[AT] ATIS members

[Mike Sloane]

Update on the Husqvarna 40 that I referred to below: I spent about 6 
hours on it - downloading the manuals, partially disassembling, 
cleaning, going through the carburetor, fixing kinked hoses, adjusting 
the mixture, etc., etc. (The air cleaner screen was askew, and there was 
sawdust in the diaphragm area of the carburetor!) To make a long story 
short, it now starts and runs like (almost) new. It needs a new chain - 
the teeth look as if the PO ran it into the dirt or found a nail. The 
lesson here is that I could not possibly make any money doing that kind 
of work for a customer (but I got a very nice saw for the price of a new 
chain).

Another story: A local guy who makes his living fixing up high end reel 
tape machines for recording studios and universities had a guy come to 
him with an antique Ampex portable (from the '60s). The owner said that 
he didn't care how much it cost; it was his machine from new, and he 
want it to work. The shop put about $400 worth of billable work into it, 
but when they called the owner to fetch the machine, it turned out that 
he had died! And the heirs were certainly not about to pay $400 for an 
antique that is worth maybe $50 on a good day. So there it sits.

So, no matter what the customer says when he brings the machine to you, 
if you start in and discover that the repairs are going to run into Big 
Bucks, give the guy a call and verify the commitment before investing 
your own money into it.

Mike

On 11/10/2012 6:53 PM, Ben Wagner wrote:
> Mike, thank you for your comments.  A while back, I read that  the
> pioneers of two stroke invented them to last just as long as four
> stroke, but now companies such as Poulan won't even support the engine
> components on their equipment.  Considering the price of a new trimmer,
> for example, a Poulan can easily be totaled just by replacing the fuel
> lines and doing a general service for $25 labor.
>
> Thanks for sharing.
> Ben Wagner
>
>
> On 11/8/2012 7:57 AM, Mike Sloane wrote:
>> Here is my "word of advice" on your endeavor: enjoy working on those old
>> engines, but if anyone shows up with an older 2-stroke that "won't
>> start", show them the exit. I have a barn full of chain saws, string
>> trimmers, leaf blowers, etc. that look like new but won't run. They can
>> be fixed up, but it usually means replacing the fuel lines, gas tank
>> filter, and overhauling or replacing the carburetor - all the result of
>> running ethanol laced gasoline that the machines weren't designed to
>> handle. (Most of the old 4-stroke engines seem to manage the ethanol,
>> but not well.) While I don't mind puttering with these things for my own
>> amusement, there is no way you could do the work and charge less than
>> the cost of replacing the whole machine - a brand new chain saw can be
>> bought for $100 or less at one of the big box stores. I just brought
>> home an older Husqvarna 40 chain saw that cleaned up very nicely, but,
>> of course it won't start. Now I have to partially disassemble the saw to
>> get at the carburetor/line/tank and see what I can do. If the Husky
>> wasn't such a nice machine, I would send it right back to the town
>> Clean-up day where it came from.
>>
>> Mike