Stihl 180 chainsaw which I bought two years back, never used, and am now trying to start. No joy.

Good spark from the plug (take it out, lay it on the cylinder head, crank the engine, series of sparks visible across the gap.

Fuel getting through, can smell it in the exhaust and if you take the spark plug out it's wet. There's now a sloshy buildup of fuel in the exhaust baffle thingy - I'm assuming this is normal for a 2-stroke that's been pulled through 10,000 %£$*&!! times without firing ? All my engine knowledge is on 4-stroke so I'm kind of winging it here.

I feel this is a carb problem. First pull on the starter after leaving overnight and it catches for a dozen revs and then dies, won't give the slightest sound of catching after that. Too much fuel ? Plenty of compression, or feels like it. Have replaced the diaphragms in the carb with a service kit in case they perished, needle is free-moving.

Is there anything else that gums up / perishes when one of these sits for a long time ? Anything else I can check ? I could take it in to be fixed but this has become personal...

Richard

Richard T, June 2010

Thanks Husqvarna man - sorry to take so long reporting back. I now have a working chainsaw. I didn't have a bulb pressure gauge but put something together using a bike pump which had a gauge on it. It didn't really hold pressure enough to do an accurate test but I think the action of blowing loads of air through probably cleared / freed something in the metering section of the carb that was causing too much fuel to get through. Even now I've found it floods incredibly easily, and the best process for starting from stone cold is to pull it through two-three times on full choke, and then drop back to the 'warm start' position, when it starts after two-three pulls.

Thanks again for the input, hugely appreciated.
Richard

Richard T, June 2010

If you have a small bulb pressure gauge connect this too the end of the fuel pipe in the tank ( remove the fuel filter ) put approx 1lbs pressure into the pipe, there should be no leak at all, this will pressure test the fuel hose, the metering side of the carb, and the needle and seat, any leak will greatly effect the running and should be addressed. make sure you have assembled the diaphram and gaskets round the right way, on the pump side it is diaphram first then gasket then cover, on the metering side it is gasket first then diaphram then cover, this is very important!

Husqvarna man, June 2010