Chainsaw Repair

I had a Husky with a Johnnie Red floor plate in the carb housing area. (Carb Base) You could see a red area at the rear of the saw just above the handle.

I wanted to change it out with a orange one from a Husqvarna.

There are two different styles of these. It has to do with what style vent is on your fuel tank.

The newer tank vents have a rubber hose that goes up into the carb area in a loop and fastens on a spud beside where the impulse hose comes through. So if you have the newer vent - you need the newer floor plate.

I suppose you could use either style plate with the old style vent but a new plate with the old style vent will leave a 5/16" hole in the floor plate where the hose was supposed to come up through.

To change one of these out without raising the cylinder is a real chore. You also need to remove the starter housing and take off the air scoop for the carb air. This scoop or air jet fits inside a square hole on the floor plate. To get to the air jet, you will need to lift from the bottom the inner fly wheel cover.

The front lip of the floor plate fits under the intake boot. This lip is rather close to the cylinder and you cannot raise the boot up much. You do have to remove the carb and the carb air inlet elbow. The cable for the throttle unsnaps and pulls out through the grommet in the bottom of the plate. The choke lever unsnaps out of the choke arm on the carb and then you need to turn the part that went through the arm of the carb straight up and when withdrawing it from the saw you have to tilt it up almost 90 degrees to get it out of the chainsaw.

There are four short bolts that fasten this plate to the crankcase. After you get the old plate out, you will need to change all the rubber parts over to the new plate. There's the grommet for the throttle cable and the one for the carb mount.

To get the plate out you will need to raise the back of the plate as high as you can and work the front lip out from under the boot. This isn't easy and it is even harder going back in.

When going in with the new plate, you have to massage the boot over the front lip of the plate. Do not puncture the boot with your magic screw driver. You have to start the fuel line (and the vent line too if it has one) up through the plate before you set it down in its final position.

The rest is the reverse of taking it apart.

Don't forget to put the air jet back in under the starter housing cover.

I'm afraid that I didn't take any pictures.

It probably took me 45 min from start to test running it.

It was slow going getting the old red plate out from under the boot and the new orange one under the boot. I just knew I wasn't going to be able to get the new one under there but eventually it just slipped in and with a couple light tweaks with the magic screw driver, all the lips of the boot were in their proper place. On the boot, there is a mount or place for the impulse line to pass through and this presented an obstacle for getting the plates out and in.

I also cleaned the inside of the starter cover while I had it off.

I wouldn't recommend this job for the inexperienced or faint of heart.

The chainsaw started and ran normally without any adjustment.