Stihl 017 issue - dies after a little work

[Coach]

Friend brought me his Stihl 017 to fix up.  He tells me it starts on the first pull, runs nicely cutting through a couple 6" trees.  But on the 3rd tree it stops half way through and won't start again.  After a week he gets it to start up again on the first pull, but gets the exact same symptoms, cuts a couple trees and stops.   Then the same thing again after a week.

So, what do you guys think?  Loss of compression after warming up?  Fuel line?

[AdkStihl]

Could be loss of compression, have either you or your friend pulled the muffler to look at the cylinder?
Could also be bad coil or non-functioning tank vent. And in any case I doubt it really takes a week for the saw to run again.

[Coach]

I'll run it myself today, see how it acts.  Thanks for the fuel vent tip:  If it dies and i dont get it to start again, I'll loosen the fuel cap to check for vacuum.

[Coach]

Here is what's happening.  Like it was told me, the saw starts and runs nicely. Idles, trottles up, etc.  looks to have lots of power.  But after cutting a few minutes, she stalls.  It almost seems like the chain brake engages and stalls the saw.  Basically, similar to when you engage the brake and throttle up the saw.

I don't believe the brake engages, but that's how the engine acts.  The chain stops and the saw stalls.

So, is it a clutch issue, brake, carb ?  It's not a fuel vent problem.

[beenthere]

The that puts a different twist on things. When you said it "dies" in subject line, I think we assumed the engine quit.

Now you say something that indicates the chain stops and calling it "stalls" as if the chain brake were engaged.

Will the engine continue to idle if you pull the bar out of the cut?

And you learned this by running the saw yourself? Or still going on "like it was told me" ?

[Coach]

Sorry about that.  My last post is my own experience with the saw.  My first post is what my friend told me.


After cutting a few minutes, the engine stalls.  It will idle, but not throttle up.  Sems like the chain doesn't want to turn.

[joe_indi]

The cause might be a partially blocked pickup body and/or sediments in the fuel tank. Try again with a new pickup body, after cleaning out the tank, with fresh fuel.
Joe