OK old timers...Homelite vs. McCulloch

[weimedog]

What do you think?

I have limited experience with old McCullochs, an old 1-51 and my 797. I did have one of those mini 320's for a long time that had its ignition die after about 10 years....scrap heaped it.

I have had my Homelite XL-12 and Homelite Super XL since the begining of time it seems (my sumer jobs in College). For years and years, they have never failed and I STILL use them. They fire at all temps summer or winter. The XL-12 has run with a scored piston for the last 10 years at least..still cuts well and fires easy. The Super XL looks great inside the cylinder and out...even after countless hours of hard use.

This XL800 I ran into and bought seems to be of the same ilk. Easy to start. Cuts way better than I would have expected. It has moved my Husky 365 to second place in my stack of saws to pick for real work for now. (no kidding..its easier to live with..easier to start cold and restart hot, same weight, and more flexible when pushed with its real low RPM grunt capability)

That McCulloch 1-51 (aprox 80cc & in good condition) by contrast was a pain in the butt. Harder to start, slower reving, much heavier, and not as much power as the same sized & same vintage Homelite (my 82cc XL800).

My McCulloch 797 has the power and starts really easy...just that primer pump is awkward as compared to the simple Homelite choke. I have to admit it runs strong and long under milling applications without any signs of strain or pain..I just have to wonder if a big Homelite would strike the same level of difference as the 1-51 does to the XL800 in real life use. One thing I do like is the way the oiler works...has a small resevoir cast right next to the blade. Seems to work really well even if there are chips in the mix. The screws for thing like the muffler and ignition cover are a size or two smaller than I would like to see...but they have past the test of time so far.

The Homelite engineering seems to be more practical from what I have seen so far. Also a bit better fit&finish....

You guys who have lived the two brands..what do you think????

 

[Mange]

I do not have so much experience but I like the old Homelites.
Specially 700D, C7 and my favorit at the moment, XP1000.
I have only run the McCulloch Super 33 a few times, so is easy to compere.

 

[eyolf]

My first experience with McC was with my dad's old 3-25. What a POS...he had 2 of them because they would not start hot. Period. Cut with one until run out of gas, then use the other one.

Now this says what kind of family we were; this is about 1964, and the one 3-25 was the early 1949 two-knob models. I still have both of them, and have picked up another one, just because they are getting kinda hard to find. It really aint fair to compare such an early saw to more modern stuff.

Also have a 1-40, and one of them gear-drive models with the crankshaft in line with the bar. Not impressed; heavy and slow.

My fave old saw would be Homelite 5-20, 4-20, and model 17's.
Loud but strong. I have exactly one loop of 1/2" chisel to fit the 19" bar common these and when sharp, this chain will nearly cut with more modern saws easily. Them old gear drives just plain chomp their way through...but ya gotta be on your toes if there's a pinch...that saw will come shooting back out of the wood at you and bulldoze you flat!

I admit their worthlessness on small wood.

 

[Mange]

I have one 5-20, but only started an run in wood a few times.
It is 10 years older than XP1000.

 

[Crofter]

Originally posted by eyolf

I admit their worthlessness on small wood.

My first experience with a Power Machinery Woodboss was in 1952. My father bought a used one for pulp and firewood. I think it weighed around 35 lbs and I was proud that I could lift it. A good worker with a bow saw could produce just as much in small wood and it was a terror for vibration. It would numb dads arms clear to the elbow and he would have me roll and light cigarettes for him. Guess you could say chainsaws drove me to smoking!

 

[Lewis Brander]

Old McCulloch, 3-25:

Ha, reading the thread about the 3-25 broungt back memories. My father and his brother bought a 3-25 together and shared it back and forth to cut their winters wood. My father had not much use for the saw for the reasons mentioned. Would start and run cold, but wouldn't start hot, after refueling untill it cooled off. My father about threw that saw off in the snow bank different times. I was with my uncle, at one time, and he had no problem starting the saw. He'd use it all day long with no problems. The secret was, when he filled the saw and cranked her over a few times, he'd take a match and stick it into the muffler. Poof, she go and start right up. Never forgot that. My uncle or I ever told my father the trick and my uncle ended up with that saw, after my father bought another, can't remember what. Anyone else ever come across this trick? Well everyone take care. Lewis.

