Remington Chainsaws(including Mall chainsaws)

[JTCoyote]

Nice old Remington, JTCoyote. I'm guessing that's one of the Mall-to-Remington transition saws (Mall design, Remington name). I wish that I knew of a source for parts for the early Remington models, but I don't.

The first order of business on any of the Logmaster types is to evaluate the Bendix Scintilla magneto. Most every one has the coil gone to pot.
View attachment 454621
The original can be replaced with a Wico coil from a Homelite XL-101 type.
View attachment 454622
It takes some searching and tinkering to change it over.

There is a SL-5 parts or repair on there now. $99.99 & free shipping. A bit high IMHO.
Locked up could be just dirt in the main bearings, inoperable starter or total trashed piston/cylinder.

Thanks, you guys. I appreciate your opinions and experience as a helpful guide into the depths of this beauty and I will keep you posted as I go.

I eased my way into damaged starter last night as far as the flywheel and found the 2 starter pawls and 2 of the 6 tabs on the engagement cup broken and laying together in the bottom of the intermediate housing. Not a pawl return spring could be found anywhere. The starter rope return spring is broken at the bend at the inner mounting point, yet the flywheel is intact, no bent, broken, or missing fins.

I looked for the parts saw you found on ebay, 67L36, but all I found was this...http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-Mall-R...850274?hash=item51d9d33be2:g:tGEAAOSwFnFV8290. The coil sub with an XL-101 unit is valuable info for sure.

I will pull the flywheel tonight... Its been a while since I've pulled a flywheel on one of my saws... can't remember what I did with that piston stop... hmmm

Thanks again, Gents.

JT

 

[briantutt]

To make the piston stop I usually move the piston up so it just covers the exhaust port and then shove a clean rope in there to stop the piston but not hurt anything. The reason I mention to have the piston above the port is so you don't shear of the rope.

Brian

 

[JTCoyote]

To make the piston stop I usually move the piston up so it just covers the exhaust port and then shove a clean rope in there to stop the piston but not hurt anything. The reason I mention to have the piston above the port is so you don't shear of the rope.

Brian

Thanks Brian, I'll give the rope trick a go. Less point pressure on the top of the piston that way... good.

JT

 

[67L36Driver]

More than one piston has been 'holed' by the solid piston stops.

 

[JTCoyote]

More than one piston has been 'holed' by the solid piston stops.

I imagine your words are true as true.

In any case I used the rope trick and spun the flywheel nut off slick as a whistle. It took a steering wheel puller to pop the flywheel from the shaft however, yet that too yielded without a hitch. Everything was hooked up as it should be, the wires look shiny and new. I removed the breaker cover, and the points look brand new and the gap is right at .o20".

I took a couple of pics of the ignition plate. I'll post them in an edit here later on tonight. This ignition system is almost pristine, so clean you could eat off of it. As you correctly pointed out, the coil has a crack in the cover that begins just above the plug wire attachment runs at 2:00 to the top edge, follows along the edge and stops at the back corner. The humidity here in the high country averages less than 25% so moisture isn't likely to be an issue in this case.

The cracked coil case is seen clearly here. It extends another inch along the top right edge and stops.

I decided to see if she would spark. I grounded the plug to the case in it's boot, tightened the flywheel nut back on the crank, turned on the switch, gave the bore a short squirt of fuel mix as lube, and using a half inch drive spinner handle and a 5/8" socket I gave the shaft it's first sustained spin in decades. Cranking as fast as I could muster, about 120 rpms, I witnessed the crackle of a bluish white spark jumping the electrodes every revolution.

Spark plug securely grounded to the case. I was much pleased with the results when I gave her a spin.

I think the coil is okay in this one, the coil cover is still soft and somewhat pliable, just needs to be sealed up. Any thoughts on the best way to go about a cover reseal?

I'm becoming enamored with this great old saw.

JT

 

[67L36Driver]

Visit your local Lowes or ? and look for Liquid Tape.


Wonderful stuff. Smear it all over to seal it as much as possible.

Don't use it if you are pregnant. Prolly make your babies look funny.

You will find other uses for it, guarantee!

 

[Chris J.]

I also use the rope method for piston stops. And yes, I did shear a rope by not paying attention and having the piston below the exhaust port. Mistakes are how we learn (that's what I tell my wife when one of my DIY home repairs doesn't go as planned ).

Note on parts saws (yes, I'm preaching to the choir, but some folks might not know)--If the part you're needing is broken because of a design flaw, the same part might be broken on the parts saw. Been there, done that (Jonsered metal knee-joint chain brakes).

 

[67L36Driver]

I've been using poplar wood square from the hardware store for a piston stop. Spreads the stress over a wider area than round will. Using a punch and BFH, one subject 'bit' off a chunk. That was fun to remove from the cylinder.[emoji13]

 

[JTCoyote]

Visit your local Lowes or ? and look for Liquid Tape.
View attachment 454796

Wonderful stuff. Smear it all over to seal it as much as possible.

Don't use it if you are pregnant. Prolly make your babies look funny.

You will find other uses for it, guarantee!

I'm on it. To late where the babies are concerned I'm afraid... thank God they got their momma's good looks.

I also use the rope method for piston stops. And yes, I did shear a rope by not paying attention and having the piston below the exhaust port. Mistakes are how we learn (that's what I tell my wife when one of my DIY home repairs doesn't go as planned ).

