FarmerTec 660 "Kit" - What's the latest on quality?

[MustangMike]

I have encountered various problems with the adjusters, but have worked on both 660 and 440 kits, and no longer remember which problems were with which.

Sometimes OEM works, sometimes not, sometimes I have had to modify the case, sometimes the gears. With each one I try to assess what is not fitting/working right. Sometimes I had to add shims. Luckily, I have always managed to get them to work, but not always on the first try. Also, sometimes they are not as smooth as OEM, so it helps to go easy, and back and forth when you need to (don't just force it, it will screw it up). Sometimes they break in and start working better.

 

[Nutball]

Even the Genuine Stihls don't seem to tension up as well as Husqys.

 

[Eduardo K]

I had some time over the weekend to run clone #1. I was able to get three tanks through cutting firewood. I ran a 24” bar and with an 8 pin sprocket, I was sufficiently pleased… except for the tensioner.
I did some searching and read up on everything Mustang Mike, Walt, and the rest of the collective said and ended up going the brass tube route to tighten the gear mesh in the tensioner. So far it really appears to have smoothed out the feel in the tighten and loosen direction. If I have time this weekend, I’ll run the saw and report back on real world performance.

 

[Jason628]

Did some playing around today with the modified 660, the unmodified 660 and an 881. We ran some timed cuts using the same b+c on both 660's and the unmod saw was consistently 5-6 seconds faster than the modified saw. The 881 was running a 44" bar and was 3 seconds slower than the un modified 660. Which was very surprising. One 660 had a chain tensioner casualty (worm gear broke) I'm thinking maybe the mod saw is not broke in yet so may be down on power a little or I totally screwed up air flow through the cylinder when I ported it.