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Scored a trunk full of orange!

Started by motzingg, April 18, 2019, 04:47:26 PM

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motzingg

Well, I haven't been on the forum for a few months, last fall I joined looking for some help on picking out my first 'real' chainsaw and you fine folks steered me into the loving arms of a 2150 Jonsereds that has cut about 2.5 cords of wood, including limbing and bucking 5 large red oaks on my property.  I had big plans to hot rod it up, but quite frankly its been working so darn well and i've got plenty of other projects on the farm... i'm smart enough  (every now and then) to leave well enough alone and just run the *DanG thing. She's probably run 20-30 tanks since then and hasn't missed a beat, even cutting in teens above zero (F) a few of those days. 


ANYHOW, 

An add popped up on facebook last week with no description saying 'small engine parts' but i could see enough in the photo to tell there were 2 orange saws, a stihl leaf blower and a stihl string trimmer.  

I responded to the guy who was literally across the street from my work and on the way home,  It was a commercial lawn care operation and the guy said 'our mechanic said these are beyond worth fixing, we replaced them so they are just for parts.' I cautiously made an offer trying to hide my excitement and...


 i picked up all this for $80:


 

So its official does this mean i have 'CAD' as its called? Chansaw acquisition disorder? I've got the two 150 super homelites, 'lil red' and 

This was a commercial lawn care place, so not hard use like you'd see from a tree crew, but really beat up from riding around in the back of a pickup.   In that pile we've got a very very hammered SH85,  a filthy but otherwise not too beat FS75,  MS290 that has had a pretty rough life (still pulls over with good compression) and the crown jewel a 2012 550 XP that is in great shape aside from missing a few parts and low compression. 

The first one to come under the knife was the BG85.  I was bummed out after a freshly rebuilt moped engine wiped out the small end bearing on me last week and I was needing an easy win.  The BG85 was filthy and had obviously spent 10+ years riding around in the back of a pickup truck, but pulled over with good compression. 


 

The impeller wheel was really badly busted up, when i looked at it i remember i've had this part in a bin of random junk since about 2007!  Don't you love it when you get to use something you've been hoarding for years? 



 

Finally down to the engine, pretty crusty but otherwise not bad.



 

And finally, the money shot that everyone has been waiting for: 



 

This is the kinda thing that makes you really question all the hype about types of fuels and oils and all that.... this thing has probably been running 87 octane and wal-mart outboard oil for the last 10 + years for hundreds of hours, multiple cold starts straight to wide open throttle... basically the worst conditions possible and look at that perfect piston. 

No pictures of the finished product but fuel-air-spark- and it has to run.  I cleaned it up, eh... good enough, and reassembled it with a new primer bulb, cleaned the spark arrestor, boom fired right up.  Runs great and ready to go back to work! 


Next up the MS290.  I have been calling this one 'big dirty'... it will probably end up sticking around for awhile just because it doesn't owe me anything and from time to time on the farm you need a big dirty saw.  Its ugly, its loud,  its definitely not something i want to swing around all day but the 5 times a year i need to saw through a big moldy oak or something it will be perfect.  

Like i said its got great compression.  It feels like its just generally a lower compression engine since its 55 cc's and easier to pull over than the 50cc '350', also there is no decomp. 

I started tearing it down and found the most hilariously dirty air filter i've ever seen... welp, there's yer problem!  Took off the air filter, cleaned it up a little bit and put in some gas, second or third pull she fired RIGHT up and runs great.  It leaks quite a bit of gas out the joint where the fuel line goes into the tank, so perhaps ultimately that is what caused it to get decommissioned by the lawn care dudes. Other than that everything works.  The sprocket is fully worn right out but it looks like its getting oil and everything is there. 

 Needs a few parts so i figured i'd order a bunch of Hutzl china stuff and built it out to a 390.  Piston and cylinder, modded muffler, new clutch bell, and a big 20" bar.  Its way too big for 99% of the cuts i make but the 5 times a year i need to get it out for a big tree, its nice to have and the price is right.  Plus with a cheap china bar and chain and enough power to pull a crap chain, it will be handy around the farm for those dirty jobs. 



Finally, the piece de resistance!  The 550xp was definitely the jewel of the bunch.  This thing is in great shape with minimal wear.  Wowee zowie, light weight, beautifully balanced, the design is like a alien space ship compared to most saws i've worked on... i could never afford to buy something like this and rarely treat myself to nice stuff, but at this price?  How could i go wrong. 

I was so excited to tear into it I broke my rules about having too many engines open on the bench at one time, but i did want to figure out what i needed to order and how much that was going to hurt.  




 

Not the greatest pictures, i mostly just took a few so i could remember how it all went back together, the routing of hoses, cables, wires and all that is super particular on this little guy so i wanted to get it perfect putting it back together. 

