take off the flywheel and recoil spring (I have a hate-hate relationship with recoil springs) so I sprayed a bunch of brake cleaner, worked the pulley around a bunch, compressed air and some wd40 and got it freed up. I had to unwrap the extra turns I had put on to have enough rope length. Next is the carb rebuild and I hope to have it running again

 

[david newbie]

Well, as soon as I gave a couple pulls. the rope would no longer retract. Ended up having to remove the flywheel and remove and clean the spring. ( if you try really hard you can install the spring backwards! Multiple times! Starts and runs nice now. I ported the muffler just a bit