029 Stihl Questions & Advice ???

[BearKiller]

Hi,
I figure if you guys have Cub Cadets, then you probably also have chainsaws, so here is my 029 Stihl question and a bit of advice.

First, my advice:
I have just been into a frustrating scenario dealing with the bar oil cap on my 18-yr-old 029 Stihl "Farm Boss"

The manual advised tightening the oil and gas caps with the provided screw-driver tool and also provide deep slots in the caps just for such tightening; after a couple episodes of having my britches-leg soaked with a tank of gas or oil, I learned early on to heed that advice.

However, after my episodes yesterday and today, I have never before dealt with such a flimsy poor design of cap that is expected to be firmly tightened with a screw-driver tool.

First, yesterday, I noticed the entire full oil tank had drained itself onto the shop floor and the cap was very loose.

I filled the tank with oil and proceeded to tighten the cap, at which point the cap threaded in a ways and began spinning loosely, as if it were stripped out --- which it was not, the threads of both tank and cap were fine.

I investigated the situation and decided the seal, if there ever really was one, was flattened and shot; so, I cut two pasteboard gaskets out of the side of a cereal box; these two layers of pasteboard provided enough thickness to prevent the threads of the cap from going past the point of no return.

I did not attempt to tighten the cap with the screw-driver, opting to go with not-too-finger-tight; about every fifteen seconds of use, I re-snugged the cap and managed to complete my task of felling a big Poplar without losing the tank of oil.

Needless to say, a new replacement two cap set is on the way from Amazon, $9.99 shipped for the pair; I understand that both the oil and gas caps are interchangeable.

Then, this morning, not really wanting to waste these rare no-rain days waiting on the new caps, I re-filled the oil tank and commenced to finger-tighten the cap, at which time the octagonal center portion of the cap pulled loose from the outer grip-ring and fell into the full tank of oil ----- oh mercy, what am I going to do now.

I spent the next hour or so with very-long-nose pliers, fishing the cap back up against the inside edge of the hole and coaxing it to thread itself back out into the outside world.

What a poor design with this accident purpose-designed to happen.

I have now gotten it all cobbled back together, hopefully good enough to last until I get the tree limbed up.

I had no warning that this situation was going to happen; everything had worked leak-free right up until the last time I used the saw.

So, if you own a Stihl saw, I highly recommend you avail yourself of a new set of spare oil/gas caps and toss them into the chain-saw accessory tool-box so that you won't lose a sunny day's work on account of a failed cap.


Thanks for reading. --- I will post my question in my next post. Thanks.

[chzuck]

My opinion: Stihl saws are not what there are cracked up to be!
After using second hand Homelite saws for years I decided enough aggravation with old saws and decided to buy a new one. Of course I always heard Stihl is the best. My foreman at work had bought a Huskqavarna and liked it a lot. To me it came down to buying from the closest dealer which was Stihl at a local farm equipment dealer. I bought their oil to extend the warranty to 2 years. Good I did. Never ran a gallon of gas through it and one day it would not start. Tried some things but still no start. Turns out the coil went out. Never in all the years of my second hand saws did I have that problem. It was replaced under warranty but it did not make me feel confident about its liability. So maybe the old saws are more reliable?

[dag1450]

Thanks for the heads up bearkiller. I have a 20+ year old woodboss w the same caps u had trouble with. Mine have worked well so far but i do see how they could give trouble. So let me know if the new ones r a different design? Like u said... The way the fills r mounted on the side...u would b completely out of business if there was a simple cap issue.

[BearKiller]

Thanks for the heads up bearkiller. I have a 20+ year old woodboss w the same caps u had trouble with. Mine have worked well so far but i do see how they could give trouble. So let me know if the new ones r a different design? Like u said... The way the fills r mounted on the side...u would b completely out of business if there was a simple cap issue.

The new caps should be here in about a week; until then, I must utilize poor boy engineering to keep going.

Since my previous post, I thought maybe I could baby it through the day; however, after about three minutes of sawing, I saw the oil-cap hanging by it's tether, all my oil gone, and the cap about five times it's normal size on account of being plastered with saw-shavings, so back to the work-bench I went.

I used channel-locks to press the octagonal insert firmly back into the outer grip-ring.

I then drilled a 3/16 hole cross-ways through the cap and also passing through the octagonal center portion, going all the way through and coming out the other side.

I ground flats where the newly drilled hole entered and exited.

I put a 10-24 machine-screw through this hole, thus locking both pieces together, such that the octagonal center section cannot pull loose from the grip ring.

I tightened the nut firmly, cut the excess threads flush, and peened the threads such that the nut cannot loosen.

I placed my two homemade cereal-box gaskets onto the reworked cap, filled the tank with oil, and tightened snugly.

I managed to continue throughout the rest of the day leak-free.


These surmountable difficulties usually make for a much more interesting day.



Regardless of this minor bit of trouble, I am a die-hard Stihl man.

This thing has had trees fall on it and just about anything else terrible that can happen to a chainsaw and it is still going strong.

There is a reason why the majority of people that actually make their livings with them have all Stihl in the back of their trucks.