Nik's Poulan Thread

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@Roger,

Good to hear things are going well. It's been a weird winter here weather wise.

I bumped the timing up on the 3400 I just got. I took .020 off the key. Not sure if that was too much advance or not. What do you think?
I hear some rattling going on and I'm not sure if it's detonating or not.

Did you find a reed for the Homelite?

Try putting the flywheel back to stock and see if you get the same noise. It could be the clutch or something else.

I found a pyramid with all the reeds on ebay for the Homelite 901. It runs great now. I also made a new gasket for the carb fit to the reed block.
 
Try putting the flywheel back to stock and see if you get the same noise. It could be the clutch or something else.

I found a pyramid with all the reeds on ebay for the Homelite 901. It runs great now. I also made a new gasket for the carb fit to the reed block.


Thanks Roger. I'll give it a try today. It starts hard as well. All else is working well on it.
 
Try putting the flywheel back to stock and see if you get the same noise. It could be the clutch or something else.

I found a pyramid with all the reeds on ebay for the Homelite 901. It runs great now. I also made a new gasket for the carb fit to the reed block.

I put the key in reversed to get it back to stock. I mic'd the key today and it was actually .017" off the key. Sounds good now and starts easy. I think I will try .010".
The saw seemed much snapper with advance on it.
 
I put the key in reversed to get it back to stock. I mic'd the key today and it was actually .017" off the key. Sounds good now and starts easy. I think I will try .010".
The saw seemed much snapper with advance on it.

Sounds like you had quite a bit of advance. And yes with all that advance they do seem to be snappier and can sometimes kick back on ya.
I would go for the .010" and see how that is. Most of the benefit of advancing will actually be at the high RPM's.
 
Sounds like you had quite a bit of advance. And yes with all that advance they do seem to be snappier and can sometimes kick back on ya.
I would go for the .010" and see how that is. Most of the benefit of advancing will actually be at the high RPM's.

Any idea where to start degree wise?

I assume the saw is set at around 25 deg of advance by design. I don't have a degree wheel or piston stop to check. By calculation each .0022" of key reduction is 1 deg of ignition advance.
It looks like I had it bumped 10 deg. to start with. The .010" should about 4.5 deg advance.
 
Any idea where to start degree wise?

I assume the saw is set at around 25 deg of advance by design. I don't have a degree wheel or piston stop to check. By calculation each .0022" of key reduction is 1 deg of ignition advance.
It looks like I had it bumped 10 deg. to start with. The .010" should about 4.5 deg advance.

I would not go more than 4 degrees advance. That is a pretty good amount. So if .010 is 4.5 degrees than try that.
 
I put the key in reversed to get it back to stock. I mic'd the key today and it was actually .017" off the key. Sounds good now and starts easy. I think I will try .010".
The saw seemed much snapper with advance on it.
I haven't filed a key down. Mostly on the retrofit coils it has been the timing light, degree wheel and piston stop. I don't know what the factory advance is on the Poulan's. I have set Homelites and Pioneers at 28-32 and it starts getting rough beyond that.


Just for kicks, I reverse calculated using 0.0022"/degree, at point where one assumes the key inserts into the plane of the crank surface. Given that, the arc length of the radius of the shaft plus amount of key protruding there would be 0.792" through 360 degrees. That produces a circle with diameter of only a 1/4". It gets tricky once the key is filed and the flywheel turned. Instead of the key bearing evenly against the flywheel keyway, only the outermost (radius) edge does. It has been asymmetrically offset. The diameter would be measured there for advance/retard. If the key were removed and the the 0.0022" of arc length per degree were measured off of the crank radius, the diameter of the narrowest point of the tapered shaft becomes 1/4".

Cool problem has me thinking. Always curious how others calculate/analyze problems.
 
I'm looking for a fuel tank for my 3400. Checked EBay, checked chainsaws.com. No luck. Anyone have one they're willing to part with? Part number 530010286. Mine is cracked on the full neck at 9 & 12.

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There's a couple of tanks on fleabay now...probably will go away quickly.
 
I haven't filed a key down. Mostly on the retrofit coils it has been the timing light, degree wheel and piston stop. I don't know what the factory advance is on the Poulan's. I have set Homelites and Pioneers at 28-32 and it starts getting rough beyond that.
Just for kicks, I reverse calculated using 0.0022"/degree, at point where one assumes the key inserts into the plane of the crank surface. Given that, the arc length of the radius of the shaft plus amount of key protruding there would be 0.792" through 360 degrees. That produces a circle with diameter of only a 1/4". It gets tricky once the key is filed and the flywheel turned. Instead of the key bearing evenly against the flywheel keyway, only the outermost (radius) edge does. It has been asymmetrically offset. The diameter would be measured there for advance/retard. If the key were removed and the the 0.0022" of arc length per degree were measured off of the crank radius, the diameter of the narrowest point of the tapered shaft becomes 1/4".

Cool problem has me thinking. Always curious how others calculate/analyze problems.

I think you over thought the process. The shaft diameter is 0.625" The taper on the shaft shouldn't mater as the taper in the flywheel is the same. The shaft will turn at the same rate no matter where the key is located on the shaft or taper. Ultimately you talking a shaft dia of 0.625". If you use that diameter to calculate the degrees of rotation you would divide the circumference of the shaft by 360 degrees. Each degree in that case would be 0.00545" (CORRECTED from 0.0022"). It becomes a larger number if the crankshaft is a larger diameter.
I don't compensate for the sloppy needle bearings.

Make sense?

While I was typing this I forgot about my hotdogs on the stove. They done got blowed up.
 
Only thing I got today was this 3700 in red
dd2f6a6e96bb27343bb0e608ff950e5a.jpg


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