Does the Anti-Vibe system of most top-handles lead to air-leakage eventually?

[Cerberus]

Initially I just wanted to stiffen-up my climb-saws especially the older units but in prior months I've learned a lot more about their construction and this 'problem' or possible-problem keeps coming to-mind: How on earth can the carb, and the engine, be on separate parts of the anti-vibe system?

IE, the carb is(almost always) right-under the rear of the handle, and part-of the "top, cushion-mounted" part of the saw (or spring-mounted, depending on brand) *But*, the carb-->engine block path....that relies on a precise, air-tight pathway...which seems to be achieved via using a rubber tube to mate the block//carb..

Have an itching to get out the scalpel, hard-rubber-matting, and epoxy and make 'wedges' to discretely eliminate all AV from my climb-saws, would love to hear how common it is that there's air-leaks / other issues due to AV mis-matches over time, hell I have a saw I got new ~1.5yrs ago and I can already see I'm "bending" the AV out-of-alignment, like my air/carb box and the rest of the powerhead are not perfectly in-line they are now at a cocked angle because of a while spent pushing-into that AV in 1 direction!

[also, in musing on this subject, I can't help but think that your control of the saw would go up, kinda like you 'feel' the wood you're cutting better because there's nothing "in-between" to dampen it, can totally see less bog-downs once AV is eliminated if one is prone to pushing/bogging-down their saw!]

 

[Wilhelm]

I have a 1985. Sachs-Dolmar 105 top handle saw, yes the carb and AF is in the top handle and mounts to the cylinder via rubber boot.

Rubber AV mount broke, clutch exploded, sprockets wore out bucking load after load of firewood logs - rubber boot prevails!

It really comes down to the material used for making the boot.
From what I read there are more boot failures on modern rear handle saws.

I wouldn't worry about it!

 

[Creaky limb tree care]

I can see where you are coming from but trust me, the vibes will destroy your hands and wrists in time!

 

[Woodpecker]

You really don't want to eliminate the av on your saws. White finger is no joke. After years of running old school saws in my younger days I can't mow my lawn or run a weed whip for more than an hour without my fingers going numb. Think very carefully wheather a part/tool is worth irreparable nerve damage. Just my 2 cents.

 

[PogoInTheWoods]

Just don't yank em all over the place trying to get out of a pinch and the boots and impulse hoses will last a lot longer.

 

[Cerberus]

thanks guys great answers all around, not gonna aim to eliminate any although on my most-used saw a lil 25cc I've noticed that the "airbox//carb-area" cube at the base of the handle (which is connected to the powerhead by that rubber intake boot) is on crooked now like the gap between it and the powerhead is larger on the right side than the left (so much so that, in trying to remember which side it was, I literally reached-over and felt it, the difference in gap-size is big enough to feel / very obvious!) so planning to use a rubber-wedge to prevent that gap from changing any further but will be leaving everything else intact and, in-general, consider 'AV going bad' to be part&parcel of a saw going bad!

Thanks for mentioning saw-husbandry Pogo!! Yes I am quite 'gentle' in the respects I think matter, I mean I run low depth-gauges and 'push' my saws quite often but it's within their ranges I believe (for instance I rarely push a saw to the point that the clutch slips/chain stops in-cut, even w/ the real low rakers I can 'feel' the saw's power as I push it which lets me know how fast/hard I can put it through something, if anything I'd suspect that having to 'hold back' to ensure my low rakers don't cause clutch-slippage is actually preventing over-abuse of the saw (well, except any parts of the engine being stressed by having a modded saw cut wood w/ low rakers, but that's inherent/normal wear, basically) Have also had a handful of very scary bar-pinched incidents so the spectre of that is always a strong subconscious, sometimes conscious, thought when approaching any cut.....for anything but the smallest, most inconsequential cuts I tend to picture the cut & the log's fall before actually cutting as I've had a log nearly push my bar into my leg before and, while I was lucky, it was just that - luck - that may've saved my leg that day :/

 

[PogoInTheWoods]

It certainly sounds like you have a faulty a/v buffer or spring that should be easily correctable unless the mounting location on the saw itself is broken.