Chainsaw Dead

get a mate to hold the plug (out of the plug hole but still connected to the HT wire) against an exposed metal part of the saw (if there is one?) - he holds it whilst you pull the starter cord - it will spin easy as you have the plug out so no compression...

ISTR any shocks are not going to harm you (or mate :>) unless they/you have a heart pacemaker.....:>(

Cheers JimK

Better still wind a bit of wire around the metal screw part of the plug and connect that back to the metalwork of the saw that way theres less likelihood of having either yourself or M8'ty dancing around;)...

anything now.

checked the

What is the

Best test for chainsaw compression is will the start cord hold the weight of the saw. Rough and ready but seems to work in practice.

AWEM

Sounds like you have a mixture problem. Either that or sediment. Check the air filter.

I just went through this with my lawn tractor a few weeks ago - compression seemed reasonable, but after systematically ruling out everything else, I pulled the piston; turns out there was a huge gouge down the side of it, and a matching on in the bore, so something had got in there. It was right at the bottom of the stroke, and not visible by just looking down the bore with the piston in place.

That's just a FYI; chances are it's a spark or fuel issue, so do check those first (secure the plug with a wire, as others have said). For testing, dump some fuel direct into the cylinder and see if it'll try to run, or dump carb cleaner / propane / wd40* into the air intake and try firing that way.

• one of the few things it's good for... :-)

Other potential gremlins: bad head gasket, bad valve seating, timing out due to sheared flywheel key (assuming magneto-derived spark from magnet in the flywheel).

cheers

Jules

Spot on. Air filter it was. After a wash and blow out, the machine fired first pull.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Lawrence