Nik's Poulan Thread

[9050LX]

You should feel guilty, $40 for a new chain and bar with a free saw.

Any idea of the bar origin? PN 44094 PV I believe.

 

[bob kern]

I didn't have anything decent size to test with but I got to run it at least. Starts great runs great!

 

[Mikesawed]

When it comes to buying broken down trashed saws and rebuilding for resale Poulan is my bread and butter. I can often get them for $10-$20 and by the time I have gone through them and replaced anything that needs it, cleaned them up, tuned the carbs to where they start in 3 pulls or less, idle indefinitely while the chain sits still, don't smoke and the chain is sharpened to the point it actually pulls itself into the cut and you don't have to really do much of anything but hold the throttle and balance it they sell for $100+. Quite often I only have my time in them and the cost of a set of fuel lines. And i always use the black fuel lines that is not going to be eaten away at by ethenol. But I also always give my customers instructions on using either Stabil or the 2 cycle oil with the ethenol treatment in it along with instructions to empty the fuel and run the saw until it dies if they are going to store it. How well they listen is up to them. I also give them a 30 day warranty and if for any reason the saw fails to start or stay running in the first 30 days as long as they have used the correct fuel mixture then I will put the saw back to right for them free of charge. In 2+ years I have yet to have a single saw come back. The only call I got was a guy trying to start it drunk and flooded it. He went out the following weekend sober primed it 6 times, pulled the choke and it tried to fire on the first pull. He then released the choke and it fired of on the first pull. So tell pulls when he was sober and the saw worked beautifully. So many people talk bad about Poulan. I own a Husqvarna 141, a Stihl MS260,.a Stihl MS046, a Poulan Pro 262, a Poulan Pro 260, a Poulan Poineer 2050 a Poulan Wild Thing P4018WTL. And don't get me wrong, I love my Stihl and my Husqvarna, but 9 times out of 10 I'm reaching to grab a Poulan to do what I have to get done. They are robust, easy to work on, fairly cheap to replace parts and they just do the job without much hassle. There is a time and a place to pull out the Stihl, especially the 046. The Husqvarna 141 I got for my girlfriend to teach her how to start one and how to use it safely. And the 141 is a great saw especially for her. It's small and light weight. It starts easily and she doesn't have to deal with a primer bulb which gets a lot of people in trouble by flooding the saw. And although it's easy enough to fix it's still work and it takes time. So putting her on something without one was the way to go. And the Stihl saws impulse system works great and I love the decompression button on the larger ones that makes it easier to pull the cord be releasing a little of the compression. But that's a lot for someone to have to learn and understand. Especially if they haven't been around saws the their whole life. So in my humble opinion Poulan has corned the market on saws that are user friendly, they use a system that is common on most other outdoor equipment and keeping to that same system makes it familiar and easy for someone to look at it and just automatically know what needs done to operate it. And Poulan has put out some really good saws over the years. It just depends what line your looking at and what your price point is. There are pro model Poulans out there that people just will not get rid of, or that they will pay a chunk of change to get. Poulan being a use friendly saw and most specifically made to meet the needs of the homeowner or regular Joe. When a lot of guys who grew up in town on an acre or less remember their father out mixing fuel and getting ready to clean up Strom debris or just trimming the trees each year they remember their father doing that with a Poulan. Sure there are other homeowner saws out there, but Poulan is going to be the most common. And there are homeowner Huskys and Stihls but you had to have a pretty healthy budget in order to buy one. And I remember my mother and father telling me time and again "Money don't grow on trees". So you guessed it, there was a Poulan I'm my dad's shop. Of course he would be checking out all the trees in the nearby area if he saw 2 Stihls a husky and 4 Poulans in my shop. He might even try to turn me in thinking I stole them. But no, I bought every one of them used and broken. I rebuilt and repaired each. It's just with buying broken down tools you get first choice as to which ones to keep when your the one buying them and paying for the parts to repair them. I can guarantee you I have less than $100 tied up in all 7. And that's buying them, buying the parts to repair them and sticking to OEM parts when needed. So, when you look at what I have and what I use you see over half my saws are Poulan. When you see me using a saw, well most likely you will see a Poulan in my hands. I promise my Stihl will be close by in case I get in to deep. And if my girlfriend is around her Husky will be there. But those Poulan will be getting a work out!!!