Note on parts saws (yes, I'm preaching to the choir, but some folks might not know)--If the part you're needing is broken because of a design flaw, the same part might be broken on the parts saw. Been there, done that (Jonsered metal knee-joint chain brakes).

Yep, weak points in a design tend to fail all over the place... but if the price is right I'll be snatching up as many of these robust old Mall transition Remingtons as my saw shed can comfortably accommodate.

As for the broken leg on the starter rope reel housing... I will soda blast the piece and the housing, then drill and tap through the housing into the leg gussets with 2-56 tpi and screw them back together mating the two with a bead of JB Weld. Then I will reinforce between the gussets on both sides with more JBW sculpting it nicely into the housing, I will reinforce the other two legs to the same profile so all have equal support. Finally I'll sand it smooth to #320, give it a spray of zinc-chromate primer, and top it off with a couple of coats of semigloss Birch White enamel.

However... I think I'm a bit ahead of myself since there are three mechanical repairs under the reel housing that must be addressed first. Here is a picture of two of them...

The first repair is pretty obvious, to weld the two broken ears back onto the starter ratchet cup. The second is to figure out a spring arrangement that will adequately hold the fish-nose end of the starter pawls out when the shaft is at rest to easily engage the cup slots ready for a pull. The springs must be sufficiently weak however to be overcome by centrifugal force pulling the heavier tail end of the pawls outward contacting the pawl stops closing the ratchet while the ol' saw is running. The third thing to fix is to bend a new attachment loop on the inside end of the rope return spring where it connects to the back of the take up reel... Any thoughts? Such fun.

JT

 

[67L36Driver]

You need a parts saw. Yikes!

 

[JTCoyote]

You need a parts saw. Yikes!

...(chuckle)... maybe a dozen more SL-5s and 6 or 7 GL-7s will do it...(more chuckling)...

JT

 

[67L36Driver]

Those flywheels (with starter dogs) come up on eBay on occasion.
Also check Chain-saw-r.com (not a site sponsor so leave out the dashes).

 

[Chris J.]

If you seriously enjoy very detailed DIY parts repairs, why not? If it works, cool. If not, you enjoyed giving it a try.

And as Carl mentioned posted:

You need a parts saw. Yikes!

 

[JTCoyote]

Thanks for the info, guys... I'll keep an eye out for parts saws.

In any case I will be concentrating on one sub assembly at a time. Welding the cup may be sufficient as long as the housing axle and reel bore elongated wear is bushed up to tolerance along with the obvious leg repair.

Starting and running the saw with the broken and slightly displaced starter housing over time caused the asymmetric wear across the board that finally resulted in the catastrophic failure of the ratchet cup and rope return spring. However, the system can be repaired and strengthened even if replacement parts can't be found.

JT

 

[JTCoyote]

Just for grins, I figured this would be a good time to chuck the 1/2" Makita drill to the crankshaft, screw the compression gauge into the spark-plug hole and check the compression pressure aspect of the volumetric efficiency of this 5 cube fire breather. The dry test yielded a whopping 70psi... the wet test wasn't much better at 82psi...

As a side by side comparison, I plugged the gauge into my Homelite 750 which I bought new in 1983 and has been used every year since as my chief buckin' saw, it has at least 1200 cords under it's buckin' dogs. Here's a pic of the compression reading after 3 pulls... 115psi... it pulled just under 70psi with the compression release open...

The little 2 strokes usually pop the needle to above 60psi on the first pull and around 130psi when they peak after 3 or 4 pulls. 115 to 130psi may seem low but here at 9500 feet that's good compression. An 82psi wet test however, unless the compression ratio on the SL-5 is less than 7 to 1, seems a bit low no matter where you are, 'cept maybe on the Moon... maybe.

JT

 

[67L36Driver]

The 82cc deflector piston type Remy/Mall will run at 90 psi. Normal is about 120.

The CR is low for sure. I think they will run on Coleman fuel.

 

[67L36Driver]

I've had one Power Products saw pump 70. Right in the middle of normal.[emoji6]

 

[JTCoyote]

The 82cc deflector piston type Remy/Mall will run at 90 psi. Normal is about 120.

The CR is low for sure. I think they will run on Coleman fuel.

Just as I suspected. If they will run at 90psi then at 70 to 80psi here it should run. The air pressure this high being 20% less than sea level tells me this guy would pump 90+psi at sea level. The normal CP you quoted, given the atmospheric pressure difference at this altitude would be 96psi, and the run figure would be 72psi. Leaning out the fuel as you go up in altitude is the key here.... but not too lean.

Ah, a piston with a Brancusi sculpture on top... gnarly... no domed or flat top subs need apply. Inspecting the top of the piston through the spark plug hole reveals some heavy pitting on the exhaust slope... one is deep and about 5/32" wide... I'm now searching for piston chunks in the exhaust deflector as I delve for a closer peek...

Whew! False alarm...it was just the void left by a big chunk of carbon broken away from the dark smooth piston slope.

Wish there was a maintenance/service manual available for this beast. Do you have any knowledge of where one might be found?

JT

 

[Chris J.]

Provided nothing is seriously wrong with it, somebody got this re-badged SL-55 for a good price.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Mon...scIxSLU9RFMoIIQf5S1GU%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

 

[67L36Driver]

He, he, he, ................[emoji6]