My new chainsaw purchase

[bchannell]

Two of my children live in a not too far off large city, I won't say which one, cause I don't want to shame anyone. While there today visiting my grandchildren, and enjoying a hot saturday, my SIL and I decided to check out the neighborhood for yard sales, and lo and behold we found plenty. One fellow, who looked to be working on a pulling truck, and his wife were selling some stuff in the driveway. One item was a Stihl chainsaw. A MS170 with the bar and chain removed and them and the power head in a box. The saw looked very good, so I asked the proverbial question, "how much"? The reply was, "well the clutch is frozen, and I want $30 for it". I didn't even give it any thought, and peeled out the $30 and put the saw in the car. I literally didn't take it out of the box to even look at it, just figuring I'd fix it later whatever might be wrong, as a clutch is cheap. Then I noticed this guy had a full set of Buckingham climbing spikes, belt etc, the whole shebang, in new condition. After some haggling, I gave him $280 for all of it, and he threw in probably $100 worth of hand tools I wanted. Great deal on that stuff!
Well, I live about 130 miles away, and didn't want to mess with the saw til I got home, so once I got here I took the saw out of the box, installed the bar and chain, FLIPPED THE CHAIN BRAKE OFF, and she fired up on the second pull and ran like a top. Just for fun I pulled the muffler and checked the piston, looks like new. Checked compression and it's 150-160psi, just as it should be. Wow! what a deal on it. I did kind of feel sorry for the guy, not knowing what was wrong, but I figured if he had all the tree trimming stuff, he knew his stuff, ya know? I never thought he didn't have a clue or I would have shown him.
Well, now all I need is a tree to trim, ... wow! wait, I got plenty of them!

 

[Kamele0N]

Plenty of "how to mod 170" threads in arboristsite

https://www.google.com/search?q=stihl+ms+170+mods&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

 

[KD0AXS]

I had a similar situation with the Craftsman LT2000 lawn tractor I bought a few years ago. The guy had it advertised on CL for $150, claiming it had a transmission problem. Great, even if I couldn't fix it, just the engine was well worth $150. I went to pick it up, and as we were pushing it on the trailer I noticed the lever that disengages the hydrostatic drive was pulled out. I brought it home, pushed the lever in, drove it off the trailer, and proceeded to mow the yard with it. I used it for a couple years, and now my MIL has it and she loves it. It was certainly an upgrade for her over her old worn out MTD.

I felt a little guilty, but this guy was in a very affluent part of town and had 2 Land Rovers in the driveway and a Corvette in the garage. Buying a new mower was no big deal for him. I'm halfway convinced that he purposely did it because his wife wouldn't let him buy a new tractor when there wasn't anything wrong with that one.

 

[Lubener]

I hope you atleast looked in the box to make sure a rock wasn't in there instead of the saw.

 

[bchannell]

No the box was open top, I could see what was in it. I just didn't bother to even take it out and look at it. It was reasonably clean, you know, for a chainsaw, and I thought what the heck, I'll take a flyer for $30. I've learned, over the years, probably subconscienously, not to get too involved, or you might actually find, something is good, and then they suddenly want a fortune for it. I just look, decide if I want to haggle, and yah or nah the deal. So for, as you can see, it works well, and this isn't the first time.

 

[cronk]

I saw a similar thing happen at my local chain saw shop. I was in getting a new chain for my saw, a guy walked in and said the saw he just bought won't work, it runs but the chain is "jammed".
The guy behind the counter picked up the saw, pulled the guard to reset the chain brake, and handed it back to the guy and said, "Here you go, all fixed!" and chuckled.
They must get one of those every week!

 

[bchannell]

I said it had happened before, and also that my kids live in a big city. Well, they have some really good yard sales, I mean some real nice stuff, it's amazing. One time we stopped to look at a vacuum cleaner, and just as we walked up someone bought it right out from under us looking at it. No big deal, but the woman who was selling stuff could see we were interested. She looked at me and said "I do have another one, but it has no belt on it, so it'll need repaired". She brought it out and sold it to us for TWO DOLLARS! It was a hoover with a dust buster attached, and looked new. When we got home, I went to take it apart and it had a belt, and ran perfectly??? I have no idea what happened there, did she sell her good sweeper? Did hubby fix it and forget to tell her? Who knows? That was probably 8-10 years ago and we're still using it with the same belt!

 

[yeehaw1960]

Speaking of chain saw brake problems (they don't realize it's on), I get about 2 people a week who can't start their weed whacker because they engage the choke, then pull the trigger releasing the choke before they start pulling the rope. Hate those kind of whacker setups.

I did have a friend back in the late 70s who responded to an ad for a 70 GTO with major engine problems for $500. It was in extremely nice condition inside and out. Their kid and his friends had just replaced the timing chain. He bought the car, hauled a battery to jump start it into their back yard, pulled the distributor and turned it 180 degrees and reinstalled it. Drove it away and had a lot a fun in that car over the summer before he crashed it.

 

[bchannell]

I just had a comment about this little MS170 I bought. This is the first of the new breed of Stihl chainsaws I've used. The new design is definitely made to cut costs, it's plain to see. BUT, this thing is a cutting beast of a saw! I have a brand new Echo 352 which is about 34cc saw, and the 170 is a 30cc saw, but the thing cuts just as well or better. I'm impressed! I think the Echo is much better built, but the Stihl will cut right along with it. I had actually bought the Stihl, not even needing it, just for a project to fix and sell, but now I'm not sure I want to get rid of it.

 

[cronk]

I have a Stihl MS180 I picked up at the dump next to the scrap metal dumpster. Brought it home, but a new spark plug and some fresh gas in it and it started right up. It did need an air filter and a new bar and chain. I think I have about $60 in it.
I will agree, the smaller Stihl saws like the 170 and 180 don't look like much compared to their big brother pro saws, but they cut well and seem to run well and are durable.
I have a MS290 farm boss for larger jobs and firewood cutting.

I love how light the 180 is, I can carry it around all day trimming limbs on my hunting trails and it doesn't wear you out.
I've had my free 180 about 4 years now and it always starts in 2 or 3 pulls and hasn't needed anything other than routine maintenance.