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New to me Husky mini saw..

Started by realzed, August 17, 2019, 11:02:57 PM

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realzed

My son did some work that also included a tree removal for a guy locally and took a small Husky saw the guy didn't want as part of the compensation for his time..
He has passed the saw onto me after deciding he really doesn't have any use for it and because I gather mainly - it doesn't run worth a crap
It will start after some effort and smokes badly apparently (I haven't even tried to start it myself yet) but doesn't run at all well but feels like it has decent compression and the chain teeth are virtually worn down to nothing. It looks in very decent condition otherwise and wears a pretty short bar probably 16 or less inches in length.. no numbers visible but Husky labelled and likely original..
Other than taking a quick glance at the tag on it and throwing it into my truck all I can see is it appears to be a 2012 version of a 240E model in pretty nice condition...
I intend to clean and play with it and if successful in getting it to run decently will keep it at my camp for small firewood chores and around the property clean up duties..
From those who are Husky lovers (which I am definitely NOT) is this a decent version of Husky product or should it be considered a mini-dog..? I'm not used to something this small - yet the size intrigues me somewhat for the idea that I can throw it on my quad and tote it around virtually wherever I go easily, as it definitely is a compact little piece..
I will put a new plug and gas in it in a couple of days and attempt to reset the carb somewhat in an effort to see if it will improve it all.
Can anyone tell me where the high and low speed jets should be set as an initial point in tuning this little beast?
Without searching so far - is there a preferred spark plug that a 240 uses and is there a specific saw chain that from either from Husky or any other mfg. will now work as good if not better than what one of these little guys would have come with originally?
Are 240's prone to problems with carb boot air leaks like a lot of other Husky models I heard of having such issues - and are the coils hard to get or that pricey from Husky (FleaBay or other such venues end up as much as OEM by the time such stuff finally gets up to this neck of the woods after exchange and shipping) ?
The guy who gave my son the saw said he was told by a local dealer that it needed a new coil - and the cost of fixing it turned him off - but it does run albeit poorly, so I doubt the coil is really bad or the real issue for the poor performance..
I'm open to any and all suggestions and solutions to where to first go for improvements to get this thing 'perking' again.. if it ever did!  
Thanks for anyone's time and trouble with this..!


Al_Smith

I imagine they are what they are .I've never seen one only to say they aren't a "professional "model but they should cut wood .No matter if the saw is a huge old growth feller or a mini saw they all need fuel delivery  and ignition to run .
Often times on less expensive saws the cost of repairs exceed the value of the saw so they get discarded .More times than not those repairs are relatively inexpensive if it's a DIY type of thing .
Attempting to troubleshoot a saw over the internet is about as easy as threading a needle wearing boxing gloves .Can't do it, only guess .Might be right might be wrong .
As far as the carb settings ,as a rule about a turn and a half is usually okay on just about any to get them to start and go from there to tune .Good luck  ;D

Al_Smith

--More-- Because of EPA regulations many smaller saws have been fitted with either fixed jets or limited jets because of supposed pollution problems .Like it's compared to a 250 ton Alco "big Boy " steam locomotive burning a half ton of coal per mile .Mountain out of a mole hill .
It's not legal  for a dealer to defeat the carb limiters but it doesn't say anything about a private owner  .Before I retired a year ago a gent at work had a nice little Echo with such a problem .Never could get it to run correctly .It took me about 20 minutes to figure it out and for 40 some cc I must say it was a good little saw .I just disabled the limiters and tuned it .He got a good running saw and I charged him a 12 pack of Bud Light .Simple transaction . 8)

barbender

I have a small Tanaka I bought for my wife to use, but I've never been able to get it to run right. I took the limiter caps off, but I can't get rid of a lean bog. I'm pretty sure the main jet is too small.
Too many irons in the fire

donbj

"Other than taking a quick glance at the tag on it and throwing it into my truck all I can see is it appears to be a 2012 version of a 240E model in pretty nice condition..."

