A couple years ago I picked up a Wright GS-5020A reciprocating saw. Not much tech info out there on these so I figured I would share what I can. After sitting for some time I finally spent some time on it and got the old gal overhauled. Air cleaner was missing so I had to make one although I wish I had the correct one. The blade is worn down a bit up front so I know she's got some miles on her. I would really like to find a new blade if anyone has one let me know.
I had it sitting for a long time doing nothing and one day I decided to fix the recoil rope and put my compression tester on it. I had good spark and it was really hard to pull over. The saw was jumping all around my bench. Pulled 85psi on the compression tester. I dumped some fuel in the tank to see what would happen. To my surprise it started and ran. It ran badly but it was proof of life. I put it back in the garage thinking I should take apart and measure it up for crank seals to see if I could find something. Fast forward another year of doing nothing with it and I find a guy on ebay selling a NOS Wright 632595 gasket set. The only documentation I had was a grainy half scan of a parts manual I found by searching online. The pictures seemed like this gasket set was a good match but I had no way to know for sure. For 10 bucks I took a gamble and bought it and to my surprise it was the correct kit for this saw!
This saw was a joy to work on. The casting and machining quality is top notch. Everything is easy to work on and it was fun because it's something different. It's 115cc, horizontally opposed 2 cylinder engine. The power cylinder is a 2.5" bore while the blade cylinder is a 1.25" bore. The blade cylinder doesn't have a spark plug, instead it has a shaft extending out the top of the piston that actuates the saw blade directly. The blade piston is on the opposing throw of the power piston so it doubles as a bit of a supercharger. I think that combined with the reed valve is why it runs so well even at only 85 psi. It starts super easy and I guess after having the juices flowing from doing some running and cutting it now pulls over quite easy. I have a cheapie ebay tach I bought many years ago temporarily mounted to it and she starts very easy and settles down to a smooth 2300rpm idle. Top RPM is governed to 5000rpm via a secondary throttle blade in the intake manifold. It's quite fun to cut with. I do have to saw it back and forth a bit while cutting to help clear the kerf or it slows down cutting speed. Vibration is not noticeable with a decent pair of work gloves. The trigger doubles as a kill switch by grounding out the coil so in order to idle you need to push the trigger to the left as you let off the trigger to place it into the idle detent which is the only thing I don't like about the saw other than it's 25lb weight! When cutting, the bar flexes more than I expected but worked great for cutting a tree stump off my yard right flush with ground level and I cut a bunch of firewood and have about 1.5hrs on it so far. I run it at the original 16:1 mix, lots of smoke at startup when on the choke but otherwise when cutting I don't notice it.
I had it sitting for a long time doing nothing and one day I decided to fix the recoil rope and put my compression tester on it. I had good spark and it was really hard to pull over. The saw was jumping all around my bench. Pulled 85psi on the compression tester. I dumped some fuel in the tank to see what would happen. To my surprise it started and ran. It ran badly but it was proof of life. I put it back in the garage thinking I should take apart and measure it up for crank seals to see if I could find something. Fast forward another year of doing nothing with it and I find a guy on ebay selling a NOS Wright 632595 gasket set. The only documentation I had was a grainy half scan of a parts manual I found by searching online. The pictures seemed like this gasket set was a good match but I had no way to know for sure. For 10 bucks I took a gamble and bought it and to my surprise it was the correct kit for this saw!
This saw was a joy to work on. The casting and machining quality is top notch. Everything is easy to work on and it was fun because it's something different. It's 115cc, horizontally opposed 2 cylinder engine. The power cylinder is a 2.5" bore while the blade cylinder is a 1.25" bore. The blade cylinder doesn't have a spark plug, instead it has a shaft extending out the top of the piston that actuates the saw blade directly. The blade piston is on the opposing throw of the power piston so it doubles as a bit of a supercharger. I think that combined with the reed valve is why it runs so well even at only 85 psi. It starts super easy and I guess after having the juices flowing from doing some running and cutting it now pulls over quite easy. I have a cheapie ebay tach I bought many years ago temporarily mounted to it and she starts very easy and settles down to a smooth 2300rpm idle. Top RPM is governed to 5000rpm via a secondary throttle blade in the intake manifold. It's quite fun to cut with. I do have to saw it back and forth a bit while cutting to help clear the kerf or it slows down cutting speed. Vibration is not noticeable with a decent pair of work gloves. The trigger doubles as a kill switch by grounding out the coil so in order to idle you need to push the trigger to the left as you let off the trigger to place it into the idle detent which is the only thing I don't like about the saw other than it's 25lb weight! When cutting, the bar flexes more than I expected but worked great for cutting a tree stump off my yard right flush with ground level and I cut a bunch of firewood and have about 1.5hrs on it so far. I run it at the original 16:1 mix, lots of smoke at startup when on the choke but otherwise when cutting I don't notice it.