 

[Al Smith]

Homey vs Mac

I like them both.As I've said before,I have a shed full.Of the larger ones,the super pro 105,cuts a tad slower than an 064,but has a lot more pull in a bind.The sp 125,which is legendary,has all the pull you will ever want to hold on to.I used to think the 125,was the most powerful saw I owned,but am leaning more towards my 2100 Homelite.I will say this,the oilers on the Macs,and Homey,will oil any length of bar I put on them,with plenty to spare[ oil is cheap,bars and chains are not]Of the mid size,250,super 44a,they cut okay,but they have a lot of wieght to them.Of the smaller 10 series ,I have 4,10-10 ,pro 10-10 , 6-10 and 7-10.They have ample power ,for little saws,and are fairly light,run and cut well,the 6-10 and 7-10,are highly tuned,and will run with the same size Stihl,on an even par.However,for little saws they are loud as the dickens,and do they vibrate.These rascals will make your hands tingle,in about 1/2 of a tank full.I have one gear drive Mac 650,which is in a class by itself.It will cut real well if you really lean on it.Last weekend,when we took down the big oak,Tom,my tree triming buddy had his 066.On 20" stuff,if I really leaned on it,I could out cut him,barely.After 3 cuts,like this,I admiited that it would take a better man than me to keep this up all day,and that match went to the orange and white.Further more,with that old mac belowing away at about 9,000 rpm,with open exhaust,it would rattle your brain ,even with ear plugs.I still like them,in spite of being "old school".You know,they really don't make them like that,any more.

 

[Mange]

That I will thry, Lewis.
I was thinking of how many things he tested befor putting a match in the muffler.

 

[Al Smith]

The old match trick

Never thought of it with a saw,but have done it on a John Deere A,many times.

 

[z4lunch]

Steve here...
I'm leaning toward the 2100 Homelite too...

 

[Lewis Brander]

Match trick:

Thought someone would get a kick out ot that story. As I recall my uncle, would smell the gas and figured the saw was flooded. Pull on the rewind till the piston, from what he could tell was at BDC and insert the match into the muffler to burn off the excess fuel. It always seemed to work. I've tried the trick on other applications and it seemed to work. Just use common sence and not have any gas cans near by and make sure the gas tank caps are tight. This always made me a bit nervous to try, but seems to work at times if the saw is flooded and you don't have your plug wrench close by. I've heard of guys starting a small bond fire and warming up those old saws that way, by setting them in the live coals to start them. Don't especially like that idea. Have heard of fellows starting fuel oil fires under log skidders, tractors and other equipment, to warm up the engine oil, to get them started as well, during cold weather. Gusee you do what you gotta do. It always made me nervous. Ok, rambled on enough. Take care. Lewis.

 

[ghitch75]

i always take a propane torch to my old mac 550 when the temp is below 32 and warm the jug with it and it starts on the 2 pull...and i have a propane heater on a gas grill tank to warm the oil pan on my wd45 to get her fired up in the cold weather...helps out the 6 volt starter

 

[Lewis Brander]

Propane torch:

Usually I have no problems starting my old or new equipment, but the porpane tourch doesn't sound like a bad idea. My father had a space heater we would use once in a while on tractors, to warm up the engines and fuel systems ( especally on an air cooled Deutz, speelling? tractor) in below 0 weather. Course that works if you have the power handy to plug into. Usually, my truck sits outside, all year around, and during below 0 temperatures I plug in a small 6 amp battery charger ( and place it under the hood) and let it charge the battery all night. Especially if the battery is 4-5 years old. The truck never fails to start. It has a plug in block heater (facory installed), but have never used it (plugged it in once to see if it worked). I find that with proper servicing of the equipment, I don't have any problems. But do like the propane idea. Take care. Lewis.

 

[Mange]

As a farm worker you get to love all kinds of heating systems.
Frosen water, feeding eqipment, all outdoor eqipment.
Without gaswelder and steelwire, life as farmer would be hard.

Mange

 

[Al Smith]

How about that

Why,I thought ole Z4,was oh-niner-oh man,but I saw,he had a nice one on e-bay. Then,later bought a big old Westbend,that he and Ole [name withheld,]were dueling over[And I thought he was a Superpro 125 man].If I recall correctly,that Westbend,will run both directions,by simply reversing the points cam,but I've been wrong before.Lewis,I have actualy seen an A John Deere,start,simply by the match trick.I would not have believed it,had I not seen it,with my own eyes.

