Hi. This the right place to get a bit of help with my Poulan 306A? If not let me know and I'll move this elsewhere.
I live in the UK and this saw was on eBay in the UK! Never seen one for sale in this country before. The previous owner had owned it for about 25 years he told me. I won it for an absolute bargain price, which surprised me, whenever one is for sale in the US with international shipping they go high (I'm assuming because of European bidders?), so I was expecting this to go the same way.
Saw was advertised as non running, which I was fine with, I wanted one to not be afraid of taking apart and tinkering with.
Saw arrived, gas was still in it, fuel pipe in the tank was broke and filter was loose, pull cord was majorly slack. The spark plug boot was non original one which was straight and to reach the spark plug the ht lead had to run out of the flywheel cover and through the handle and handlebar brace. 2 of the flywheel bolts are missing and the pull cord grip is also not the original one. Oh and there was dirt everywhere, I don't think it had ever been cleaned.
Saw has great compression, P/C look good, has the cast aluminium muffler, paint is great for such an old saw, decals are in super nice shape too.
I set to work, removing the covers, cleaning off all the grime, fixed the pull cord, fitted new fuel lines, cleaned the air filter. I stripped, cleaned and rebuilt the carb using a new rk-23-hs carb kit and set the low screw to 1 turn out and high to 1 and a quarter turns out. I removed the reed valve and cleaned it then refitted with a new gasket I cut from gasket material. I set the armature air gap to the correct 0.012". Champion CJ8 spark plug looks new, like brand new, the saw has not yet ran with this plug so I didn't change that. I also fitted a new 90 degree spark plug boot so now it can run the correct route through the cylinder cover and come out by the muffler.
I put some fresh mix in (32:1) and tried to start it but no joy. I had feared that there may be a problem with the coil/points/condenser and there must be as I have no spark, I checked. I have ordered a better replacement spark plug boot, the one I got is flimsy so I want to rule that out as the problem.
If when I change the boot to the new one I've ordered it still won't spark, what is the most likely cause and how do I know if it's my coil or points or condenser that need replacing? Or could something else be the cause?
I do have another running 306A (which I got shipped over from the US at a hefty cost), I don't really want to take bits off that to try and determine which part on the non runner is faulty but it may be worth it if I can find out what part needs replacing.
I remember a while back, there was buy it now points, coil and condenser on eBay, all nos, I wish they was still on there.
I'd appreciate any help you can give. Thanks.