"I purchased this saw in Oct 2006 because I needed a saw for around the home. I liked the design, price and it came with a carrying case . Since I would not be using the saw to cut firewood for resale or home heating, I could not justify spending alot more money for a professional grade saw. This saw has always started fine for me. Prime it 5-6 times, full choke and pull 4-5 times until it fires then shut off the choke and pull 1-2 more times and your off and running.
The first year I only cut 1-3 oak and jackpine that storms damaged. The second year I cut at least 25 oak trees that were damaged by a wave of beetles that were killing trees in our region. These trees were between 8" and 24". The saw performed great without any issues. I kept the chains sharpened and only purchased two new chains during this period.
This spring I continued to take down the 3 remaining trees in my yard that were either damaged by the beetles or were leaning towards my house or garage and this is when I encountered my first problem with the saw. I noticed while cutting the first two trees that the chain tension screw seemed to be working itself loose while cutting. The chain tension appeared fine though. While blocking a 14" tree, the chain came off the bar. I am always careful about checking the chain tension so I suspected something had broken on the clutch. When I removed the clutch cover the sprocket drum, clutch washer and E-clip fell out. The shaft had broken off flush with the clutch. This shaft is part of the crankshaft so an entire teardown would be needed to repair this. I also noticed that the front stud for the clutch cover was pulling out of the plastic case. I believe this was the cause of the ultimate failure. I suspect the alignment of the chain & bar was off enough that it was putting pressure on the shaft that caused the failure. It's possible that I overtighted the nut and the stress started pulling the stud from the case, or it was just a molding defect that finally presented itself.
Since I still had trees of my own and my neighbors to cut that weekend, I opted to just replace the saw. I purchased a Homelite 42cc with an 18" bar. I hope this saw proves to be as reliable and maint free as the Poulan was."
What is your level of technical expertise? Home Handyman