I own a 240 that is about 6 yrs old. It ran great when new and then sat for a couple years. I did have premium non ethanol fuel in it with stabilizer but should have drained it and ran dry. Something went funny in that storage time as it would not run worth a hoot. I cleaned the carb twice very thoroughly to no avail and ended up putting an oem replacement carb on and it runs great again. That was my limit for dollar amount to spend on it as well so I got lucky. It was about $75 by the time it got to me. It's a decent small homeowner saw imo though no comparison to my 262xp quality wise.
I may be skinny but I'm a Husky guy

Woodmizer LT40HDG24. John Deere 5300 4WD with Loader/Forks. Husky 262xp. Jonsered 2065, Husky 65, Husky 44, Husky 181XP, Husky 2100CD, Husky 185CD

Al_Smith

I've got a little Craftsman version of a Poulan 1.9 cubic inch .Neat little saw, all metal but it has a fixed jet main which is very sensitive to ambient temperatures  .It was my climber before a got a Stihl MS 200 T .I have always planned on adapting the carb from a Stihl leaf blower but so far haven't found the time .May or may not get-er-one .No big deal one way or another .  

Al_Smith

I've found on very few occasions that "cleaning" a carb really does help that much .I very seldom take one apart that I don't rebuilt it .One however on an old Mac 250 has a Walbro "Mac" with a primer ,no choke  that has components that should be on a small motorcycle ,huge .Kind of tough finding the kits that  cost more than the saw is worth .It would be easier to find a Tillotson model HL carb and just change it .That Walbro I did fiddle with until it would run .
Unlike a lot of collectors I'm not a "purest " .I just want the things to run not just  be shelf queens .

Pine Ridge

I bought a 240 from lowes last winter that was on clearance, i started a thread here about the " bargain " i had got. The carburetor on the one i've got is very touchy, i got it running ok, but thats about it. I've run it very little, trying to keep it clean so i can trade it for something i'll actually use. My impression of the 240 is that they are cheap made for very light duty. I love my husqvarna xp saws though.
Husqvarna 550xp , 2- 372xp and a 288xp, Chevy 4x4 winch truck

Al_Smith

Not to act like a snob but you can't expect to go to a big box store and buy an inexpensive consumer saw and expect it to run like a high   priced professional model .
Husqvarna is a very old company involved in a lot of things besides chainsaws .Not everything they make or have their name on is of the highest quality .I'm not bad mouthing them in any way just facts .I'm not even certain if  Husqvarna even makes that saw which is often the case .They don't make the lawn mowers sold in box stores .

Pine Ridge

My expectations for the 240 weren't high to begin with, and it didn't exceed them.
Husqvarna 550xp , 2- 372xp and a 288xp, Chevy 4x4 winch truck

realzed

No great expectations were originally expected and certainly none received from what I'm seeing here now..  
Put in a new plug and it fired up after a few pulls and ran roughly and pumped out a ton of smoke, gobs of dirty black looking chain oil all over, and made some pretty unGodly noises for the short time I did have it running and grabbing for clean air to breathe.
Took it slightly apart and it looks to have had little use - but the guy that owned it reportedly didn't much of any clue about everything mechanical so I'm going to shelve it for a while and try and get back at it when I have a more continuous stretch of serious time to pull the muffler - and give it a better look at.
Am I correct in thinking a good starting point for the carb settings would be about 1 3/4 turns out on the High Speed and 1 1/2 on the Low? 
Do these little buggers have any known quirks or issues even from new that I should be aware of when it comes to running expectations or bad habits?
And finally - as I mentioned - the story that came with it, was that the previous owner was told by a dealer (possibly or not - despite actually having the saw present at the time) that the coil was bad. My understanding is that if 'bad' a saw usually just doesn't run at all if true.
I'll be certain to check the flywheel gap at least and retune somewhat after I get a look at the internals.. and go from there if at all.
Who knows what the knucklehead previously may have used for fuel, mix, and/or bar oil or what else he may have done when jerking around with it?!

Al_Smith

You can run into just about anything .Some purchase ready mixed fuel by the quart or liter from Walmart and swear by it basically because they don't know any better .Others will get all puffed up about traveling 90 miles to buy non ethanol gasoline and only use some designer mix oil that is the best in the world at very low ratios .50 to 1 some brave souls at 100 to 1 .
Then comes some bone head like me who just use pump gas and any kind of mix oil at 32 to 1 and tease the dickens out of the rest of them . 8)
Then comes bar oil with much ado .Some spend a fortune for it. Some are so cheap they use old crankcase oil and wonder why the oilers fail .Some use salad oil or old french fry oil . I just buy inexpensive stuff made from oil they drill a well for  but draw the line on black oil .What a mess that makes ,yuck .
I just say what ever trips your trigger or floats your boat .It's none of my business . :)

Pine Ridge

Realzed i found the carburetor settings on the internet somewhere, i can't find it now, but i believe it was 11/4 on high side, and 1 turn out on low as a starting point, i cannot remember for sure. The one i've got is so touchy, i got it tuned and put it on the shelf.
Husqvarna 550xp , 2- 372xp and a 288xp, Chevy 4x4 winch truck

John Mc

Quote from: realzed on August 25, 2019, 09:10:01 AMAnd finally - as I mentioned - the story that came with it, was that the previous owner was told by a dealer (possibly or not - despite actually having the saw present at the time) that the coil was bad. My understanding is that if 'bad' a saw usually just doesn't run at all if true.


