partying like it's 1979

[juanbenae]

My pops gave me his 79 Stihl 028 Wood-Boss chain saw like 7-8 years ago when he opted for a newer model. It needed vibration isolators which I replaced and used the heck out of it until it started getting hard to start and not running well about a year ago, so I bought a new big saw to go with my smaller 180 Stihl.

I decided last spring I was gunna dive in and bring it back to life by replacing the carb, fuel & impulse lines hoping that'd do it, but did not, still would not run. Pulled it back out a couple weeks ago deciding to take another go at it replacing the points powered ignition with a later model sparky box to lose the points, again replaced the vibration isolators, and cleaned it up some. Well, it ran a little but not like the scalded dog I was accustomed to even with the new ignition. Played around with the carb adjustment screws (remember those on saws and other small 2-strokes?) still no satisfaction. In research it further since this saw has prolly in excess of 1000 hours on it and is 40+ years old it became apparent it was the crank seals. Ordered a set up and got the larger of the two installed today by threading a sheet rock screw into the clutch side seal I was able to tug it out with a claw hammer. In looking over youtube it said the best route to reinstall was to cut a water bottle apart to sleeve the crank shaft so the seal would slide over the raised sealing surface as to not tear it or turn it out messing up the spring. It worked awesome and now halfway home. Will need a proper seal puller for the flywheel side as it is much smaller so I put the sheetrock screw down.

Best thing about these older saws? Not a lick of plastic! What is not aluminum is fiberglass!

Good times and hope to have it screaming once again in the next week ir so.

[wdfifteen]

Good luck. Looks like a fun project. Do you heat with wood?

[oldE]

I put a few hours on a Stihl 028 back in the day. Best thing from my memories of long ago? The Stihls had more torque and better mufflers than the Homelights we had been using. Yes, this was before anyone suggested ear protection ( or safety equipment of any kind, come to think of it).