Rebuilding a rare Poulan gear drive

[Modifiedmark]

Picked up one of the ones I have been after for sometime, a Poulan 744 gear drive saw. These are pretty rare. There the last of the mid sized gear drives Poulan made and were only made for two years. They followed the 252, and the 252A that were each only made one year apiece. They were actually what they called lightweight gear drives and were 4.5CI displacement and were a combination of sand cast aluminum and die cast magnesium construction.

This saw will never be a looker and it had led a full life before I got it and you can tell it was used a lot. It had a broken handlebar bracket and someone had adapted what looks to me to be a David Bradley exhaust stack on it. It exited to the upper rear of the saw and had to be deafening to us in that configuration blowing back at the operator like that.

I wanted to bring it back to original condition and back to excellent running condition. I had to fight the urge to repaint and cosmetically restore it as well but wanted to leave it with all its scars as well.

Upon tear down I was happy to see the P/C were in more then excellent condition and only found the main bearings to be in a little rough shape, so the plan was to clean it all up and replace anything not up to snuff with new to make it a dependable runner.

I'll try to post all the photos of the rebuild.

Here it is in as received condition.

 

[Modifiedmark]

Torn down.

Huh, it appears that I can no longer post the rest of the pictures for some reason??

Must still be some glitches going on here...

 

[cbfarmall]

Better just skip to the end!

Chris B.

 

[Modifiedmark]

OK, skipping the tear down, on to reassembly..

RH view of crankcase and gearbox

LH view of crankcase

Flywheel side crankcase bearing support..

Detail of the FW side new bearing, the retaining groove in the bearing and the locking ring on the crankshaft groove.

Here is the crankshaft and bearing installed in the FW side bearing carrier. Not the retaining screws that secure the crank bearing to the carrier. It is a press fit bearing so they went above and beyond securing that bearing.

 

[Modifiedmark]

After the new caged needle bearing was pressed into the case, the crank and bearing carrier were installed in the crank case.

The rod was then installed on the crank. The large zip tie was used to hold the cap and bearings in place on the crank journal while installing the rod..

The piston and new rings were then installed.

The cylinder was in great shape.

 

[Modifiedmark]

The oil pump installed in the gear box then the cylinder installed.

The clutch was installed, then a new foam seal was fitted between the tank/handle assembly and the tank secured in place.

A new oiler line from the case to the bar pad was installed as well as the gear case cover.

The reed valve/carb adapter was secured then the NOS stack muffler.

 

[Modifiedmark]

The rebuilt carb was then installed along with new fuel lines and filter.

A new OEM cork gasket was then used to seal the upper tank half to the saw. A new duckbill valve and o ring was fitted to the fuel cap as well.

http://www.arboristsite.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=316363&d=1380507293

The ignition was then fitted in place.

The rebuilt recoil assembly came next.

Here is the tank cover installed as well as the NOS air filter.

 

[Modifiedmark]

The last assembly picture. I thought I had more but probably got into the beer about then and forgot about the camera...

Here it is all back together, up and running like a new one.

Notice the NOS handle bracket to replace the broken original. I was lucky to find that part!

 

[Modifiedmark]

Here is Chris giving it a bit of break in running. That stack muffler sure has its own sound with the twin openings on it.


I'm very proud and happy to own this rare piece of Poulan history.


http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/5329/ffviqkjqyiuzfwaycbqhro.mp4

 

[Modifiedmark]

While I'm at it, here is the 252 and 744 setting together! Probably the only pair of these together in one place you will find..

I have to say that I learned quite a bit comparing the two of them, I thought they were more the same then what they are. The 252 is based on the 68-69 200 series saws while the 744 got the newer 245 style parts. It is also interesting to note that the 252 and 252A saws were auto and manual oiler equipped while the later model 744 was a manual oiler. How's that for progress.. LOL

 

[Mac 6-10]

awesome job as always. sometimes a preservation is more important that a full restoration. Love it.

is it just me or does that tank gasket shape and the manual oil pump look very similar to a mac 10 series

 

[Modifiedmark]

awesome job as always. sometimes a preservation is more important that a full restoration. Love it.

is it just me or does that tank gasket shape and the manual oil pump look very similar to a mac 10 series

Thanks, but as for the Mac parts? I don't know, could be I never cared enough to notice on those yellow ones.

 

[nmurph]

Very nice. I love the sound of a reed valve in the cut.

 

[leeha]

Awsome build Mark. Thats a saw i haven't seen before.
Very unique. Nice job.




Lee

 

[Modifiedmark]

Awsome build Mark. Thats a saw i haven't seen before.
Very unique. Nice job.




Lee

Well Lee, if you have not seen one, that shows that its rare!

 

[Modifiedmark]

Looking at my photos again I found I got one more to show.

It appears the linkbucks crap is back again to make it hard to do right now though...

 

[Big_Wood]

this is to cool mark. makes me feel like I should try get my hands on a gear drive to fix up. I actually have never seen one around here.

 

[Mr. Bow Saw]

Nice job rebuilding the saw Mark.:msp_thumbsup:

If I was doing it, it would of been real hard to not paint it.

 

[Modifiedmark]

Nice job rebuilding the saw Mark.:msp_thumbsup:

If I was doing it, it would of been real hard to not paint it.

I know what you mean, it was very hard for me not to also. :hmm3grin2orange:

If I would have had decals for it I probably couldn't have helped not doing it.

 

[Rookie1]

Nice job Mak. Im a fan of not painting so Im good with what you did. Its nice to see a rare old saw being rebuilt and life added to it.