Chainsaw Repair

Kevin and I were talking the other day about the virtues of a Stihl 180C Easy Start. Three or four years ago he took a "Easy Start" in and we played with it a little around the shop before he gave the 180C to his dad. Kevin went on to say that his dad really likes that 180C with Easy Start and uses it almost exclusively for his pruning duties.

So I bought a real nice one on Ebay. I envisioned a 14" .050 bar and PS3-50 3/8" low pro chisel chain, a muffler mod , and a Walbro WT215 twin needle carb. Well mine is as they often come from the dealer with a 16" Rollomatic Mini Bar (.043) and a 16PMM3-55 narrow kerf green safety chain. The Zama carburetors on these have no needle valves. The saw came with no gas but full of bar oil, The original type chain was still sharp but had been used. The saw was clean as new on the outside but there was chip/oil gunk under the chain cover. I looked under the air filter element and it had chips in the air box. So someone had bought a chainsaw to cut their little tree down and then pawned it?

I filled it up with dyno oil premix and gave it a couple pulls and it fired. One more pull with the choke off and it started right up. I made some cuts in the wood pile and could not see anything wrong with the way it performed. The chain cut well and the mixture on the carburetor was just right and engine revved plenty high. I played with the no tools type bar adjuster. The chain tension and retention parts worked well as they were designed...

For right now, I'm forgetting about changing anything about the muffler, carb, or bar/chain. I touched up the cutters on the chain and put the saw away.

It certainly out performs my old muffler modded Mac 32-14 that I have been using 20 years.

Thread about changing to a twin needle adjustable carb.

Walbro WT 215 style carburetor in a 180C? The Chinese variations are prolific on the Bay

http://chainsawrepair.createaforum.com/stihl/stihl-ms170-chinese-carb-swap/

I used the saw a good bit pruning today. I shut it off between trees. It's so easy to wind it up for a restart.

Right now, the carb is perfect and I'm leaving it alone - but the first indication of trouble and it's out of there.

I notice the clutch assembly from a MS 250 will interchange with the MS 180. In fact, most of the mechanism in that area will swap out. That opens the door for some variations of the work end of the saw?

Changing a 180 engine housing to that of a 181 is not a cost effective adventure.

The starter is different
On the 181 the carb mount is separate from the main housing and the fact that the 181 is a air injection type engine there is the auxiliary air intake. This makes the carb mount area all different.
The straight 180 has a 181 style top cover but the 181 has needle valves whereas the 180 doesn't. There are no needle valve holes in the new 180 cover.

But on the positive side, the clutch bell on the 180 is a 1123 series like a 250. Therefore you can put a rim sprocket clutch bell  from a 250 onto a 180 for whatever that's worth. You cannot have less than 7 pins though. But you can go .325 if that suits your fancy.