A bad coil doesn't necessarily mean the saw won't run. Some bad coils fail only when hot. On my old Husqvarna 357 XP, my coil went bad. When I started the saw cold, it ran fine for about 10 minutes, then it lost all power and started sounding funny. Let it cool downenugh, and it would run OK for a bit longer. Swapped out the coil, and it's been running fine ever since.
If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.   - Abraham Maslow

Al_Smith

I had a Mac PM  610 do that until I figured out to blow the chips out from under the cylinder so as not to stifle the air flow. It's a horizontal cylinder saw and I failed to realize what the problem was .10 minutes with an air hose cured the problem .A periodic puff or two every so often it never failed again .Good heavens that was 40 years ago . 

realzed

Had an opportunity to open it up some yesterday and found some pretty bad stuff.  
The coil which mounts up on the side of the cylinder has broken loose from probably overtightening of its mounting screws and vibration and was being hit by the flywheel fins and magnet mounting areas.  
That has made quite a mess certainly of the coil itself and obviously the cylinder bosses, which now have nothing left in the way of meat to remount any new coil back on.
The actual flywheel can probably be cleaned up and saved - but it appears I would need a new cylinder and coil and possibly a piston and ring kit of some sort when apart for the opportunity, from this now secondary inspection.
I'm pretty much certain all of this would cost a lot more than the saw actually is worth and doubt it makes any sense to delve further into it past this point.
How this little bugger even managed to run at all - let alone for the couple of times others and myself managed to get it going for short bursts is way beyond me..
Guess it also explains some of the un-Godly sounds I heard when I did get it started!

lxskllr

How about epoxying the coil on? Since the project's done, you could try the ridiculous to get it going.

realzed

As good as many epoxy resins actually are I'm sure it wouldn't hold up very long mainly from the vibration more than anything.
I may scour FleaBay or Amazon just to discover the cost of a coil and/or a cylinder kit - but I'm sure the saw itself doesn't justify the price or the effort other than to say 'I fixed it'..


nativewolf

If $ were not too big a concern I'd get a little electric chainsaw for your quad.  Don't have to carry gas&oil, great to trim, very powerful, always starts as long as you charge the battery.  Don't have to get a stihl, basically all of Stihls engine engineering value goes down to 0 when you move to electric.  Just an idea but the time spent fussing with a problematic tiny saw ...I have no patience I guess.
Liking Walnut

realzed

Patience isn't my problem at all and Time isn't either considering the long Winters here - but spending on an electric saw to replace something I really didn't need in reality, and that cost me nothing initially, doesn't make sense for the few times it would probably get used either..
If I did tackle fixing it, it would be mostly as a hobby-thing and not for a necessary productive outcome or drastic need to be filled.
Somehow electric doesn't (and I realize this may not make a boatload of sense) turn my crank much, as I guess I always viewed chainsaws from a mechanical sense to be gas driven, somewhat noisy, a bit messy - sort of an older guy-thing possibly.. cause I'm older and have lived with them for decades now.
Don't get me wrong - I've used electric versions and to a degree they work well within limitations but without the gas, the smell, the noise (to a degree) and the visceral sense of laying waste a larger than life tree on a whim, and to be able to make good use of the wood cut in one way or another - they don't 'do it' for me..
Its a lot like vehicles and my affection for 60's cars and the sounds and noises they make - certainly not as nice and smooth and trouble free as the newer versions though..      

donbj

Money wise you may be further ahead to throw it on the metal recycling pile at your nearest landfill and start over.
I may be skinny but I'm a Husky guy

Woodmizer LT40HDG24. John Deere 5300 4WD with Loader/Forks. Husky 262xp. Jonsered 2065, Husky 65, Husky 44, Husky 181XP, Husky 2100CD, Husky 185CD

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