Need help on saw decision

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First of all 140 psi should run and cut well. I would pull the muffler and see if it’s scored up. Second a lot of those 359s had carb issues over the years. Now this may sound crazy but on the carbs with no hole in the metering diaphragm cover,drill a small hole. It will fix a lot of carb issues on these
 
You should definitely attempt a rebuild - oem piston, cylinder clean up and carb kit. You can learn so much about a saw and some youtube vids are really helpful.
 
I would first check fuel hose and impulse hose too if it has one.
That age saw can easily have a leak somewhere. To be honest your local shop could have done it already just to rule out obvious reason.
 
Chuck, you will probably find that all you need is a piston and rings...oh, and a wrist pin bearing and pin. And three circlips...you'll thank me later, haha. Wear
safety glasses..

And maybe a carb kit and fuel lines.

And cover the hole around the rod with a rag...

Anyway, good luck with the new saw and the old one.

Did I happen to mention that the minimum number of saws is two?
I informed my wife that this group says everyone should have at least two saws. She seemed unconvinced so I added that these are very smart people so are likely correct. I am sad to say her skepticism remains.
 
I informed my wife that this group says everyone should have at least two saws. She seemed unconvinced so I added that these are very smart people so are likely correct. I am sad to say her skepticism remains.
Whatever you do...do NOT tell her we all have "at least two WIVES" too.
Sometimes that doesn't go well
 
Is that taking a complete 357 cylinder assembly and replacing the 359? Is everything else interchangeable?
Yeah they are basically the same save for the cylinders are a bit different on there port time and whatnot. The 357 also has crank stuffers. At minimum you need two saws. If you pinch one you can save yourself
 
Pull the cylinder and inspect, my guess is the piston is still good and a set of rings would bump compression back up...while apart rebuild the carb and replace rubber hoses. total time to re-ring or piston swap is no more than 2 hours including carb and hoses.
This sounds like a good plan to start with then adjust depending on what I find. It was suggested I eliminate the bottom gasket. If I do, I assume I’d still use some sort of form a gasket paste? Thanks for the estimate on time. I was wondering about that.
Pull the cylinder and inspect, my guess is the piston is still good and a set of rings would bump compression back up...while apart rebuild the carb and replace rubber hoses. total time to re-ring or piston swap is no more than 2 hours including carb and hoses.
 
This sounds like a good plan to start with then adjust depending on what I find. It was suggested I eliminate the bottom gasket. If I do, I assume I’d still use some sort of form a gasket paste? Thanks for the estimate on time. I was wondering about that.
Uh oh I smell a gasket debate. Yammabond Honda bond, dirko ht or motoseal. Personally I have had mixed results with motoseal. I use pactan 6075 I got from my Stihl dealership
 
This sounds like a good plan to start with then adjust depending on what I find. It was suggested I eliminate the bottom gasket. If I do, I assume I’d still use some sort of form a gasket paste? Thanks for the estimate on time. I was wondering about that.
Make a gasket out of printer paper, coat both sides with aviation gasket sealant, copper coat or indian head
 
Often times you'll here people on here (and everywhere else for that mater) say that you should buy the brand of saw that has good dealer support in your area. This is a prime example of why MOST of the time, that's absolutely terrible advice. A few years ago, I started having problems with an 036. It was late fall, and I was busy hunting, butchering, and cutting firewood, and didn't have time to mess with it. I took it to a local dealer to diagnose the issue. They said the piston and cylinder were shot, and it wasn't worth fixing the saw. I took it home and checked the compression. It was 150 psi which was EXACTLY what the compression was 9 years earlier when I bought the saw used. I slapped a new spark plug in it, and it ran like a champ. Their $350 estimate ended up costing me less than $10. I've had similar experiences at almost every dealership within an hour of my house. Dealerships have a minimum quota of saws they are required to sell every year in order to maintain their dealership, and that quote often goes up every year. Thus their focus is on selling new saws, not fixing old ones, and they can't afford to pay a good repair tech $50K a year so they can afford to raise a family.

As far as your saw goes, yes rebuild it. 140psi isn't great, but it's not terrible. Go to the chainsaw section on this forum and start asking questions. If you need a saw soon, decide whether you want something bigger or smaller than your 359 and go buy that. We will all agree that its' never a bad thing to have an extra saw or two (dozen), but realistically having a 2nd saw IS a good idea. Its useful when you get a bar pinched, but it's even more useful when you have a problem like this and one of your saws is down. With the crap fuel that we have today, this is always a possibility. Really sucks driving out to the woods to cut some firewood only to find out that your saw won't start....
 
No doubt! That horse is going to cost you a LOT more than a new tractor. In 20 years, you'll still have a good tractor that's worth a lot of $$, where as with the horse... well, you will have made a lot of fertilizer...
It looks like I’ve made yet one more marital mistake. I showed this string of messages concerning the need for two saws to my wife thinki
Yes you do need two saws. That is the minimum...you should be able to see that right now.

Only 75.00 difference between a Husky and a "comparable" (not) Echo?Ridiculous. Should be a couple of hundred. At least.
husky was something like $730 list but 15% mfg discount brought it down to $586. Echo was $509 list but didn’t have a discount.
 
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