Stihl MS250 hard to pull?

[sawguy21]

If you just grab and yank yes it's gonna hurt. Bring it up slowly until you feel resistance then give it a sharp, firm pull.

[James Baker]

I bought an MS250 new in 2017. It was on sale and the sales person told me that they were an end of line. I paid around $350 Canadian. That saw was difficult to pull right out of the box. I learned to drop start it and once it was warm it fired up pretty reliably. The most difficult start was cold, especially if it hadn't been run in a while. Last year I had to replace the starter rope drum as it broke. This spring I'm unable to pull it. It has spark, fuel and compression but I can't pull it fast enough to fire it up. It will snap the handle out of my hand. I've obviously lost a bit of strength. I still believe it is a good saw, but it isn't practical  for someone my age. So, I bought another saw with the easy pull feature.

[beenthere]

Welcome to the Forestry Forum.

The trick I found with my MS250 that also would snap that cord handle out of my hand, was to pull the engine over slowly until up against compression. Then give it a pull and it wouldn't kick back and attempt to rip your fingers off. Much better saw when I found that out.