Chainsaw Repair

As I said earlier I just finished up my speedcutting event here at our local winter festival, running a pair of 550XPs side by side on their first tank of fuel. Close to 40 men and 15 women used them in the 10"x10" spruce.
It was a warm day for us at  23F with the sun shining, didn't have the blue winter covers on the rewind housings for good reason, but they would have been nice to keep the saws a little warmer when we took a 10 minute break between the mens/women.

When the 1st pair of women went up , one of the women just couldn't settle down and relax with the saw so I had to disqualify her . She stalled the saw in the 1st cut and then with a blink of the eye she started it in the cut and then stalled it again. I gave her a second chance thinking the saw wasn't warmed up enough but she did the same thing all over again, I waved here down and escorted her off the stage. After the competiton and when the crowds left I gave her and a few next year wannabes some time with the 550s just to give them a little experience. Even had a young exchange student from France on the 550.
First time I saw a production saw stall in the cut like I did here, as said earlier the auto tune just couldn't compensate quick enough and the new style aggressive clutch may have had something to do with it too.
Of the other 54 competitors there was no other stalling.

From what I've seen of the 550 in the cut with .325 chisel is good "holds its own" torque. Almost like electric motor torque, then with the second or so of rev-boost it's hyper.
At the moment I'm about a month away from getting back to cutting wood with my tree service, still 3 ft of snow on the ground and below freezing. I'm presently getting my new saw work shop finished and things put into order [and boy do I have alot of boxes of parts etc to get into order ] So I'm looking forward to comparing the 550 to the 346. I'm interested in this new 2013 550 with the upgrades so hopefully in a months time I can buy one.
I'm gonna try several b/c options, I have some loops of the 76LG -3/8 to try out and some Stihl 33 Topic Super is on the way.
I'm going with the 18" seeing I'll be doing alot of limbing and small removals with the 550.
Having said that I'll replace the dogs with the smooth bumper available. I have no 550 IPL but my 560 /562 IPL shows the 560's #525 34 76-01 smooth bumper may fit.

http://www.husqvarna.com/ddoc/HUSI/HUSI2011_AAaa/HUSI2011_AAaa__62.pdf

2013-01  use print to file
http://www.husqvarna.com/ddoc/HUSI/HUSI2013_AAaa/HUSI2013_AAaa__04.pdf

Thankyou for those 660magnum,
I was able to print both the 2011 and 2013 IPLs. I see the new 2 shoe clutch in the newer copy. Also the smooth bumper #577 88 72-01

For cutting 8"-10"-12" cants at a GTG there's nothing beats the smooth bumpers.

In the past, I removed the spikes altogether if I didn't have smooth bumpers.

Some of the changes like the coil were done back in the early fall

Speaking of those smooth bumpers #577 88 72-01,  I'm gonna order 4 of them.
1 for my new 550 and 3 for my 3 festival dedicated 550s.
Speed cutting in the 10"x10" cant the smooth bumper works alot better, especially for the competitors with little saw experience.

i like the smoothies on the 50ish cc saws for everything. makes bucking fire wood easier. for me anyway.