THE FIX!!!!
This may be a little verbose but my intent is to convey all that is needed to implement the fix. So first, I will start with a failed ignition showing and describing the repair steps. The tools you will need are: soldering iron....25 watts should work using solder designed for electronic work NOT PLUMBING SOLDER, I recommend an inexpensive heat gun...Harbor Freight maybe but with care you can work without one, epoxy designed for plastics.... HD or Lowes for about $5, electric drill with a 1/4 or so bit, a wire crimp tool with a lug (see pictures), and last I used a hot glue gun to sort of seal up the mounted new capacitor. The hot glue I used is industrial quality and you can get by substituting caulking selected from one of the many types available. And of course both a blade and Philips screwdriver will come in handy.
Heat the small section as shown in the above picture, try to avoid heating the pulse transformer. The potting does not have to melt, just soften so a small section can be removed with a screwdriver or other suitable tool.
DON'T GET CARRIED AWAY chipping out that potting material! Take you time doing this. In teh above picture you see the shinny tinned copper PC run. The next picture will show where I want you to cut. Try to leave about 1/8" gap.
Heat up your soldering iron and get ready to solder an insulated wire onto the right hand side of the exposed PC bus (not the short piece to the left). I salvaged my wire from an old computer power supply and because I added 3 wires, I used two different colors so I could tell which went where. 18 gauge stranded wire will work fine. Please! Don't use a length of solid core house wire, your asking for trouble.
I tucked that yellow wire under the pulse transformer. There is another wire that you add using a crimped lug. Secure it under the screw (holding the pulse transformer) above where you made your cut. Don't tighten the screw yet. Later when you install the ignition that lug will be in the way trying to get the mounting screw into the saw proper. That is when you will tighten the lug down. OH-- avoid using the yellow sized lugs. They are much larger and can get in the way of the rotating flywheel. Adding a third wire is entirely up to you, I used black so I would not mix it with the others. I cut the shutdown wire that goes to the on/off switch and replaced it with this third wire. If you don't bother replacing the shutdown wire, take care that the old wire's insulation is intact, cover it, tape it or just cut it out, it your decision. Remember if you disable that wire, you disable the on/off circuit to shut the saw off.
Now here is where each of you can add value! I squeezed all three wires into the shared hole with the spark plug wire. There is a rubber grommet in the hole so they can be made to fit. Maybe you want to drill a new hole....???? Anyway, that is left for you to decide. After pushing the wires into the grommet, I used a piece of steel wire... coat hanger will work... shaped with a hook on the end to fish the wires out. Next I drilled 3 holes in the plastic air shield....1/4" or thereaboiut should work. Tow of the holes is for a tie wrap that I used to hold the new capacitor in place. The other hole is for the two yellow wires to pass through. Note I left the wires on the outside of the plastic to avoid them getting caught with the flywheel's fan. That's why you need to drill a hole for the wires.
Scrub the plastic under the tie wrap with alcohol and also scrub the new capacitor with the same. Mix up your epoxy. Paint generous amount of epoxy across the section under the tie wrap and on one side of the new capacitor. The capacitor will seat under the tie wrap with its two wire terminals pointing downward toward the flywheel. MAKE SURE you seat that cap such that it has space for the wires to be soldered to the terminals such that they don't get damaged by the fan. That is important! After pushing the new cap into place, tighten up on the tie wrap. Next pull both yellow wires into place and cut them leaving enough length to strip 1/4" or so needed to solder one wire to each terminal.
I used my trusty old, beat up glue gun to bury the new capacitor along with the new wires with hot glue. This ensures they will not move about with the saw's vibration.
IF YOU GOT THIS FAR---------- YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE FIX!!!!!!!!!!
You can test the fix after the epoxy dries along with the hot glue or caulking or whatever you select to use.
Assemble the saw so you can pull the starter rope....remove the spark plug from the engine, clip a grounding wire to it and pull the starting rope. If things go well, you should have a nice blue spark!
Will try to answer any questions-- Good luck, you can do it! Its not brain surgery!
Foggy
