Husqvarna 350 chainsaw won't start

18 years ago

I've had this chainsaw for a couple of years but don't use it much. I used the other day and ran with straight gas, figured it out too late and when I tried to pull the cord I couldn't get it to move. (piston stuck I assume) So I took the spark plug out and poured some motor oil in to hopefully loosen the piston. I waited a couple of minutes and slowly turned the fly wheel with a screw driver. It broke free pretty easily. Well I add the correct gas and used it. Worked fine for a while and then stalled. I started again and work for a shorted time and then stalled, did it again and it stalled again even faster. Finally it stalled and it wouldn't start. Well I assumed that I fouled the plug so just today I got a replacement and nothing. I have spark (grounded it and saw spark, blew out the air filter, took the fuel filter out and sucked on the end and gas came out easily. I took the muffler off and looked inside the cylinder. It looks pretty carboned up, I didn't see any obvious scoring. There was standing gas in the muffler. I did see, when I pulled the cord and the piston went up and down some gas (not much) kind of bubbling when the piston was all the way down (I think it's suppose to.

I also checked the compression. (I screwed the compression fitting into the spark plug hole and then pulled the cord several times, I couldn't get it past 89psi.

I also took the metal cover off of the carb and there is a little standing gas (is this instead of the bowl?)

After all of this I tried several more times to start with no luck. I did notice that when I sprayed some WD40 down the spark plug hole I got absolutely no fire and the muffler was spitting gas out.

Not sure what else to do, it has absolutely no fire in the sense that it doesn't sound like it's even close to starting.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

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Comments (9)

joecool85
18 years ago
Sounds like you toasted your piston. You should have 100+ psi.
giventake
18 years ago
remove the muffler and check for scoring , maybe rings stuck to the piston also? If thats the case the rest is moot, unless your into spending $$$ on it.
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niroja
18 years ago
you scored the piston. compression should be greater than 100psi. you may be able to repair with a new piston/cylinder assy. vs. the cost of a new saw. good luck.
rcmoser
18 years ago
You do have spark right????? if you don't know remove the plug and lay it on the head to ground it out and you can see the spark end, pull the rope and look for spark.

I would take the head off it and see what happen. Most likely as stated above the cylinder walls are scored from metal off the piston most likely, and the ring is toast. You might try honing the bore, polishing the piston, ring and ring groove. It probably won't have the power it once had, but you may get lucky and it atleast run.
drbutcher_md
17 years ago
Well I'm pretty much in the same exact boat as the original poster above. So now I'm trying to get the thing apart and have the intake off but can't get the piston out of the cylinder.

Should this come straight out, or does the arm need to be disconnected from the cylinder? Anyone have any suggestions as to where I can get good diagrams or info on working on these saws? Thanks.
bushleague
17 years ago
J Thomas has pictures and parts references on their site. You may be able to find it for less money from Partner.
barbedwire
17 years ago
dr_butcher, what "arm" are you talking about? Perhaps I`m having some brain fade at this time but I can`t picture an arm on the 372, can you offer a more detailed explanation? You didn`t rotate the cylinder at all as you tried to remove it did you? If so, you probably caught a ring in a port which may be an adventure to get out.
rcmoser
17 years ago
I haven't had a Husky apart yet, but other older saws I worked on the piston comes out the bottom after you remove the crank sump cover three or 4 screws holding the jug on with the jug loose you slide the connecting rod off the crank shaft and lift the jug, piston, and connecting rod attached to the piston off the crank case.

Husky is alot more complicated, you can go to partstree and look at the parts diagram to get some idea how it comes apart. You may have to google Husqvarna 350 and buy a repair manual. Or search for one free, I couldn't find one. My onwers manual for my 345 (covers 350 also) don't show disassembly of the crankcase
barbedwire
17 years ago
dr_butcher has a 372 according to the title of his post. The 372 is a conventional design meaning it has a vertically split crankcase and a seperate cylinder.

To get this saw apart he needs to remove the intake boot and impulse line from the cylinder on the operator side and the muffler, or atleast the bracket where it bolts to the oil tank, from the opposite side. Of course it`s always an extremely good idea to get all the crud away from the cylinder base so you don`t knock any down inside the case. Off the top of my head I`m going to say that he will need a 6" long 5mm extension for the cylinder bolts.

The 350 may be a little more complicated to disassemble. The IPL shows a cylinder adapter between the cylinder and the horizontally split case as you`ve described rcmoser, and the ones that I`ve seen all had this but I`ve been told by someone else that he worked on a 350 that did not have the spacer, merely the integral cylinder/upper case half, which complicates major disassembly and reassembly.