Chainsaw Repair

Now I'm gonna post back in a way that I hope makes a real contribution to this forum.

Having done everything I said earlier in my post, I re-assembled the chainsaw and, alas, it would not start.  More specifically, the carb again failed to suck fuel up the line.  Just as I was about to give up the ghost & post back asking if anyone knew where I might buy a new carb for this old boy (bought the saw 19½ years ago for $168), I went back to basics.  I once again removed the fuel line from the carb and sucked, to make sure the fritted filter wasn't clogged and that the new line wasn't broken.  Sure enough, I got fuel.

So I looked more carefully at the line and noted that just as it bends 90° down ahead of the trigger pivot, then 90° forward toward the carb area, there was a kink.  I took the line entirely out of its in-handle channel and noted that , w/ a few pulls, fuel was drawn up the tube to the carb.

First, a little side bar on the Poulan fuel line.  The "stock" tube is opaque (black) and therefore useless (imho).  Years ago, when it became time to replace the fuel line, I used clear ⅛" Tygon tubing from a hardware store.  This material is surely cheaper, nicely flexible, connects perfectly w/ the filter, and as well on the barbed carb fitting.  A 15¼" length was perfect.  The only problem w/ this tubing, as I ultimately discovered, is that its walls are fairly soft, and so it's vulnerable to kinking in the stock configuration.  So what's the remedy?

The whole problem is the contorted alignment the tube has to follow to get to the carb, especially after it turns down past the trigger pivot, and then - in a short distance - bends again forward to go the to carb.  I removed the tube from its channel within the right-hand side of the handle, and then removed this handle part.  I fired up my propane torch and heated a utility knife.  With the heated knife, I carved out plastic material from the front of the right-hand handle piece in such a way as to open up a passage in front of where the tube first bends down (to make its jagged jog).  After a bit of clearing, and some careful deburr work, what I ended up with is a nice way for the fuel tube to simply pass forward thru the end of the handle, where it then takes a mellow 45° turn downward toward the opening of the carb housing, and then gently into that housing to connect w/ the carb.  The radical jagged jog is effectively bypassed!

I reconnected the fuel line as I described and voila!

Oh, with the new alignment for the fuel line, the ideal length is exactly 15".

So, in summary, this problem had nothing to do w/ the carb!  I hope this may help others who have experienced this aggravating problem.  But for this, I remain convinced that Poulan produced a very reliable chain saw in its 2300 CVA series.