Solo 651

[vegaome]

Howdy All,

I traded 2 rusty 55 gallon drums for an old trailer door to my neighbor the other day. While taking one of the drums past an old junk shed I saw the nastiest, dirtiest looking chainsaw sitting on the junk heap.

I asked him what was up with the chainsaw and he said "it wont run, no spark". So I told him I would look at it, if he did not mind. Up the hollow I went.

He later told me it had been sitting in there for two years. No top cover and no spark plug. Open cylinder. This saw looked like someone set down in a mudhole running. I put an old plug in her and took off the side covers, bar and chain. They where pretty rusty but did clean up.

Well I put the water hose to her with simple green, WD-40, PB blaster, and compressed air. Took a couple hours but it was looking better,

Cleared the bench and drop checked her, slow jerky decent. Ther may be some hope. Compression tester said 145. Looking good so far. The kill switch wire was disconnected and the spark plug wire had a splice. Took out the coil, wd-40 wire brush and steel wool. Clean off fly wheel and steel wooled that to. Coil read 6.5K ohms and switch ohmed out good at first, then was intermittent. Drilled out rivets too switch apart and it was full of grease. I saw tiny brass looking flakes in the grease. Can grease become conductive with these flakes? I cleaned it out and rechecked, dead short on stop posistion and infinity on run posistion. Crazy glued switch cover back on and seales her up with some permatex sealant that can withstand gasoline.

Redid splice in spark plug wire and put back together enough to pull the starter rope and got nice blue spark.

Pulled muffler cylinder, rings and piston looked pretty good. I did flush some mix through her. Cleaned carb found, cracked feul line, lines in tank were beyond repair. Replaced fuel lines blew out feul filter and fixed crimped tank vent.

Put some mix in her, chocked her and she started on about the sixth pull.
It does need a carb adjustment and top cover but she sounds real good. He said it will be his back up saw. If it was mine I think it might be my main saw.

I really enjoyed tinkering on it and I like some of the designs in it's engineering, like the dual feul pick ups, no impulse line, air cleaner, simple stater assembly, two points attaching the chain brake handle and inboard clutch with rim sprokcket but there are some down sides to it. Cheaply made oil and gas caps, no much room to thread a nut on the kill switch, plastic chain gaurd on inside of side cover, rubber mounts could be better, vibrates some and not so sturdly made trigger saftey components.

Folks not sure I could of fixed it without knowledg gain from this site. I salute you. I'm happy I did a good deed for a good neighbor and hes happy he has a back up saw.

Now I'm looking for another one to work on.

Thanks

v/r

Mike



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[cbfarmall]

You should have seen if he actually wanted it before you got it running. They must not have wanted the saw too badly given the condition it was in.

Still, sounds like you did pretty good. Those switches can give you a fit, can't they. Once, my 075 got to the point where turning off the switch wouldn't shut it down so I just left it in the off position and used the choke. Gradually I realized that the saw wasn't running as good as it used to, so, while cutting, I flipped the switch (I recalled that I glued it back together once upon a time) and she got all her power back. Stupidest little thing causing me all that aggravation.

Still have the saw but I'm not sure I ever fixed the switch. At least I have parts saws I can steal one from.

Chris B.

 

[retoocs555]

That's a lot of work. I hope your buddy appreciated it.

 

[vegaome]

cbfarmall - I probably could of picked it up real cheap. If not, it would of probably set there until it rusted into the earth or the building colapsed. He is a good neighbor and I believe you reap what you sow. I fell good I helped him and learned a little bit about saws.

retoocs555 - It was somewhat of a chore but not to bad. I worked on it three evenings. I enoy tinkering with stuff usually its may own junk I'm wrenching on. I have made some good saves but some of my tinkering has gone the other way too. I'm sure he appriciated it.

Have a good evening fellas

v/r

Mike

 

[spike60]

Good job Mike and welcome to the site. You're a natural here for bringing that thing back to life.

Also, nice touch going through all that just to help a buddy.

 

[vegaome]

Spike60 - Thank you for saying so but the real thanks goes to everyone who has posted on this website and shared their knowledg. This and some tractor sites are about the only places I go on the internet. I live out in the woods and can only get a slow dial up connection. Don't have much time for web sites with lots of pictures.

I don't claim to be smart or sophisticated but I once I sink me teeth into something I have trouble letting go. I call it determination but the wife calls it muleheadedness if that is even a word.

My are neighbors is pretty poor but hard working folks. I'm not sure who has the worst luck between us. Its been a rough year so far I'm just hoping we all make it through winter OK. Things are tough in West Virginia. You can find good jobs here and there mostly in the big cities but if you want to live close to your family and out in the woods you have to choose a low paying lifestyle and fight to keep it.

Just today they announced they are cutting 230 jobs at one of the chemicle plants. It may cost me my job in the trickle down effect. Might effect my wife's job to. Time will tell until then I'm going to keep working hard as ever but the wood pile is going to get big if my back holds out.

Thanks again everyone and thanks to the sponsers to. Have a good evening.

v/r

Mike

 

[cbfarmall]

Nothing wrong with doing a good turn for a neighbor. Personally, my problem is I don't ever ask for anything when I do a job for somebody. Rebuilt several engines for a guy who has a nasty habit of blowing them up. Makes me hopping mad when he wrecks my work, but he still has to chase me down to pay me. My good friend and I do jobs for each other back and forth. He has a business to run, so I'll take care of his small engines, chainsaws, whatever I can handle.

I work in the steelmaking industry and my dad still does for the past 37 years. Which jobs are staying and which are getting cut are pretty much a fact of life. Everyday my bosses are figuring out how to reorganize to use one less person on turn which means losing 4 jobs.

Chris B.

 

[vegaome]

Howdy cbfarmall,

Your a good friend to your buddy. Is he the one personnaly running the equipment and blowing it up? Might be a good idea to offer some operator training to whoever is abuseing the gear.

I hope you get to keep your job CB. It does seem to be the way things have been going for years. Technology can make you obsolete sometime. Don't loose faith or hope and hang in there.

v/r

Mike