 

[Lewis Brander]

"A" John Deere:

Hi Al. My grandfather had one of the first tractors in our area. He did his own farm work and did alot ot custom plowing for others untill they got there own tractors. His was the old John Deere A, model AO, made in 1936, which was a A , somewhat low clearance set up for orchard work with extra sheetmetal. Used to run both gasoline and distilate (kerosene). Never had too much of a problem startiing it as long as the magneto inpulse timing was set right on the button. I used to start it when I was 10 years old. Open the petcocks. set the choke. turn off the mag, crank her over 4 times, turn on the mag and give the flywheel another flip. She'd always fire up. Open the choke and close the petcocks. Ha, you could almost turn the flywheel to the point where the impluse in the mag would click and then just bump the flywheel to start her. Loved to hear her work on an old Papec belt driven corn chopper. You could load her up untill you could actually count the rpm's of the old engine and she would still blow corn to the top of a 50' silo. Sure miss those days. With a (I think) 6.5" bore and 6" stroke (might be the other way around) she had tons of torque. Couldn't stall her if you tried. Wide open highway speed was only 9 mph. Idles at around 900 rpm and wide open was about 1600- 1800 rpm. She never had rings and only had the head off once for a burn't valve, that I could remember. Always had proper maintinance and only can remember replacing the clutch plates once. Ha, since this is a chainsaw forum, only wonder what would happen if some of these saws were set up with longer stroke and more torque. Also that old tractor could really drive a good size saw blade for cutting wood. If I remember it was a 4' or better blade. OK, talk later. Lewis.

 

[weimedog]

Now that this thread has diversed into old equipment & stuff..two "backwards" stories:

My first dump truck was a 1970 GMC with a 6V-53T Detriot and a 5X4 splitter transmission. Could go anywhere....one time I had a full load, around 16tons of rock; and I was pulling into this persons driveway. There was this hump right at the begining and I was in a gear too high....hit the hump, truck stalled and then fired up again and I was being pushed back out into the road! Smoke was pouring out of the hood and it sounded a bit odd at best. I was certain I had blown up that motor and pulled the fuel stop.....got out , opened the hood and there was oil everywhere! Fortunately I looked a little closer and realized there oil was from the air cleaner...what had happened was the motor fired up backwards and blew all the oil out of the "oil" type air cleaner. Made a hell of a mess! I reset the fuel cut out, crossed my fingures and fired it up...all was fine and continued on my way.

A few years back I bought my son a 1989 KTM 250 motorcycle. It just wouldn't run clean ....and every once in a while if you didn't kick REALLY hard it would kick back and fire up backwards...you should have seen the look on that kids face when it happened first time when I was trying to teach him how to get it going.....well it eventually died with a fried piston..actually within the first couple of hours of riding. I just wasn't getting up to speed on this situation fast enough to figure out the problem coupled with the fact I wasn't familiar with those KTM's of that era....Turned out that it didn't have its CDI box. The way those things worked was they were by default full advance and the CDI would delay the spark a bit to get the timing curve they want. No box...way too advanced at low RPM's. Especially starting speeds. Luck it had enough flywheel to turn through (maybe UNLUCKY) so it would start sometimes!! But a half hearted kick and it would fire before TDC and its going backwards.....good for the shock value of watching those too stubbord to beleive what was happening (like my kid) and would do the "catch all" motorcycle solution to all problems...GIVE IT MORE THROTTLE! Made for a couple of unusual wrecks.

 

[Al Smith]

Maybe a tad off subject

Well,what the heck,you started the thread We just got a bit sidetracked.While we're at,the old Detroit,really dosen't care which way it runs,but the Roots blower does.It will draw a vaccum,as good as it produces pressure.What happened to the picture of the big maple,and the Homey?Oh,I think that was a differant thread.

 

[weimedog]

Was that a back handed way of saying like it is with old Detoits?
As the engineers say:

"Old Detriots are in dynamic equilibrium...they SSSUCK as much as they BLOW!"

Actuall I experienced & owned some..they NEVER failed. Made me deaf as a post. The old ones leaked everywhere. (My silver series 6v-92tta didn't...was a wonderful motor in its time.) They could run injured for a long long time. Tough motors. Just liked my luck with the 855ci Cummins series for trucks better.

 

[Al Smith]

music to ears

When I was on the boats[see the avatar],I slept about 5 ft above a 900 hp one[GM ,same thing]. on the nuke.The old fleet boat had 4,at around 1500 H.P. each.,and I could sleep like a baby,with them running fully loaded.In additon to a loaded reed valve saw,Old John Deeres,Harley ,and Detroit,are all a symphomy to me,but I'm a little odd.