Crappy Homelite chainsaw!

[mtnbkr]

My dad has owned a Homelite Super 2 16" saw for about 25 years.  Between the two of us, we've cut numerous cords of wood (especially when my dad got those two timber permits for National Forest land in the early-mid 90s).  It has always been a reliable and strong little saw, handily cutting anything up to the limits of the 16" bar (I've cut downed trees up to 20+ inches by making two cuts, one from each side).  There have been times where the saw didn't stop running except to add fuel and oil from the morning till last light.  We've cleared storm damaged trees and cut firewood for an entire winter.  Needless to say, we've run it to the limits of its supposed duty cycle and then some.

Anyway, last time I was down to visit my folks, he commented how it would start, but only run for a few seconds, then not run for a bit.  He said he changed the sparkplug, but it didn't improved.  I figured it had a kink in the line or something preventing fuel delivery (ran strong when it did run, so not spark-related).  I brought it home with me and tore it down.

The first thing I noticed was the air filter was gummed up and appeared to be dissolving.  Into the trash with that!  The fuel line was in good shape, so I left it alone, but some reading indicated the duckbill valve on the tank could cause the same symptom.  That was fine, so I left it alone.  I decided to change the fuel filter not knowing if that had ever been done.  I figure if it's clogged, it would allow fuel to soak through, powering the saw for a few seconds at a time.  I changed that out. 

I can't find a new filter locally, so I got a block-shaped filter from a nearby hardware store and cut it to fit.  It's thicker, but that should help it stay in place since there's no clip to hold it.

First test run, it runs, but stumbles coming off idle and doesn't idle long without stalling.  Still, it runs now and restarts when it does stall. 

But...

It leaks bar oil like a sieve.  The hoses that attached to the oiler pump (automatic oiling) are softening and gooey and apparently leaking oil at the nipples (hate when that happens). Rather than trying to find new hose, I just trimmed the gooey part off and pulled a bit more hose out of the tank (no tank fittings, just an interference fit).  That seemed to work, no more leaks.

Back together, time to tune the carb...

After a few minutes fiddling with the idle screw, H&L adjustments, and so on, it now fires right up, idles strong and smooth, and runs up through the revs without any hiccups.  To test, I cut up an old 3" cedar limb I had leaning against the fence.  It did a fine job making 1" slices and copious amounts of wood chips.  The final test was to see how it starts cold.

I left it in my basement all night to cool off (where it would certainly get nice and cool).  At 11am, I took it outside, set the choke to "full", and pulled the cord.  It coughed once.  I set the choke to the mid setting and it fired right up on the 2nd pull.  I revved it a few times, nice and smooth.  After letting it idle for 20-30 seconds, I opened the choke completely.  It continued to idle fine and revved smoothly all the way up to max.  It runs like a brand new saw.

Stupid Homelite trash won't even last a season.   

Chris

[charby]

Most chainsaws cheap or expensive will last a long time if people take care of them. Most people don't do maintenance or store them for a long time with old fuel in the tank and fuel system.

[Tallpine]

You probably haven't put on that many hours.

I bought a brand new Homelite "360" (I think?) in 1979 in Alaska.  It lasted about two months of full time work before it quit.  I took it in to a shop in Colorado after I moved back that summer.  They got it running again, but when I went to work at 10K feet ASL it would only run a few minutes before getting too hot and quitting.  Took it down to the nearest shop at 7K ASL and it ran fine there   

Anyway, I bought my first Stihl then and later traded in the Homelite for another Stihl to have two good ones.

They all break down including Stihl, but usually it was routine things that I fixed myself.  I just spent $100 at the shop not long ago to fix the "ethanol disease" 

The shop in Eagle River where I bought the Homelite bragged that it was such a good saw that it would last 300 hours.  They were right - that's about how long it went before breaking down: a couple months of full time work. 

[RoadKingLarry]

Ethanol.
Biggest problem I had with the lower end saws was a lack of parts availability after a few years.
Stihl will probably be around for a while(maybe).

[mtnbkr]

You probably haven't put on that many hours.

Between the timber permits and cutting storm-downed trees at the grandmothers (she had 100+ "tall pines" and other assorted trees on her property back then), I would be surprised if we didn't have at least 300 hours on it after 25 years.  With the NF timber permit, my dad was felling, limbing, and sawing trees from 2"-10"  for a year.  He'd devote a full day 2-3 times a month, but mostly went out there when he didn't have to be at work until that evening.  On those days, he'd cut enough trees to fill the bed of his truck with bed-length logs, bring them home, cut them into splittable lengths, and stack them to season.  I've personally run the saw for an entire day multiple times as a teen and young adult.

