Homelite 990G Restore- Big A$$ saw

[TJ the Chainsaw Mechanic]

Wow, that is gonna be one bada55 saw.

Question: What are the two big gears for? Is that some kind of oil pumping system? At first I thought they were stepping down the chain sprocket, but that doesn't make sense...

Gear reduction, this saw actually has 3 gears since it is not reverse rotation so that the chain turns like a normal saw. As mentioned this was done to allow the user to run really long bars....up to 60 inch advertised for this saw with a 1/2 or 9/16 chain. Not sure which yet. Made for some slow cuts, but with a 60 inch bar I've been told it can give an ms880 a run for it's money. Lot of torque created by this one.

 

[RedGas]

Thanks Lee and TJ ... so I was right (and now I understand why it didn't look right, one gear of the three is missing!)

I bet that thing has some serious GRUNT.

 

[Lee H]

I suffered long enough from jealousy and decided to bite the bullet and get one. lol Now I'm jealous of a guy who has like 10 of these!

I have over 10 of these geardrives in every model.

 

[TJ the Chainsaw Mechanic]

I have over 10 of these geardrives in every model.

You lucky lol Killin me!

 

[RedGas]

Do they have that weird whine sound like gear-driven camshafts in V8 engines?

 

[sawfun]

Gear reduction, this saw actually has 3 gears since it is not reverse rotation so that the chain turns like a normal saw. As mentioned this was done to allow the user to run really long bars....up to 60 inch advertised for this saw with a 1/2 or 9/16 chain. Not sure which yet. Made for some slow cuts, but with a 60 inch bar I've been told it can give an ms880 a run for it's money. Lot of torque created by this one.

If you can find 1/2 chisel chain, then yes, they will make an 880 look bad with a 60" bar. However not so much with the common chipper chain. Though the big gear drives seem unstoppable to me in that bar length, the 880 is easily stopable. An no, now gear wine can be heard above the "ear bleeding" noise these particular monsters exude.

 

[TJ the Chainsaw Mechanic]

If you can find 1/2 chisel chain, then yes, they will make an 880 look bad with a 60" bar. However not so much with the common chipper chain. Though the big gear drives seem unstoppable to me in that bar length, the 880 is easily stopable. An no, now gear wine can be heard above the "ear bleeding" noise these particular monsters exude.

I'm hoping I can find half inch....really not wanting to be stuck with .404 on a 56 inch bar.

 

[sawfun]

Chipper should be no problem to find. I have a crusty ole 58" on mine with Chipper and have enough chisel to put a loop together. Those saws are simply incredible with chisel, unbelievably fast as they do not sweat the big tooth at all. I got one 990g that had a 30" bar with 5/8, now that stuff IS big.

 

[Lee H]

Don I have a 9-26 with a 30 and 5/8 full chisel and it cuts some nice. I do have
a couple 112cc variations with 404 and they are no slouch as well. They don't
pull quite the chip but they do get the job done.

 

[sawfun]

I was always curious about how the old 900g series compares with the later 3100, so I did test comparison in a 48" log. I found the 900g I was using was just ever so slightly weaker than the 3100 and was rougher handling. I ran a 58" bar and 1/2 Chipper chain. The same bar and chain was used for the comparison.

 

[sawfun]

Would like to know how a 7-29 compares with a Mac 73 or 77 with the same type of chain, same bar length, same wood. Oh well, that will have to wait for now.

 

[Lee H]

I know Mark Heimann doe's very well at the Baraboo meet with a 73 in the geardrive class.

 

[TJ the Chainsaw Mechanic]

Decals showed up today! And luckily I had a half day at work to!

 

[TJ the Chainsaw Mechanic]

Primed and painted the parts needing decals along with the rest of the parts to complete the parts needing paint for the saw.
I'm very happy with these. Now time for clear!

 

[RedGas]

Neat...hard to believe you can still get decals for that old timer. Very cool!

 

[TJ the Chainsaw Mechanic]

Neat...hard to believe you can still get decals for that old timer. Very cool!

Thanks! Sugar creek supply sells them! Special order reproductions.

 

[TJ the Chainsaw Mechanic]

Got 4 coats of clear down on everything. Started with 2 light coats and then 2 heavy coats. Starter cup ain't perfect, but oh well. Still looks nice.
Waiting on a new set of points and a condenser, but I'm gonna put the gears and side cover back on tomorrow or saturday after work.

 

[TJ the Chainsaw Mechanic]

Was out in the shop until around midnight last night. lol Having to much fun to sleep.

It's looking like a saw again, and getting heavy to.

 

[TJ the Chainsaw Mechanic]

This handle is quite the assembly

 

[Mastermind]

We have the same phone.