I should channel “that guy” more often. Like when I’m working with the only really expensive and essential tool I own.
Q: Dear Survival Man: My chainsaw won’t start. I checked the spark plug, and I don’t seem to have any spark. What could be wrong?
A: Is the power switch turned on?
Do you know how terminally you can flood a chainsaw’s engine if you just obsessively pull its starter cord, over and over and over, without first taking the precaution of turning the $@#$% switch on?
Yes, I eventually got it running. And I want to thank it for not turning right around in my hand and cutting off my remaining leg.
A really good chainsaw, one of the few tools a human being needs. I have an old classic, a Stihl 032AV, aluminum not plastic, and made before they tried to idiot-proof the saws. Yeah, I’ve done the switch off thing. Also with my motorcycle.
I’ve done it before. But I’ve never actually pulled the plug, checked it for spark, and mentally scheduled the saw for a trip to the shop before remembering that there’s a power switch. That’s a masterpiece even for me.
I’ve got a road kill Husqvarna that I found in the turnlane of a highway. After futzing with it for 2 years now, I have come to believe it was thrown there by the first fool that tried to keep it running. It too has an on/off switch but it seems to make no difference in performance.
Been there, done that, I just haven’t blogged to the world about it. Whe I did it a few years ago I actually called my brother-in-law who is a genius with power equipment. First thing he said to me was… “So did you turn the power kill switch to the run setting dough head?” A little lesson but one not soon forgotten. BTW Joel you might want to pull and clean the plug then gap the plug every now and then.
Good luck, I’m pulling for you.
BTW Joel you might want to pull and clean the plug then gap the plug every now and then.
That sort of thing, I get right. In fact replacing the plug entirely is part of the saw’s annual maintenance. It’s the little things everybody knows where I tend to screw up.
That’s Karma testing your peacefulness. Making sure you don’t get to entirely peaceful. heh.
Bright side is at least it wasn’t really not working. So it’s still a win.
Um, yes. Unfortunately I do. 😉
oh wait just till you fill the fuel tank with bar chain oil, and the oil tank with fuel…. that will keep them from starting as well, and when you figure it out, and finally get it running you create your own little hole in the ozone layer with all the smoke it dumps out for a few minutes.
that is what a friend of mine told me anyway….
“Do you know how terminally you can flood a chainsaw’s engine if you just obsessively pull its starter cord, over and over and over, without first taking the precaution of turning the $@#$% switch on?”
No, I have no idea about that. I have an electric chainsaw. I do understand, however, how terminally you can flood a generator, which runs the electric chain saw, by doing that. But that’s entirely different.
Almost every time I’ve done something monumentaly stupid,it was immediately preceded by me telling the customer how good I was at {insert mundane but expensive-if-you-eff-it-up task here}. Sigh. I eventually stopped thinking I was smart and settled for usually-competent.