No, not used as extensively as it would in the hands of a logger, but it also wasn't used to only cut a couple limbs here and there.  

Chris

[mtnbkr]

Ethanol.
Biggest problem I had with the lower end saws was a lack of parts availability after a few years.
Stihl will probably be around for a while(maybe).

I don't know where to get non-ethanol fuel around here, so I paid scalper prices for a quart of pre-mixed fuel at the hardware store for testing purposes.

Parts availability was a problem with this saw, which is why I had to make a new air filter and elected not to replace all the oil and fuel lines "just because".  Parts are available via ebay, but that gets expensive real quick.  Hard to justify when one can get a new saw for $150ish.

Still, for a cheap saw, 25 years and going isn't a bad run.  The only drawback is that the handle isn't vibration-isolated, so your hands can get a bit numb after a few hours.  I guess that keeps you from running it too long at a stretch. :)

Chris

[Tallpine]

The only drawback is that the handle isn't vibration-isolated, so your hands can get a bit numb after a few hours.  I guess that keeps you from running it too long at a stretch.

I had one of those old blue Homelites before I bought the new one.  It actually ran pretty good but the vibration was so bad that it shook itself apart constantly.  I got pretty good at catching parts as they flew off, but it took a lot of time to stop and tighten everything every few minutes.   

The first old guy that I worked for where I actually logged ran Homelites.  But that was back in the mid-1970s and his saws weren't that new anymore.  He told me stories about carrying a cross cut saw and a pot of beans into the woods for the day.  He had an old Model A truck that he had cut down and converted to a skidder.  It actually worked pretty good if not on steep ground.

It takes me about an hour to fall, limb, buck, and load a full size pickup somewhat heaping full of wood.

[Lee]

I just bought a Stihl. When I was doing Pre-purchase Internet research, I read over and over that older Homelites were good , newer, not so much.

[mtnbkr]

I had one of those old blue Homelites before I bought the new one.  It actually ran pretty good but the vibration was so bad that it shook itself apart constantly.  I got pretty good at catching parts as they flew off, but it took a lot of time to stop and tighten everything every few minutes.   

It's tough to keep the chain tight on this one.  I have to stop every half hour or so and adjust it.  The problem is that it only has one nut holding the bar.  One screw on the bottom of the saw that secures the engine to the body was missing, so I found a replacement for it during this project.  After finishing and testing everything, I put blue loctite on the screws "just in case".

Dad bought the saw when he thought his only uses for it would be trimming trees in our yard in Richmond and cutting a little firewood (that was the first house with a fireplace).  The national forest plots happened a few years later.

It takes me about an hour to fall, limb, buck, and load a full size pickup somewhat heaping full of wood.

I don't know how long it took my dad, but he'd go out for 3-4 hours at a time including the drive.

I just bought a Stihl. When I was doing Pre-purchase Internet research, I read over and over that older Homelites were good , newer, not so much.

I've read the same while looking for info about this one.

Chris

[French G.]

My dad ha a little 70s Homelite that he grabbed for light work, big Husq for everything else, both going for 25 years+. I got a Homelite at a pawn shop for $20, all it needed was the pull cord re-knotted into the handle. Gave it to the FiL, runs flawlessly for 8 years now.

[Tallpine]

It's tough to keep the chain tight on this one.

Usually that's the chain stretching and/or wearing the underside of the links.

New chains stretch a lot at first, and old chains stretch from fatigue.  Also more wear and stretch when dull.

[Nick1911]

A few years ago my dad gave me an old Homelite XL that was in the garage of a house he bought in the early 90's.

Now it probably doesn't have that many hours on it, but I put fresh gas in it and it started on the second pull after all those years.  It's been a great little homeowner saw since.  For a little consumer grade two cycle, I'm impressed.

[geronimotwo]

the "super 2" was still a blue saw?   when the changed to red they seemed to get more disposable.

[mtnbkr]

the "super 2" was still a blue saw?   when the changed to red they seemed to get more disposable.

Mine is red(ish).  I'm sure this one falls into the disposable category, but it has managed to keep running all these years.

Chris

[Tallpine]

At one time Homelite and Mac were quite the deal in chainsaws, but I wouldn't recommend anything but a Stihl or Husky if you are buying a new one.

