fearofpavement
Pinnacle OPE Member
- Local time
- 5:20 PM
- User ID
- 304
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2015
- Messages
- 1,810
- Reaction score
- 6,266
- Location
- Georgia

I spent the entire afternoon trying to sort out a Stihl 028 Super. This is a saw I took in trade on an 046. I didn't want to take a trade, told the guy I didn't want to trade but he more or less insisted even after I told him he could sell it for more than I would give him. Anyway, it has a strange problem that I think he was aware of and that's why he wanted me to get it and not some poor innocent victim (which I now feel like)
Anyway, the saw has good compression, clean piston, light usage and in excellent cosmetic condition. It started and ran but would have erratic idle issues. ie, tune it and then it would seem to go out of tune.
So I do all the usual checks, went through the carb and so forth. It starts and cuts for quite some time and then starts getting weird.
Last time I used it, it was bogging. So I have a previous customer that really really wants this saw but I won't sell it with "issues". I reconfirmed the bogging today and went through the carb again. Looked like a piece of dirt in the main jet. I put it back together and it ran fine. Tuned it up and went to the woodpile. Decided I just can't justify cutting cookies so I chose to noodle my larger rounds into firewood size. That's productive, sort of.
Ran a whole tank through it and it worked fine until right at the end, it started picking up idle speed a little at a time until the chain was happily spinning at idle.
Took it back to the shop, cleaned the air filter and checked a few more things, retuned it and repeat the above with the same results.
My thinking now is that the tuning screws are actually moving so the saw is retuning itself and it's not some obscure fuel or air issue. Still to be confirmed... You should see the pile of noodles I have now, lol.
Anyway, the saw has good compression, clean piston, light usage and in excellent cosmetic condition. It started and ran but would have erratic idle issues. ie, tune it and then it would seem to go out of tune.
So I do all the usual checks, went through the carb and so forth. It starts and cuts for quite some time and then starts getting weird.
Last time I used it, it was bogging. So I have a previous customer that really really wants this saw but I won't sell it with "issues". I reconfirmed the bogging today and went through the carb again. Looked like a piece of dirt in the main jet. I put it back together and it ran fine. Tuned it up and went to the woodpile. Decided I just can't justify cutting cookies so I chose to noodle my larger rounds into firewood size. That's productive, sort of.
Ran a whole tank through it and it worked fine until right at the end, it started picking up idle speed a little at a time until the chain was happily spinning at idle.
Took it back to the shop, cleaned the air filter and checked a few more things, retuned it and repeat the above with the same results.
My thinking now is that the tuning screws are actually moving so the saw is retuning itself and it's not some obscure fuel or air issue. Still to be confirmed... You should see the pile of noodles I have now, lol.