MY OPE finds

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Recently my wife and I (mostly her) came across an older MTD chipper powered by a 5hp Briggs. It was set out with a "Free" sign on it up the road at a friend of ours. She was interested in it so she could mulch more things for her compost pile, so we stopped in for the low down. Apparently my friend bought it not running right from a person that only bought it to chip/shred a hedge row. He attempted to rebuild the carb, but didn't have much success. It would only run sometimes and only with the choke on. Overall it was in good shape, even the paint was still intact.

I knew it meant carb issues, but after getting it home we gave it a whirl anyway... and got a "put". I told my wife if she wanted this thing so bad, she was going to have to get her hands dirty. Now anyone that has ever read and remembers anything I've typed about her knows that she's not afraid of some work. So with my supervision she tore it down. The tank had quite a bit of rust in it and the pickup screen on the Pulsa-Jet carb was 95+% plugged with hard white deposits. I had her take the model, type and code down, made her look up the parts, place the order through one of our parts houses and do all the reassembly work. The only thing she didn't do was put the carb in the dip and bead blast it (that stuff is at the shop, not home). I had some POR 15 fuel tank repair left over from a job, so I had her do all the prep work and pour the POR 15 sealant in. According to the date code on the shroud, it's a 1992 engine, so I'm sure it sat for a very long time with little fuel in it, explaining the rust.

Well after she screwed everything together it was time to attempt starting. After a half a dozen pulls, it fired to life and settled into a high idle. We let it warm up a bit and jammed the throttle open- and it ran perfect! When we brought it down to low idle, it sounded at bit choppy, or rich to me so I handed her a screwdriver and told her to turn the mixture screw in a little. After turning it in a ways, the choppy-ness went away and it purred like a kitten! I gave her a pat on the back and told her "Good job Goof" (one of her nicknames). She grabbed a few random sticks in the yard and throttled it back up- boy does spit out some small pieces. I'll have her change the oil tomorrow since it smelled a bit of gas. I have a quart of Castrol HD 30 to go in.


Next up: Chainsaw.

The other day I was at the local OPE dealer looking for a Pulsa-Jet diaphragm for a customer's mini bike project. While the owner was helping me, he had a few other people walk in- since what I wanted was only a couple of dollars, I told him that I'd wait and to help the other people first. So while he did that I roamed around the showroom, pausing to play with a Stihl MS170. It was the same saw I started a thread about a while ago- asking for comparisons and opinions on it and an Echo saw. Well, I still haven't made up my mind. Anyway when he had everyone taken care of, he got back to me, fixed me up with a new diaphragm, then asked if I had additional questions on anything in the showroom. Told him I was still eyeing the MS170, but wasn't in a hurry to buy. He said, well I just got this used one in (Stihl 009)- it'll need a little work though. Said he took it on trade, but didn't give much for it. He went out and we looked it over. Told me it was missing the choke knob and it wouldn't start the last time customer went to use it, but that they had just recently put a new bar and chain on it for the customer... thought that it may have been flooded. So I asked what he had to have out of it. Said $40.00. He went on to say "Just take with you and try to get it running. If you get it running and decide you want it, pay me then. If you can't, or think it will need too much, then bring it back and I'll know not to send it through the shop." So I did... Took it back to the shop and pulled it over- barely a "put". Pulled the plug- soaked. Bead blasted it, reinstalled, pulled it over- "put, put", then nothing. Pulled the plug again and it was soaked. Dried it off and took the blow gun to the spark plug hole and slowly pulled it over, figuring that the crank case was flooded. Put the plug back and gave it a tug- she fired to life! A couple of slight adjustments to the carb and it's pretty much ready to get back to work. I called back to have them order the choke actuator. I'll go back there soon and settle up with them on the saw and pick up some spare parts- like another chain and plug, ect. while I'm at it, to grease his wheels a bit.
 
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You know it's always interesting- people's opinions/relationships of others. When the owner's dad ran the place (I was a teen/early 20's at the time), I always thought he was a grumpy old man and never liked him. So I rarely bought from them. Now back before my wife and I were together, she would take her cars there (they also sold tires and did basic repair at one time too) for some basic things... They had a couple of loaner cars and what not as well. One day she needs some work done and requested a loaner to do some errands- but they were all out, so Mr. Grumpy Pants digs out the keys to his Caddy and hands them over to her! Now on the other hand, my wife never seemed to think much of the son, but I've always had good dealings with him. He has always gone out of his way to help me out in some way, shape or form. Heck, one day I asked him about his credit card reader as we were looking for one for our shop, so he spent the next 15+ minutes digging through his notes to find the name of the rep that got him set up... Keep in mind that since I'm a general repair shop (we do anything), I'm his competition too. I thought that was pretty decent of him.

I try to do most of my small engine parts purchasing through him even though I don't get much, if any break in pricing- it's pretty much the way it's done though. There are other dealers in the area that handle ag and OPE and no discounts are given... Not sure why?



Originally Posted By: AZjeff
Nicely done. Look out or you'll lose your OPE hobby to your wife! Nice to see a retailer not called a "stealer".


I'm not too worried- She's not the gearhead that I am... though if you want to get technical, our other chainsaw, the Stihl 026 is actually hers. Yep, her saw is bigger than mine!
 
Well I forgot to snap a picture of the Stihl 009 today when I stopped into the shop, but here are two pics of the chipper.

20150920_173457_zpskuy5wzsx.jpg


20150920_173508_zpsa89tm1sz.jpg

As I've said- it's in pretty decent shape. The first owner must not have used it very long before condemning to sit. I looked inside and the knives even have a reasonable edge yet.
 
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