They are really not that expensive for the smaller ones (~16").  ($150-$300)

To replace mine OTOH would be over a grand now 

[charby]

At one time Homelite and Mac were quite the deal in chainsaws, but I wouldn't recommend anything but a Stihl or Husky if you are buying a new one.

They are really not that expensive for the smaller ones (~16").  ($150-$300)

To replace mine OTOH would be over a grand now 

Echo is a good brand also.

[mtnbkr]

They are really not that expensive for the smaller ones (~16").  ($150-$300)

At Ace Hardware this afternoon, 14"-16" Stihls were in the low to mid $200 range.  There was one 14" model that was $300.  I couldn't tell why it was more expensive than the other ones, but I didn't look close either.

Chris

[Tallpine]

Echo is a good brand also.

Do they even make a professional saw

Once I went to work for this outfit from Louisiana that tried to do a job in Colorado.  They had four Echo saws and the day I got there not a one was running - mostly mainenance issues.  I stayed up half the night fixing saws for them.  They made me the cutting boss and as I remember I split my time between putting trees on the ground and fixing their saws.

Couple weeks later I went to town for a couple days and by the time I got back the entire camp had vamoosed and I never got a cent for all my work.  They also stiffed a diesel place in Montrose and the mill for advance on logs not yet delivered. 

[charby]

Do they even make a professional saw

Once I went to work for this outfit from Louisiana that tried to do a job in Colorado.  They had four Echo saws and the day I got there not a one was running - mostly mainenance issues.  I stayed up half the night fixing saws for them.  They made me the cutting boss and as I remember I split my time between putting trees on the ground and fixing their saws.

Couple weeks later I went to town for a couple days and by the time I got back the entire camp had vamoosed and I never got a cent for all my work.  They also stiffed a diesel place in Montrose and the mill for advance on logs not yet delivered. 

http://www.echo-usa.com/Products/Chain-Saws/CS-8000

Lots of arborists like Echo branded equipment.

[Calumus]

I just went through all this research about two months ago trying to find a decent small saw. I worked for a tree clearing service for a couple of years when I was trying to get my business off the ground. That time in my life gave me a lasting hatred for stihls. Stihl  vs  husqvarna is equivalent to Ford vs Chevy.
They both make some great pro models, but most of their homeowner gear isn't any better then craftsman disposables. Pretty much anything from either of them under $500 will have a plastic crank case and non adjustable jets. Jetting is a big issue now that the epa has turned its gaze to small engines. Everything comes set extremly lean from the factory so they can pass the emissions regs. Lean engines don't last very long. I guess landfills full of seized saws and trimmers are preferable to a little extra smoke in the woods. I ended up going with a Dolmar. German make, older then Stihl, and all their saws are still made in Germany. I got a PS-421. 42cc saw that puts out 2.9hp from the factory. Full magnesium crank case, adjustable jetting and removing the cat would take 30 seconds with a dremel (not that I would ever recommend doing something that will give it more power and make it run cooler... )
Thing starts second pull every time, and when it's warm a nudge on the pull string gets it going again. I've had the bar completely buried in various hardwoods that were dead standing and haven't had a single slow down. Couldn't recommend their stuff enough.

[Pharmacology]

After hurricanes in Corpus Christi, I'd use this to chop down the broken Mesquite and Chinaberry trees around my folks' house:
http://i.imgur.com/OJqI7Zl.jpg

It was surprisingly super effective.

[Tallpine]

Smallest Stihl I ever ran I think was an 029 

I have been thinking about getting a little one just for misc tasks such as trimming limbs off standing trees and cutting out window holes in siding.  My 046 just about kills me to make an exact horizontal cut up at eye/shoulder level    We don't have power over at the barn so have to cut anything with a hand saw or the chainsaw.

I was thinking about getting a shorter bar but I really like the 30" for limbing fallen trees so I don't have to lean over.

Yeah, a 16" bar will cut through a 24" tree, from both sides - but it takes a lot longer.  One cut isn't a big deal but if you're cutting a big tree into firewood it would take a long time.  I guess it goes back to my contract falling days that I don't have much patience.

[Sideways_8]

At Philmont, all we ran was Stihl. Most of them were 026/260s, a couple of 261s, a couple of 361s, and the 460. My boss had his personal 044 and I picked up a Dolmar 7900 near the end of the summer.

At home we have my Dolmar and my dad's Husqvarna 51 that he bought in '94. I rebuilt the carburetor on it, and the saw is still going strong.

Personally I prefer something in the 70cc range. Plenty of power on tap for felling anything I'd want to fell, and still light enough to limb and buck with.