Apologies on the winded rant. Took a branch between the shoulders and will be lamed up for a few days.
I'm not really a collector of anything. Regardless of age, all my saws get used. But one particular saw that as old as me, I bought an old brochure off ebay. I did so because the saw is interesting, rare and reliable. Starts well at 30 below zero.
The saw is an Echo CS 900EVL and I think it was ahead of its time, it was realeased in 1981 (the year I was born). I also think some of the saw was copied by Stihl with the 066
As some of you are aware, the other 2 saws of the era were the Husqvarna 2100 CD and the Stihl 056 magnum. Both the Husqvarna and the Stihl had long, goofy mufflers. Both saws had problematic ignition systems as well. Both saws had outboard clutches.
This CS 900evl has an inboard clutch and a modern ignition no different than a modern saw of current times. I have never heard of a CS 900 evl with an ignition problem. It also has a compact 2 piece muffler with 4 bolts at the corners. The baffle inside the muffler is square, with round holes almost exactly like my MS 660. Clearly, stihl copied this muffler design, as well as the bore/stroke
Sorry Stihl guys. Here's the original 91.6 cc, 54mm bore x 40mm stroke chainsaw:
