Stihl 048 summer rebuild

[Addy89]

hello all,

I picked up an old 048 that has problems starting for cheap ($50), and an 028 with a broken rear handle. Now upon inspection, the piston has one score through it. I'm pretty new to this, and I wanted a couple of saws to rebuild and give them a second life. Now, the 048 has a 52mm piston, do the newer pistons fit in there? should I replace the cylinder while I'm in there? Wheres a good place to buy parts or look for parts?

I may need my handheld as I follow through with this lol  so any pointers or suggestions would be much appreciated!

the 028 is almost impossible to find the rear handle, there might be a guy in town with a parts saw that I could possibly get it from. I'm going into the Stihl dealership today to ask if they have the part. The goal of this saw is to clean it up and make it look nice, maybe tear it down and clean it and build it back up all shiny new.  

I'm a forestry student, working this summer in a small town doing cutblock layout, so I have lots of free time after a shift to work on these projects

I also have a Stihl 461, 170 and a Huskey 36. I think I caught the chainsaw bug

thanks all!

[Addy89]

So I went to the Stihl dealership and they had no 028 parts, however, they had a nice looking 048 in their graveyard of saws, missing a carb, the guy said $30 bucks so now I have a parts saw to go with it!

[Al_Smith]

The good news is a well tuned 048 is a powerful saw .The bad news is parts are very rare .For example the clutch side seal is next to impossible to find .
I don't think a piston from an 038 magnum ( 52 mm ) would work but the piston rings are the same .Just buff out the piston ,should be good to go .
The 028 you might be able to E-Bay the parts but not so much on the 048 as they only appear rarely .BTW I have two   048's .

[Addy89]

hey, thanks


so I tore apart the parts saw that I got from the dealership, and to my surprise the piston is beautiful, it also came with an ignition coil which I needed. I'll be putting them together here in the next couple of days. 

[btulloh]

It looks like you're doing a real good job of managing your chainsaw addiction.  Just wait til you get a sawmill. :D

[Al_Smith]

The 048 and smaller 042 for reasons unknown had a very short production run but the 028 and all three 038 models did not .Perhaps an urban legion or old wives tale but they claim ,at the time the 048 had the highest power to weight ratio of any saw made up to that time period .
Perhaps one reason the models were discontinued was due to the fact some of the earlier models used slotted head screws which could loosen for the case bolts .If I ever work on one I replace them with either socket heads or Torx heads .Preferably the later .

[hedgerow]

I can't say I have have ever touched a 048 around here the main dealers sold lots of 028 and the next best seller was the 038 my FIL bought a 044 from them so he could one up me. They ordered it in. He was a older man at the time and could barely start it. The BIL still has the saw today. My 038 is still around also doesn't get used a lot the 461 is the go to saw. 

[Addy89]

I have a 461 artic with a 25'' light bar on it, saw ripppps, and yet I'm still screwing around with these saws. 

Someone just posted a husky 365 missing a muffler for $40 bucks...so I'm picking that up today lol they don't know what saw it is, it's missing the markings and they don't know where the serial number is, however, im 90% sure it's a 365. ill let yall know later.

Also, the Stihl dealership had 6-7 of the 038s saws in their saw graveyard. I've heard these saws are legendary. I was thinking about offering to buy 2 (last dead saw they sold me was for $30) and start a 038 rebuild....then I would have a 028,038,048 lol whats preferred, the 038 regular, super, or magnum? or go big or go home lol 

[Al_Smith]

Any but the Mag is iconic .It became the Ms 380 -381 .It could not pass EPA mandated emissions  so it became no longer made in North America .I'm not certain if it's still made in Brazil or not .If a person is so inclined the mag takes to modifications very well and at least so far parts are readily available .