Piston and cylinder totally hosed, looks like it could have been straight gassed but no damage to the bearings.  I watched a youtube video talking about the autotune system and i'm not sure if i'm understanding this right, but it sounded like the system will lean the saw out when it starts loosing power?  If thats true this (exhaust side, full skirt) piston scuffing/seize could have been caused by the auto tune going off the rails and leaning out the saw.  It doesn't show any other signs of failure, not even the normal 'four corner' marking, but its also a super strange shaped piston so i'm not sure if it would even do a 4 corner seize. 


Anyhow, the P&C is 130 bucks from husqvarna, i need a clutch bell (missing, odd?) and a plastic oil pump worm gear... luckily it will take the B&C from my 350 so i won't have to shell out for that.  I've actually gone back to a 16" bar on the 2150/350 and I'm liking it better.  

The FS75 is on the docket for tonight.  I'm going to see if i can swap cylinders on to my FS76 (older model, .9hp) to get the 1.3 hp top end.  I ordered one of them from china too, just on a hunch. Eventually i'll sell the curved shaft trimmer but while i've got both machines sitting here i'd like to know if i can boost the power on my solid shaft brushcutter by swapping parts, they look close.  


Air Lad

Great pickup motzingg
You have certainly stumbled onto some treasures this time
Happy rebuilding days ahead
splitwood_smiley

Old Greenhorn

Nice score! It just supports my opinion that a lot of these mechanics are just 'part replacers' (see my thread on the 350 I just put back in service). While you are working on that 550 check and see if you have the latest update for that autotune. I heard the early ones had some 'issues' that were fixed with programming updates.
 You got some winners there. You should stop in and see the guy and tell him you lost your shirt with that price, so if he has any other broken stuff maybe he should throw it in to make it right. They obviously don't know what they are doing and should pay a tax for their ignorance.  ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
 I can't tell you how much of my good stuff came from people who threw it out or sold it for junk because they were too lazy, wealthy, or ignorant to take care of it in the first place. MY Dad would say ' they don't deserve to have good equipment, it is better off in my hands'.
Tom Lindtveit, Woodsman Forest Products
Oscar 328 Band Mill, Husky 350, 450, 562, & 372 (Clone), Mule 3010, and too many hand tools. :) Retired and trying to make a living to stay that way. NYLT Certified.
OK, maybe I'm the woodcutter now.
I work with wood, There is a rumor I might be a woodworker.

motzingg

Well, from a commercial perspective i totally get it, if you are on a job site and the equipment you brought out there wont start, or if you are working on equipment at a cost of $50 an hour to your employer (wages, unemployment, insurance, etc), it doesn't take much for the cost of a new leaf blower or saw to cancel out the downtime and repair costs of trying to keep the old junk running.  Once it has reached the end of its service life, all it takes is one or two no-starts before the cost of even diagnosing the problem outweighs the replacement cost.  Not to mention that with this stuff just because you fix the one problem today, doesn't mean its not going to break some other way next week. 

For me putzing around on my little acreage or dabbling in the garage, I'm having fun and my time and a few replacement parts is not much $$ (except that *DanG 550 P&C at 130 bucks, going to have to save up for that one) so i can afford to have some fun with it. 

Speaking of... Thursday night I hit the garage and started comparing the FS75 with the FS76 ... ended up learning a lot but not the answers i wanted. 

The FS74/76 generation of machine uses a totally different engine.  Much lighter duty construction, with a two bolt cylinder, despite sharing some common dimensions- the FS75 motor won't bolt in, bummer. The clutch is much bigger on the later model 75, and even the shaft is bigger so you cant swap power heads.   The 3 bolts that mount the engine to the clutch housing/shaft adapter piece ARE the same, so you can swap them, but the bigger coil on the 74/76 models contacts that plastic housing.  It still goes together but probably would wear at that contact point. 



 

The FS76 that i have, i bought from an older gentleman who has owned it since new and used it just for trimming his small suburban lot.  It was immaculate when i got it and probably has less than 50 hours on it... It starts every time and my wife can get it started, so i figured i'd leave well enough alone and not swap the motors.  

I did decide to have some fun with the 75 when it was apart, de carbon the piston and cylinder and do a little porting, widened the exhaust about 1 mm on each side and about .75 mm taller, lowered the intake about .5 mm and rounded out the edges. 

Before:




After: 


 

  


Also ditched the base gasket on the rebuild so the exhaust timing probably zero'd out with just a little more width and the intake timing would have increased by about 1mm or so.   

I never got it running before the rebuild but it fired right up afterwards and runs really strong.  I was using it with the polycut head to go through some 3/4" woody ragweed stems and it cut them much much better than the old FS76.  The carb isn't adjustable so its four stroking at WOT and not reaching full potential but for something that i plan on selling off, its probably a nice safe tune... Someone will be getting a really wicked little trimmer, haha. You can definitely feel it having a ton of torque, it spins up much faster from idle and doesn't bog down the same when running in tough brush. 

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