Pictured are a few of the saws that have been through my shop and I have sold in the last few months.

 

[9050LX]

I bought an LRB 3.7 piston to try out with a good used cylinder.Have bought 3 saws since then intending to run the piston to ruin if possible. All the saws I bought since have good piston/cylinders. The oilers on the other hand, are so far an enigma. I will figure them out eventually.

 

[hotshot]

I bought an LRB 3.7 piston to try out with a good used cylinder.Have bought 3 saws since then intending to run the piston to ruin if possible. All the saws I bought since have good piston/cylinders. The oilers on the other hand, are so far an enigma. I will figure them out eventually.

Good luck with that, probably wasted your $$.

The LRB 3700s aren’t even a close attempt at making an OEM copy of the thin ring piston.

Have you tried to press in the new wrist pin needle bearing yet?

 

[9050LX]

Have not had a bad piston yet.took apart a bad piston (part saw) with a good cylinder.i have a puller.the lrb is not thin ring, measures good.will it run?we will find out eventually.

 

[Todd Loosli]

I'm running a LRB piston in the 4000 test engine and it is working fine, had to use the stock piston pin. Doing this because we are waiting to get the piston for the cylinder that will be in the kit. Only testing one part at a time.
The piston pin is the thing that is junk in it LRB kit.

 

[Jethro 2t sniffer]

I think it's the 3400 piston that is no good.

Quite a few over in the yellow pub run LRBs without trouble

 

[Patrick1903]

As seen on Craigslist. Looks neat, I don’t know anything about these saws so posting for the Poulan connoisseurs.
https://richmond.craigslist.org/clt/d/fredericksburg-chainsaw/7478223408.html

 

[9050LX]

What does that monster weigh? Looks like 30lbs at least without bar and chain (or gas) lol.

 

[hotshot]

I think it's the 3400 piston that is no good.

Quite a few over in the yellow pub run LRBs without trouble

That’s good information to know.

Both LRB pistons I purchased over the years were returned. One was for a 2-1/8” bore Homelite XL-925 that was fit with fat metric rings, not thins; and then a Poulan 245 that was also metric ringed, rings end gapped at 0.025” new, & also cast too cold causing many open pores. Advertisement stated that these were factory repros, but they were not.

LRB Lee banned me after returning the second piston, and the feeling was mutual...

You’re probably starting to burn the wood stove down under there, as we’re already hitting 35C or 95F high temps here!

 

[s sidewall]

I've gotten burned on the 3400 piston from them and never would answer me back when I contacted them. Never again. When you end up getting a cylinder trashed it kind of ticks you off. Especially when you just don't go out and get a cylinder.

 

[fossil]

The main issue with 3400 pistons (3800 included if they make one) is that they aren't chrome plated.

Like chrome on chrome, aluminum on aluminum only lasts a few minutes.

 

[9050LX]

Why would they even sell this?

 

[bob kern]

Got me two "grey poulans" today.

 

[Todd Loosli]

Why would they even sell this?

Because someone wants money more than a good part

 

[9050LX]

How long then could an aluminum piston and cylinder expect to last?

