It's a (nearly?) cylindrical plug which is held in place by a strong-enough spring and is retracted and held open from it's closed position by actuation of the half-throttle mechanism. The mechanism is on the chain side of the saw right above and behind the exhaust port; in front of the rear handle opening. I have one apart at the moment and looking into the hole in the cylinder wall, the top piston ring totally passes by and the bottom ring just fully appears before starting back down. It's not so much a compression "release" as a compression "lessener".
My saw is in perfect condition except for the clutch cover, the manual oiler discharge tube, and the front handguard. The clutch cover has succumbed to being overly tightened too many times and has cracked at the front hole, the front handguard is missing, and the manual oiler tube has had the fitting on the manual pump side twisted off in the female coupling. The local shop that used to sell Homelite had a new fitting/check-valve for a couple of bucks. I'd thought it might be relatively simple matter to extract the remnants of the old one but it's proving more difficult than the saw's probably worth. I'm contemplating just screwing a plug into the case where the other end of the tube connects and relying on the crank-driven pump, but I'd rather have the full setup. The tube is no longer available at the shop.
The points are in good shape, but the chain sprocket has passed it's usefulness and the bar rails look like a mountain road. I didn't include them in the "perfect condition except" above, because they're parts which could normally need replacing. I'm assuming the tail pattern is still readily available. The saw started well within a dozen pulls, and ran really well with gas that's of an unknown age, but at least a year and a half old. You can almost one-hand the saw, and the rubber cushions on the handgrips are a nice touch.
I was told the saw didn't work (as well a Super XL Automatic) and offered to give them a once-over to see if they could be made to run at all in preparation for an auction. The larger saw is in even better shape but did nead some carburetor adjustment. It's a strong runner, but needs a sprocket and bar as well. I'm considering keeping the EZ.
That saw on ebay sure looks nice, Pioneer. I don't ebay so I don't know what that means "reserve not met" at $40. Does that mean the reserve is $40 or does it mean a $40 bid doesn't meet the reserve?
Glen
