Chainsaws

Stephen,

I wouldn't give up on your Husqvarna, and I agree with you that with your experience of using 2 cycle engines, I am sure that you mixed the correct fuel to oil ratio.

So, Here is what I have discovered, even repair shops make mistakes, and also limit themselves to how much time they are going to spend working on the saw to test it, since its a dollar and cents issue. If they have to spend an hour to give a customer a repair estimate, so usually its a quick check by the repair store, like pulling on the cord and then saying No compression.

Here is what I would check and try, If the chainsaw is intact, and back together or better yet, It was never taken apart, then try the following:

Follow your manual for your chainsaw on how to remove the spark plug, pour 2-3 capfulls of straight 2 cycle engine oil into the spark plug hole,  Oh, also give the saw a slow pull with the starter cord just to move the piston a little, and move the piston ring, and then let the chain saw sit for a few hours to a day.

Next remove the Muffler/ exhaust silencer, there should be only 2 or 3 bolts/ machine screws, carefully pull the muffler free, a light pry maybe needed to break the seal of the exhaust gasket, try not to tear the exhaust gasket you should be able to re-use it but they are also reasonably priced and easy to replace if needed.

Next remove the bar and chain, including clutch cover.

Now use the clutch center to turn over the engine, the starter cord would work too, but turning the clutch will give you much better control of the piston. Look in thru the exhaust port of the engine, you may need a little flashlight, turn the clutch and observe the piston moving up and down, look at the piston ring on the piston, and see if it appears that the piston ring is loose and moving a little bit, rocking the clutch too and fro, and observe the ring.

Sometimes the ring will get stuck in the piston groove, and this will appear to the mechanic as No Compression. If the piston ring looks like it is stuck, use a wooden dowel or a clean piece of 1/4" diameter stick, even a wood pencil with no lead point will work, (Do Not use a Metal tool or screwdriver), a plastic tool would be ok too, and push on the ring to see if it moves a little springs in and out. If its now moving, then you have fixed the problem.

Also take a good visual with flashlight on inside liner of cylinder, and outside of piston to see if there are any vertical scratch marks, vertical grooves, or scoring of cylinder or piston, There probably won't be If you used the correct oil and gas mixture.

Now, put it back together,  Also make sure you clean out the carbon from the exhaust port, if there is any before putting the muffler back on, and see If the saw runs.

I have actually fixed several chainsaws this way, even one that a chainsaw store said the engine was blown up, and gave the other customer a new saw, because they couldn't figure out what was wrong. If its an older saw, and definitely not under warranty I have even used engine cleaning agents like "LMT tuneup spray" in my two cycle engines to get pistons and rings un-stuck.

 Good luck, and I hope it works. Also its really easy too, actual work time should only take about 10-15 minutes to do this too!