Tuning - pulling damn hair out! Take my carb!

Arborist Forum

Help Support Arborist Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Friends don't let friends buy ****** carburetors.
The nearest Stihl dealer to me would disagree, or maybe he was just lazy and didnt want to help me, but when looking for a replacement carb for my 211, his response was "you would be better off just getting a Chinese one off of Amazon, they're just as good".

Now I dont go to that guy often as he has never had anything in stock that I ever need, but I have bought a few chinese carbs from Amazon that have worked great. Most recently for my Stihl FS45 weed eater. Fired up and ran great on the first pull. Starts everytime I go out to start it. Time will tell if it last as long.

And as a side note, I just rebuilt the carb on my 034, and the oem carb says "Made in Hong Kong" right across the top.

I'm not saying the chinese carbs are just as good, but if you are doing a budget repair, or if you are in need of a saw and low on funds, I wouldn't hesitate to buy another chinese carb.
 
On a more positive note... I cleared space in my office wardrobe and picked up a desk that is the perfect size. This will be my rebuild area and be able to close the doors and keep things clean and fairly dust free in there. Just need to figure out a good light :)

View attachment 774460

What is this world coming to? I mean really. Now chainsaws are going to be coming out of the closet! lol
 
Neat fact... my OEM Zama carb that I pulled off this saw says "Guaranteed to fail Made in China Stihl Zama piece of junk, throw it directly into the bin, don't even do a PDI on this saw until it is replaced with a Walbro" ..... lol.... for real though...the OEM CHINA carb didn't last long before failure.
I ended up getting this saw to idle and rev up with 8 turns out on the low needle. The rest of the saw checked out immaculately, was the high speed check valve.



Then threw a wt215 on it. This was my first time tuning something that reacted the way it should...and it took me all of a fairly slow 20 minutes to go from PIG RICH at 1.5/1.5 wont even rev up to running fairly fantastically. If your carb doesn't react like this with "sensitive" adjustments making large running characteristic changes, then the carb is no good or something else on the saw is no good. Check the time stamps in the description to follow along with what I'm doing.
 
The fact something is made in China doesn’t make it bad. It’s all in the build quality, an oem manufacturer cares that their product standards are met and ensures the parts are made in accordance. The AM company is trying to copy the oem product and sell it for 1/4 of the price. You’ve got to take short cuts somewhere. Tooling, materials, inspections...sometimes those shortcuts matter in the functionality of the product.
 
The fact something is made in China doesn’t make it bad. It’s all in the build quality, an oem manufacturer cares that their product standards are met and ensures the parts are made in accordance. The AM company is trying to copy the oem product and sell it for 1/4 of the price. You’ve got to take short cuts somewhere. Tooling, materials, inspections...sometimes those shortcuts matter in the functionality of the product.
Completely agree
 
do you still have the oem/stock carburetor?
I'd like to know how you got all those saw parts so clean,
dishwashing machine?
had the saw ever been used before?
 
Hey guys,

Had some excellent tuning advice from many experienced people here, on YouTube and using manuals. For the FRIGGIN LIFE OF ME I can’t tune my ms 180 with AM copy of a Walbro 215.


The saw is flawless, it’s brand new and the carb (non adjustable) it came with, man the saw just screams and has wicked throttle response.

Putting the AM in, and matter who’s instruction I follow, I get bogging when I open the throttle. Spent about 6 hours over 3 days during the past couple weeks trying with ZERO success.

Can someone who owns an ms 180 and has a lot of experience with tuning please take this damn carb and see if they can get it to work? I’ll pay postage to you and you can keep it. I just want to know if it’s me or not

I cleaned the carb 5-6 tines and adjusted the metering level correctly.

I feel like I have tried everything.

Thanks heaps in advance guys will happily post world wide.

And yeah, here is me ripping my hair out...
View attachment 774441
Check your pop off pressure
 
do you still have the oem/stock carburetor?
I'd like to know how you got all those saw parts so clean,
dishwashing machine?
had the saw ever been used before?
The ms 180 stock carb was toast, the owner damaged the idle screw (probably thought it was the reason for the poor running, but turns out it had leaky seals)

As for a clean machine, I wasn’t cleaned once in 20 years, used a couple times a year each year.

I got it clean with degreaser and a number of different brushes and tooth picks. Took a few hours to fully strip down and the 3 full days to clean every nut and bolt, did so meticulously. There wasn’t a spec of dirt left - I didn’t want to give Australian customs a reason to stop it at the border
 
Search it, there are also tests to ensure that the main nozzle check is working properly.

Diaphragm lever height
Pop off pressure
Main nozzle check

Are the three things that are usually always overlooked when diagnosing a carb. When saws run like crap, and they pass the mechanical inspection, the carb gets a thorough diagnosis.
 
The fact something is made in China doesn’t make it bad. It’s all in the build quality, an oem manufacturer cares that their product standards are met and ensures the parts are made in accordance. The AM company is trying to copy the oem product and sell it for 1/4 of the price. You’ve got to take short cuts somewhere. Tooling, materials, inspections...sometimes those shortcuts matter in the functionality of the product.

Well the fact that the oem Zama stihl carb took care of itself in short order, that doesn't bode very well with these standards and accordance's you speak of. :laugh: I'm just pulling your chain. I'm sure Zama Stihl China produces more consistently than the $2.99 China non zama stihl variant and everyone is allowed a lemon. For 2.99 you're allowed more lemons. But, they did start producing in China probably to save money. There's no doubt in my mind quality took a hit when it got sent to China yet still remained in the $30 range.... we'll produce in China, have a couple lemons, replace them for pennies, yet still charge $30.

At the end of the day you're right... if I gave China a spec sheet and they followed and produced to a T....it doesn't matter that China built it...or if anywhere in the world built it. Produce it more than 1 time consistently is what sets other producers apart.
 
Search it, there are also tests to ensure that the main nozzle check is working properly.

Diaphragm lever height
Pop off pressure
Main nozzle check

Are the three things that are usually always overlooked when diagnosing a carb. When saws run like crap, and they pass the mechanical inspection, the carb gets a thorough diagnosis.


Will do thanks for the advice!!
 

Latest posts

Back
Top