when to stop and dump it.

Joined
Jul 14, 2020
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i have been on a fix it binge with my outdoor equipment that i have laying around. my lastest is a a mac 3516 chainsaw that i got new in the 90's . used it mostly to trim branches and never used it much. its sat unused for maybe 15 years or so.

i decided to try to start it up again . would not start so i decided to rebuild the carb. got a kit that cost $8 . rebuilt it and its till won't start . has fuel, spark etc. it would fire up and then die. not sure whats going on. carb is no longer made, even in China.

on a good day these fetch $25 or so . many say they are garbage homeowner crap . So far i have spent $8 and a couple of hours . So when is it time to stop putting money in it?
 
Ran into pretty much the same thing a few years back. Had two identical Ryobi power heads and started swapping around things to make one good one. I think I did buy a new carb for them as well, but then ran into some leaking fuel line issues, and at the time I just didn't have time to fool with them and needed to get some work done.

I finally got tired of it, even though I hadn't put a ton of money into them I 'donated' them to the local small engine repair guy for parts and spent some coin on a new power head for my attachments.
 
My general consensus is that 2-stroke equipment is generally not worth the time for most homeowners to screw with, usually a battery powered tool or corded electric tool works better for the usage cycle most homeowners will give it, 2 stroke crap gets fouled up and the carbs get screwed up sitting with mixed fuel in them and then when you waste the time to rebuld the carb you find out something else went wrong with it, it a piece of consumer two stroke equipment doesn't work just throw it in the trash it's probably not worth the time.
 
I would put it on craigs list for 20 bucks.. has not run in years. Someone will take it. .

I like stihl gas chainsaws. And milwaukee electric chainsaws. If you can get by with a 65 dollar harbor freight plug in electric saw. They work fine. And might be perfect for your useage
 
had a toro recycler 20007 for 16y years. Grateful for the knowledge I gained working on that beast. Driveshaft bearings gave 2 years ago and given that I'd had it 16 yrs and it had a warped deck for half of those years, that was it, didn't want to disassemble the front drive shaft again. Put it on FB marketplace and got 80 bucks for it and purchased a new 20378, been happy with it though could swear that 20007 Tecumseh had more power than the new one.
 
Often, it depends on the model. Some of the old Mac stuff was quite good. Other stuff was really awful. I think there are a few models that might be worth saving. The pro 10-10 and the mini "all metal" version like the Power Mac 6. Either will do a great job annoying your neighbors, as they don't rev all that high, so they produce that incredibly annoying sound of an old-school chainsaw.

Neither will cut like a modern 50cc saw with a muffler mod and the rakers filed down a little.



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