Chainsaw Repair

I've been around several Poulans that had bow bars fitted at one time. The give-away was that there was a notch cut out of the top front of the clutch cover to allow clearance for the top of the bar.

In my case I have a nice Husqvarna 371 that already has a cut out clutch cover. Therefore I anticipate a minimum of impact. I gave the bar a trial fit today and everything aligns including the oil hole. I've got to look around on some of my junker 365's or in the junk drawer for a old brake mechanism cover and bar plate that are somewhat chewed up and relieve the top front corner a small amount for chain cutter clearance. Looks as though the chain will be 3/8" X .050 X 85 DL X Stihl RS. I would rather it would be "RM" but none of the seven Stihl dealers in my area had bulk RM. This bar measures 14" diameter across the apex. It is 15" from cutter tooth to cutter tooth outside.

Here is a old picture of my bar as I bought it and as you can see it is set up in the mount area to be mounted "low" and the impact on the top of the clutch cover front will be minimal. The spur and hand guards are not in this trial fit picture. The bar is more than 30 yrs old but never has had a chain on it. The yellow bar in the top picture is shown on an old Stihl 041. But the mounting slot is not wide enough to go over the flanges at the base of the bar studs.

The top yellow bar in the bottom picture is my bar before the oil hole was moved. If you enlarge the picture and find the oil hole, you will notice a scribed line out to the edge of the chain rail that corresponds with the hole drilled from the chain groove to the oil hole in the mounting flange. It was first tried that the original oil hole was welded up and new oil hole drilled farther from the bolt slot. Then it was decided to copy closer the D009 oil hole position and a new oil hole was drilled half way through the bar in the proper location and then a hole was drilled from the slot in a new location. The new path from the hole to the slot was canted into the direction of chain travel. The oil holes in the side of the bar are 3/32" and the paths to the slot are 1/16".

Take note that in the bottom picture, there are two bars. They represent the two popular common later designs of bow bars. The bottom reversible bar supposedly bolts up to a Husqvarna D009? Notice the oil holes are drilled all the way through the plate and shows on both sides.  It obviously was for some other saw but happens to fit?  It is a Commercial Chain Bar Brand and they no longer make the 14" wide bars.

The 12" apex bars are typically 81DL.