Pioneer chainsaws

[Walter Glover]

Thank you
About a weeks wages in 1975 for a P40

 

[p61 western]

Thank you
About a weeks wages in 1975 for a P40

Your welcome. I wish I had some price info from the late 70s and the early 80s. Maybe someone else does and could post it.

 

[jaycutaz]

Ive been searching through this site, which i think is awesome. I saw somewhere someone had a solution to rebuild these old gas caps for the p60's and others, but i cant seem to find it now. These caps are no longer available so i need to salvage the ones we do have as they go down. Any help is greatly appreciated. Also what are you guys doing for decompression valves for those as well? Big motors will yank your arm off without them lol

 

[Walter Glover]

For tight gas caps I chucked mine up in the lathe and reduced the threads by 0.040". Now they fit well in all tanks

 

[paul hill]

Ive been searching through this site, which i think is awesome. I saw somewhere someone had a solution to rebuild these old gas caps for the p60's and others, but i cant seem to find it now. These caps are no longer available so i need to salvage the ones we do have as they go down. Any help is greatly appreciated. Also what are you guys doing for decompression valves for those as well? Big motors will yank your arm off without them lol
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I know a fix for the gas caps that is posted a couple hundred pages back was to put them in the freezer for a few days. I think if you store the saw without gas and keep the cap loose, they won't swell up. I've been lucky and only had one cap swell up on me.

 

[Acornhill]

For tight gas caps I chucked mine up in the lathe and reduced the threads by 0.040". Now they fit well in all tanks

Walter, you amaze me, we should get you on naked and afraid and bring your lathe along.

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[Acornhill]

Ive been searching through this site, which i think is awesome. I saw somewhere someone had a solution to rebuild these old gas caps for the p60's and others, but i cant seem to find it now. These caps are no longer available so i need to salvage the ones we do have as they go down. Any help is greatly appreciated. Also what are you guys doing for decompression valves for those as well? Big motors will yank your arm off without them lol
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You can also leave the fuel cap off for a few weeks and it will shrink down. The ethanol fuel causes the caps to swell.

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[Lou]

I did something similar with Swiss files.
Odds are very good if you remove the cap and set it aside for a while the swelling will abate.
I never (no such thing as never or always) leave my saw with fuel in the tank and I always leave the cap slightly loose...
I've only experienced that problem the one time I left fuel in the tank....
Lou

 

[paul hill]

View attachment 580057 View attachment 580055 View attachment 580054 View attachment 580059 View attachment 580058 Added second attachment and runs like a topView attachment 580056

Walter,

Did you end up changing the keyway and timing or did it work with just the mounting modifications to the coil itself?

Awesome pictures, thanks for sharing

 

[Joab]

You can also leave the fuel cap off for a few weeks and it will shrink down. The ethanol fuel causes the caps to swell.

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I splurge for the ethanol-free premium gas to avoid the problem.

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[fossil]

The other remedy was from @rocketnorton and that was to soak the cap in ethanol free gasoline for a while.

 

[Walter Glover]

Timing was perfect with China coil mounted. No mods to flywheel key required. Not sure now why I thought it needed it mmmmmm

 

[Lou]

I splurge for the ethanol-free premium gas to avoid the problem.

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100LL was $5 per gallon (Washington State) a few weeks back.
How much are you paying a pint?

 

[Joab]

I would like to see price lists from back in the day. What did the saws cost when they came out? I bought my Jonsered 670 new but broken up from falling out of a truck for half price in 1985. It was $700 Cdn back then. Got it for 350. Was earning $11/hr at the local saw shop as there was no electrician jobs at the time. That Jonny was about two weeks wages new. Curious what a P41, P51 and P61 cost in 1980s?
That was a time hard on Pioneer as I recall the saw men were being replaced by harvesters and the European saws were the rage. Everyone wanted a Husky or Jonsered then. Stihl not so much as they were a bear to start for some reason. We mainly had Stihls in the shop that would not start! Do not recall any Pioneers ever. Now I love em!

I think part of what hurt Pioneer was that they lacked a light and fast pulp saw. At the time, a lot of the cutting done in the eastern part of the continent was pulp -- the big P series were too heavy/pricey and the smaller P series turned slow. Around here (New Brunswick), it seems 50ish cc Partner and Jonsereds were the saws of choice in the 80s.

It also seems like Pioneer had a good following in the Pacific Northwest, but then the US Forest Service mandated front-end mufflers and Pioneer wasn't ready for that yet.

Somewhere in that time period Electrolux bought Husqvarna, Jonsereds, Partner, and Pioneer; and even if the big P-series might have had a viable niche, the lack of competitive offerings across the pro-saw range made them the least advantageous to Electrolux. So Pioneer was shut down and their saws gradually stopped being made.

That's my impression anyway. The introduction of harvesters has somewhat changed the pro-saw market, I think -- it seems like the pros almost never cut pulp and now focus on bigger trees using bigger displacement saws. If they had survived, Pioneer maybe would have had a comeback. ( But although I love mine, I sure as hell wouldn't want to cut and stack several cords of 4 foot pulp with it every day. )

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[paul hill]

Timing was perfect with China coil mounted. No mods to flywheel key required. Not sure now why I thought it needed it mmmmmm

Nice, glad it worked out so well.

 

[p61 western]

I know a fix for the gas caps that is posted a couple hundred pages back was to put them in the freezer for a few days. I think if you store the saw without gas and keep the cap loose, they won't swell up. I've been lucky and only had one cap swell up on me.

The freezer trick has worked great for me, but I usually leave them in for a week or more. Now if my saws are going to sit I just put in true fuel.

 

[Joab]

100LL was $5 per gallon (Washington State) a few weeks back.
How much are you paying a pint?

I have no idea. Lol. I pay about 1.10 or 1.15 per litre in NB, Canada.

My dad (who introduced me to Pioneer saws as a boy), talks in gallons and Fahrenheit; but I am just young enough that I only learned metric in school. But without figuring out the conversion on the dollar, and Imperial to metric, I think it's safe to say I'm probably paying too much by US standards. I'm a weekend warrior so I almost never buy more than 5 or 6 litres at a time -- it might not seem worth it if I was using bigger volumes.

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[Lou]

I bought 3 gallons (11.35 liters for $15±). I usually buy small quantities because I don't like old fuel.
I've used almost all of that and will soon get another 2 gallons. The next batch I'll need to buy some more 2 cycle oil. I use name brands that mix with 1 gallon (2.6 fl oz - .077 liters) .
It seems foolhardy to save a few pennies and ruin a few hundred $ chainsaw.
My mate doesn't always grasp that.
Lou
Many chainsaw outlets here sell small cans of premixed fuel (pint - ¼ gallon). I can eat Maine lobster for the price per gallon.

 

[Joab]

I bought 3 gallons (11.35 liters for $15). I usually buy small quantities because I don't like old fuel.
I've used almost all of that and will soon get another 2 gallons. The next batch I'll need to buy some more 2 cycle oil. I use name brands that mix with 1 gallon (2.6 fl oz - .077 liters) .
It seems foolhardy to save a few pennies and ruin a few hundred $ chainsaw.
My mate doesn't always grasp that.
Lou
Many chainsaw outlets here sell small cans of premixed fuel. I can eat Maine lobster for the price per gallon.

Well I like to use the good stuff too, but I didn't realise that anywhere in the continental US paid more than us for any type of gas -- that sucks.

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[rocketnorton]

The other remedy was from @rocketnorton and that was to soak the cap in ethanol free gasoline for a while.

soak overnite, let dry next day. one took repeat 3x.