The Forestry Forum

It was acting as if out of gas. After dinkin' around with it and using what 'may' have been too much psi to blow free the suspected clogged fuel line, I found a leak. Removed it to find it wasn't fault of psi at all, but rather what looks like dry rot at the low sections of the ribbed fuel hose! All the sections! Stihl authorized repair man opens a fresh bag of them (maybe a half dozen in there) and says it's a common problem due to fuel additives. He orders them by the bags! This is on a two yr old 310. had a 28 yr old 031 AV that never needed a fuel line. Although this is molded rubber, it's still hard to understand that it's not possible to mold material that would hold up to a fuel environment that a chainsaw's exposed to. Sure runs great with a new fuel line!

A copper line would last.

You would be surprised at the number of good operating saws that got put on the back shelf or some corner of a barn because of a funky fuel line.

Regarding bad lines ,I don't doubt that last summer I repaired at least a dozen or more weed wackers that had bad lines.

Regarding the longgevity issue,I've seen them over 30 years old with no problems or 2 years old ,that were cracked.Why this is,I have not a clue.

I've had several fuel lines on my stihls do that.(easily fixed after 60 mile round trip) Funny you mention the 031AV. I don't think my dads old 031AV ever needed one either.

My son 'inherited' my 031, too. I was so upset with it atr one point, after much dinkin' around with it I got the 310. He expressed an interest in it. All that was left to do was melt the coil material back enough to splice a new lead, and it runs good as ever. The second thing it needed was someone who knew what they were doing, too! But am glad it's sti(h)l in the family and doing great work.