Old Homelite project 🤔

[hacskaroly]

I think I'm pretty good at spinning wrenches and everyone pizzes & moans about how difficult McCullough saws are to work on but honestly , if another one of these darkens my door , I'm going to pass . I'll work on a McCullough any day compared to one of these.

Everybody has their breaking points...I agree, McCulloch's are fun saws to work on. So far my most challenging one has been a Reed-Prentice (Craftsman) 1200B...I finally have it all apart, giving it a good clean, repairing any damage and going to have to make some new parts!

 

[Angore]

Does anyone have any tricks to install the 28 tiny rollers in the lower connecting rod ?
My plan was to put a coating of synthetic grease on the rod & cap , install the rollers and let them sit in the freezer overnight .
Then (hopefully) install the rod & cap before the grease loosens up .

 

[hacskaroly]

Does anyone have any tricks to install the 28 tiny rollers in the lower connecting rod ?
My plan was to put a coating of synthetic grease on the rod & cap , install the rollers and let them sit in the freezer overnight .
Then (hopefully) install the rod & cap before the grease loosens up .

That is pretty much how you can do it, not sure if you need to put it in the freezer, they should hold in place with the grease. Yeah, that was a big surprise when I pulled my first McCulloch crank rod apart...

I am not sure if the Homelite crank rods are in a similar situation like the McCulloch crank rods, where the two halves only go back together one way as they are hydraulically split and not cut so the two sides are not identically flat or even.

 

[Angore]

That is pretty much how you can do it, not sure if you need to put it in the freezer, they should hold in place with the grease. Yeah, that was a big surprise when I pulled my first McCulloch crank rod apart...

I am not sure if the Homelite crank rods are in a similar situation like the McCulloch crank rods, where the two halves only go back together one way as they are hydraulically split and not cut so the two sides are not identically flat or even.

I don't know if they're "cracked" or not either , but I marked everything with a white paint pen .

 

[hacskaroly]

but I marked everything with a white paint pen .

I would have thought about doing that after I took it apart...lol

 

[Angore]

I would have thought about doing that after I took it apart...lol

Been there too many times .

 

[Angore]

Piston came out pretty nice . No scoring but I scraped a ton of carbon off . Lands were loaded .

 

[Angore]

Jug came out just OK.
There's still some carbon in places but I did my best.

 

[Kdrweld]

When in doubt Moto seal is your friend. It is great for any gasket delete or any unsure gaskets. This is not the space shuttle that we work on. Merry Christmas and happy new year to everybody.

 

[hacskaroly]

There's still some carbon in places but I did my best.

I use SeaFoam to get rid of carbon, will put some on and let it sit. I also use a green scotchbrite pad to work the SeaFoam in and get the carbon up especially on the pistons.

 

[Angore]

Almost $28.00 for two seals a little bigger than my thumbnail.

 

[hacskaroly]

Yeah, about two years ago I was looking for an air filter for my Husky 2100 and all I could find was a well used one on eBay for $100. Luckily I wasn't in a hurry and went a different route. Sometimes our parts can be $$$.

 

[Angore]

JB weld for the win ! (So far)
This part of the case cover was cracked along where the tension adjustment screw is . To the point where the leading edge was 1/4" out of line . I cleaned the inner surfaces with brake cleaner , blew it out with air . Mixed up some 5020 PSI JB weld , spread the crack as much as I dared and stuffed the epoxy in with a toothpick & X-acto knife . I clamped the leading edge in a vice for 36 hours and fully expected it to just separate after being released this morning. Much to my surprise , it held , TIGHT !
Now for a little work with a round burr in the Dremel & a file .....

 

[hacskaroly]

Very nice, glad to hear it is holding! It's a pain to clean up because it is hard, but does a good job. I was using some JB Weld on a couple McCulloch parts last night, great stuff!

 

[Angore]

I'm pretty happy with the results .
Adjuster block slides smoothly throughout its travel fore & aft . Epoxy seems very strong .

 

[Al Smith]

Couple of comments .That design was used on several saws and at one time nearly every saw manufactor sold at least one model .As such they came in every color of the rainbow .Joyce the chainsaw lady in Indiana was an expert it what fits what and knew the design engineer who came up with the design which varied slightly so as not to cause patent infringement problems .RIP Joyce .

 

[Al Smith]

To further add there's a gent who I think goes by the handle of "raised by wolves " I forgot his given name .He has a web forum I think is called House of Homelite . This guy to Homelite is like Mark to McCulloch .As for the saws I have Homelite ,Lombard,Remington all use that basic design .The saws are just about bullet proof .About the only way to kill them is to straight gas them .On the subject of seals these saws were made in the USA and Canada and if you have the OEM parts numbers they can be cross referenced to still availible generic seals .I have the master seal manual by Bearings Inc and can usually find them .