stihl 021 chainsaw won't start, unless pulled 62 times daily for 6 days

bill yohler · 2004-01-22T17:11:49+00:00

my chainsaw is _exceedingly_ hard to start, I'm near pulling my armsright out of their dern sockets...saw has excellent compression. also has _brand new bosch spark plug,correct plug # correctly gapped, & plug is "known to be firing"(removed plug, ran ground wire to muffler, watched and pulled), carbis freshly rebuilt, fuel pickup clean as a whistle, fuel is one dayold, of the correct octane and oil-mix, using 2 stroke good oil. sawgets gas, as proven by 'gas smell' and look at plug removed during mynumerous "pull-fests". saw won't even fire a LICK usually, meaning99.99999 percent of the time, even if I use ether. not even a quick,weak 'pop pop'....in desperation, I even built a crude 'pre-heat' chamber for the sawout of old plywood, ran a small electric room heater into one end fora half hour - "heat-soaked" the entire saw up to a hundred degrees,which didn't even help. air cleaner clean as a whistle. the 'one turn'carb adjusting screw IS correctly at its 'one turn' setting, and theother one, is at, well, wherever it was? (moving it seems to changethe saw from 'super-hard starting' to 'super-hard starting' and back;-)the stihl owners manual is 'very foggy' on how to set the carbadjusting screws, especially in relation to each other (but his seemsto matter). when I _did_ finally get it running yesterday, after its'traditional sixteen million arm-wrenching pulls, it ran kinda lousy -had to keep 'revving it' between cuts...wouldn't idle, even afterbeing warmed up and making some cuts...what to do next? anybody care to suggest an 'initial setting' the 'lowspeed' screw should be at? and why does moving THAT screw seem to makeadjusting the other one imperative? near as I can determine, it's onlya "throttle stop" of sorts (it keeps the throttle plate from closing'dead shut' completely).ps-the blade stays in motion, but 'weakly', between cuts (I couldn'tcare LESS about that at this point, though). when I 'rest the blade'on a log, when it's 'near idle', the blade...

Jan 22, 2004 20 Replies

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Jim Kovar 22 years ago

Hi Nick,

I use Poulan saws for trimming branches after I drop one. I use Husqvarna's for felling, and I use a Stihl for bucking. Different chain profiles on every saw. I do this for a living. Of course, these saws and their chain profiles are personal preferences. I only cut in the winter when the trees are light, so I use a gas stabiliser during the off season.

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