288 xp running issues

[Boomer 87]

Hoping someone else has had this problem. I bought a 288xp off here bout a year ago or so, have only really run it twice. It will fire up and run like a top cold, after some long pulls and it gets hot it starts misfiring popping throught the exhaust, even healthy backfire once in awhile. Sounds like a coil getting hot and laying down. I tried a new plug and took wire off kill switch to eliminate that. Do these have inherent coil issues? Any advice would be great.

 

[Mattyo]

What's compression? Piston pic?

 

[redoakman]

sure dose sound like a coil . i would start there, everything has a due date tho , as far as i know there wasent any big issues on these saws for that. you may also have busted your flywheel key and are out of timming. I would start by pulling that off then a new coil.


thanks brandon

 

[jacob j.]

The 288 has a two-piece ignition and usually it's the trigger unit (up in the airbox) that goes bad. It's rare for the coil to go bad.

Do you have a spark tester? I would get it hot and then test the spark on it as a starting point.

 

[Boomer 87]

Well i ran out of daylight to tear into it real far, i did find the small red wire running from coil to module was very loose on both ends. Doesn't really explain the heat part. However the coil area was completely filled with pitch, so i blew it out, tightened the connections on the wires. It fired right up and sounded good. But its also cold now. Ill give it ago tomorrow and see how it acts.

 

[Boomer 87]

Another hint, when hot it would idle just fine but under WOT, load or no load it would act up. I guess it could possibly been the loose connections under WOT would vibrate enough to get intermittent pulse.

 

[Stump Shot]

Check the ground screw on the upper coil in the air box. It's one of the mounting screws that has a ground strap underneath it. They can loosen etc. and give a intermittent problem like you are experiencing.

 

[Boomer 87]

Ill check it thanks

 

[danimal]

Chased a ghost for quite awhile in 1 of my deuce88's..
2 New ignition wires & a new kill switch solved da problem

 

[Thumper88]

I had an issue with a coil on a 288 recently. It started dropping out under load and after about 3 more cuts it died completely. Upon inspection someone had replaced the wiring with a homemade job that used incorrectly sized terminals and alll black wires. I ordered new oem wires and an oem coil with both pieces, the pickup at the flywheel and the coil under the air box cover. It runs like a top now. You can get a spark tester at Auto zone that uses a bulb to show
Firing. Hook it up and get it running and hot and see if it’s dropping the spark

 

[Boomer 87]

I had an issue with a coil on a 288 recently. It started dropping out under load and after about 3 more cuts it died completely. Upon inspection someone had replaced the wiring with a homemade job that used incorrectly sized terminals and alll black wires. I ordered new oem wires and an oem coil with both pieces, the pickup at the flywheel and the coil under the air box cover. It runs like a top now. You can get a spark tester at Auto zone that uses a bulb to show
Firing. Hook it up and get it running and hot and see if it’s dropping the spark[/QUOTE

That is exactly what i found someone put crimp ends on the blue wire, way to wide for the terminal. Right now there tight. So I'm gonna test it, if its healed ill get new wires

 

[Boomer 87]

Well i spent some time trying to get the carb set today. It was super rich so i leaned it out some. It was about 12k still to heavy but out of nowhere came another 1,000 rpm with no screw turning. It really started singing. So im confident i have an air leak also. So its on the list to get tore down and gone through with a fine tooth comb. All new gaskets seals maybe rering it too. It will be part of my milling saws, it sports a 56" bar to square up my 4' or bigger milling logs. So its got to be 100% to make long hard pulling cuts.

 

[Mattyo]

The issue is likely the coil...but again...what's compression? Piston pix?

Whens the last time this was rebuilt? New bearings and such?

 

[Boomer 87]

Ill get some pics of the piston soon. The compression feels stout by the recoil, but that means nothing really

 

[XP_Slinger]

Check the flywheel key before you spend any money on a coil. I’ve seen keys partially shear that caused similar problems to yours.

 

[Mattyo]

Check the flywheel key before you spend any money on a coil. I’ve seen keys partially shear that caused similar problems to yours.

Xactley...simple stuff first