 

[dboyd351]

until they can cash your check

 

[dboyd351]

When it comes to buying broken down trashed saws and rebuilding for resale Poulan is my bread and butter. I can often get them for $10-$20 and by the time I have gone through them and replaced anything that needs it, cleaned them up, tuned the carbs to where they start in 3 pulls or less, idle indefinitely while the chain sits still, don't smoke and the chain is sharpened to the point it actually pulls itself into the cut and you don't have to really do much of anything but hold the throttle and balance it they sell for $100+. Quite often I only have my time in them and the cost of a set of fuel lines. And i always use the black fuel lines that is not going to be eaten away at by ethenol. But I also always give my customers instructions on using either Stabil or the 2 cycle oil with the ethenol treatment in it along with instructions to empty the fuel and run the saw until it dies if they are going to store it. How well they listen is up to them. I also give them a 30 day warranty and if for any reason the saw fails to start or stay running in the first 30 days as long as they have used the correct fuel mixture then I will put the saw back to right for them free of charge. In 2+ years I have yet to have a single saw come back. The only call I got was a guy trying to start it drunk and flooded it. He went out the following weekend sober primed it 6 times, pulled the choke and it tried to fire on the first pull. He then released the choke and it fired of on the first pull. So tell pulls when he was sober and the saw worked beautifully. So many people talk bad about Poulan. I own a Husqvarna 141, a Stihl MS260,.a Stihl MS046, a Poulan Pro 262, a Poulan Pro 260, a Poulan Poineer 2050 a Poulan Wild Thing P4018WTL. And don't get me wrong, I love my Stihl and my Husqvarna, but 9 times out of 10 I'm reaching to grab a Poulan to do what I have to get done. They are robust, easy to work on, fairly cheap to replace parts and they just do the job without much hassle. There is a time and a place to pull out the Stihl, especially the 046. The Husqvarna 141 I got for my girlfriend to teach her how to start one and how to use it safely. And the 141 is a great saw especially for her. It's small and light weight. It starts easily and she doesn't have to deal with a primer bulb which gets a lot of people in trouble by flooding the saw. And although it's easy enough to fix it's still work and it takes time. So putting her on something without one was the way to go. And the Stihl saws impulse system works great and I love the decompression button on the larger ones that makes it easier to pull the cord be releasing a little of the compression. But that's a lot for someone to have to learn and understand. Especially if they haven't been around saws the their whole life. So in my humble opinion Poulan has corned the market on saws that are user friendly, they use a system that is common on most other outdoor equipment and keeping to that same system makes it familiar and easy for someone to look at it and just automatically know what needs done to operate it. And Poulan has put out some really good saws over the years. It just depends what line your looking at and what your price point is. There are pro model Poulans out there that people just will not get rid of, or that they will pay a chunk of change to get. Poulan being a use friendly saw and most specifically made to meet the needs of the homeowner or regular Joe. When a lot of guys who grew up in town on an acre or less remember their father out mixing fuel and getting ready to clean up Strom debris or just trimming the trees each year they remember their father doing that with a Poulan. Sure there are other homeowner saws out there, but Poulan is going to be the most common. And there are homeowner Huskys and Stihls but you had to have a pretty healthy budget in order to buy one. And I remember my mother and father telling me time and again "Money don't grow on trees". So you guessed it, there was a Poulan I'm my dad's shop. Of course he would be checking out all the trees in the nearby area if he saw 2 Stihls a husky and 4 Poulans in my shop. He might even try to turn me in thinking I stole them. But no, I bought every one of them used and broken. I rebuilt and repaired each. It's just with buying broken down tools you get first choice as to which ones to keep when your the one buying them and paying for the parts to repair them. I can guarantee you I have less than $100 tied up in all 7. And that's buying them, buying the parts to repair them and sticking to OEM parts when needed. So, when you look at what I have and what I use you see over half my saws are Poulan. When you see me using a saw, well most likely you will see a Poulan in my hands. I promise my Stihl will be close by in case I get in to deep. And if my girlfriend is around her Husky will be there. But those Poulan will be getting a work out!!!

Pictured are a few of the saws that have been through my shop and I have sold in the last few months.

I appreciate your love for poulans - But you need to get yourself a countervibe or two (3400, 3700, 3800 etc)
They are a whole other class of saw!

 

[9050LX]

until they can cash your check

I am interested in knowing this answer.Seriously. How long could a saw reasonably be expected to run?