Pioneer chainsaws

[crane]

The only thing missing is the nickle Pioneer logo on the cover, this one is headed for a complete strip down and restoration including paint. I will be shopping for a original Pioneer logo, the rest I already have in stock.
Pioneerguy600

HAHA...Well there goes my plan to try and snatch one off of e-bay by stealth With all the intrest in RA's in this and other threads...........First logo to come up on e-bay, the AS guys will be on it like a pack of dogs on a three legged cat!!

:sword:

 

[porky616]

that ra sure is neat jerry, must have had an easy life

 

[pioneerguy600]

that ra sure is neat jerry, must have had an easy life

It was actually kept in the closet behind the woodstove of an older gent I knew since childhood, it took me 30 odd years to get it out of him. His oldest son took the Pioneer logo off sometime during the early 70`s. and lost it.
Pioneerguy600

 

[madmax]

Maybe one of you guys can tell me, Why did Pioneer ever go outta business? I have a couple of p-42's, and just going by them, Pioneer damm sure had it together and should be building saws today.

 

[pioneerguy600]

Inside the covers;

 

[pioneerguy600]

 

[pioneerguy600]

Maybe one of you guys can tell me, Why did Pioneer ever go outta business? I have a couple of p-42's, and just going by them, Pioneer damm sure had it together and should be building saws today.

I don`t know all the internal politics of what went wrong at Pioneer but they just did not seem to have the future in mind and claimed that they could not compete with the other big saw makers. It would take too much R and D money to keep up with new saw demands and they just cashed in the chips and took their money and run. It seems Poulan had deeper pockets than either Pioneer or Partner and bought them out to eliminate the competiton. Poulan used the Pioneer tooling to make a run of saws for a number of years and then it all vanished.
Pioneerguy600

 

[crane]

My fuel bowl did not look anything like that one!! It had all types of crud and some rust in it. Mine had a seconday fuel filter in the pickup tube in the bowl chamber. I cut out a piece of felt from a boot liner. Seems to work fine so far.

 

[pioneerguy600]

My fuel bowl did not look anything like that one!! It had all types of crud and some rust in it. Mine had a seconday fuel filter in the pickup tube in the bowl chamber. I cut out a piece of felt from a boot liner. Seems to work fine so far.

A small round cylinder shape white felt filter is factory, I have a few of them NOS to use in all the RA`s and 600 series. Pulled the one out of this one when taking the saw apart for pre resto tear down.
Pioneerguy600

 

[crane]

I see by your pics that I have my recoil rope on the wrong side of the guide. Will remedy that tommorrow.

Drew

BTW I have an original round air filter, do you know of another filter that would fit. Say off of a Briggs or tesch. motor? The original is in bad shape, I would use a replacement for running the saw and the original for display.

 

[pioneerguy600]

I see by your pics that I have my recoil rope on the wrong side of the guide. Will remedy that tommorrow.

Drew

BTW I have an original round air filter, do you know of another filter that would fit. Say off of a Briggs or tesch. motor? The original is in bad shape, I would use a replacement for running the saw and the original for display.

The original airfilter for the RA is made out of layers of brass screen wound around a coarse galvinized wire screen inside and out, perfect round cylinder shape. No other filter fits correctly. It would not be hard to make a good one as there is a lot of good materials out there for making filters.

 

[Jacob J.]

Looking good Jerry...I've long thought about making my own RA filters out of stiff wire mesh and some foam which could be oiled, and then a porous nylon outer-wrap.

 

[pioneerguy600]

Looking good Jerry...I've long thought about making my own RA filters out of stiff wire mesh and some foam which could be oiled, and then a porous nylon outer-wrap.

Would work fine in my opinion, we use a green foam sheet that is about 1/2 thick, it is designed to be used as filter foam and is resistant to oil and gas. One layer would be good,two layers even better.
Pioneerguy600

 

[crane]

The original airfilter for the RA is made out of layers of brass screen wound around a coarse galvinized wire screen inside and out, perfect round cylinder shape. No other filter fits correctly. It would not be hard to make a good one as there is a lot of good materials out there for making filters.

Well mine might not be that bad.....someone had tried some sort of white chaulking around the base. It was hard and crusty on the outside and a gooey mess on the inside. I take it there is not a type of base gasket? Just seals under pressure from the nut at the top?

 

[pioneerguy600]

Well mine might not be that bad.....someone had tried some sort of white chaulking around the base. It was hard and crusty on the outside and a gooey mess on the inside. I take it there is not a type of base gasket? Just seals under pressure from the nut at the top?

Yea that`s about it but you could cut two thin rubber rings for the top and bottom to sit on and seal the edges a bit better. The caulking thing would be a bit messy.
Pioneerguy600

 

[Brmorgan]

The previous owner of my RA had cut a base gasket out of rubber sheet. I picked up an air filter assembly from a Pioneer 600 series, which takes a K&N-style filter similar to a Stihl 660's but about half the height and a bit wider. If that fits I might use it to run the saw as it should be much easier to find a replacement for. Not original parts, but unless it's on display or for sale I don't care.

 

[pioneerguy600]

The previous owner of my RA had cut a base gasket out of rubber sheet. I picked up an air filter assembly from a Pioneer 600 series, which takes a K&N-style filter similar to a Stihl 660's but about half the height and a bit wider. If that fits I might use it to run the saw as it should be much easier to find a replacement for. Not original parts, but unless it's on display or for sale I don't care.

You are right Brad it is easy to convert a RA over to run any of the 600 series filters, the filter and adapters for the 620 and 650 are the easiest to find and lasted better than the filters for the 600. For every day use it would be better actually as the filters were quite improved over the OEM RA design but I like to keep mine stock, they don`t cut much wood and I can keep them fitted with NOS filters for as long as I will own them.
Pioneerguy600

 

[WesternSaw]

RA Service Bulletin

Hi Fellas
Thought you guys might like to see this service bulletin that I found while thumbing thru the service bulletins I have.It concerns the air filters for the RA.I have other service bulletins as well.
Lawrence

 

[crane]

Very interesting.......noted that the updated kit comes with new adaptor plate(hence the new carb gasket). Wonder if Jerry has seen some of these?

Thanks for posting that update Lawrence

Drew

 

[mile9socounty]

Alright Gentlement. Since I'm feeling a little squirrelly, by chance. Anyone of yall have a P45 P/J that I might put to good use. I figured I might as well do something since I'm back to saw fixing. Got all the tools at work.

Kenny