Well, refused to give up. Ordered a proper carb kit, OEM. Cost more than cheap chinese replacement carbs, but I hate to sacrifice decent metal just cause a few pieces of plastic are old. And a proper OEM impulse hose spring. Had some decent hose laying around in the right size. Old spring was banged up some, but likely due to my novice assembly efforts.
Took apart the carb per some internet videos, blasted things with carb cleaner. Broke the high needle limiter learning how its set up. Rebuilt things. Put a new spring in the impulse hose. Assembled things in different order. IMO, attach the impulse hose to the back side of the air cleaner assembly BEFORE putting the flywheel and magneto back in. Attach the impulse hose to the cylinder head nipple later.
Adjusted the needles per factory recs. I don't have a saw tach. But it started and ran as good or better than new, so why worry.
Now about 6 tanks of gas, in varying weather, I was confident enough to report that I don't really know what was wrong, but its running. Must have been the carb or the impulse line. Cause that's all I addressed during the last take down.
Will again say, the top handle Stihl seems to require a very dexterous set of hands to work on. But I love it for its other properties.
