OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Restoring, Customising and Modifying Tech Talk Repairing MS 361 Stihl (Submerged in Flood) Part 2

Hi guys just thought id post this. My chainsaw spent some time under water in the Bundy floods earlier this year.This is the process I went through to get it running again.

The saw after a quick wash down.



Remove side cover and wind off chain adjuster and remove bar and chain.

Moderator Edit: Since only 10 pictures can be included in any one post, I've divided Dave's post into chunks with 10 pics in each.


Drained all the fuel and bar oil in to a suitable container. Disposed those at work in our recycling centre. Washed out fuel tank with mentholated spirits to remove all the water and a quick blow out with the compressor. Flushed out the oil tank with soluble oil a few times to get all the water out.

Remove Carburettor box cover,Air filter, spark plug and top shroud.





Removing the carby;Remove the two nuts holding on the baffle and filter housing.Slide the baffle and filter housing off this exposes the carby. To slid the carby out you need to remove the fuel line on the bottom left of the carby. Also remove the handle moulding by rolling the saw on its head and useing a screw driver to pry apart the tabs in the bottom of the handle then the black moulding can be removed. That will give you access to the throttle rod and remove it. Then the carby slides of the studs.

Dave's third batch of pictures. (You can only include 10 pictures per post.)

Then I cleaned the carby. Removed both the end covers. One at a time. Cleaned out the jets and ant holes with air and checked the metering and pump diaphragms and there is a little mesh Strainer under the pump diaphragm that had a bit of gunk in it.




Remove the exhaust; Take out the two plugs on the front of the exhaust and use a long T27 Torq bit (all most all the screws on a Stihl are T27's)and remove the two screws in the exhaust and there is one on the bottom as well.Behind the exhaust is a gasket and a cooling plate that can come off.




At this stage I put the piston to the top of its stroke and inverted the saw.
The amount of muddy water that came out of the crank case was unreal. As you can see from the photo of the rag that was on the bench and the one looking down the inlet port.




So the next move was to clean out the crank case. With a suggestion from Gumpy I put small amounts of soluble oil down into the crank case through the inlet port. Rolling the saw around and then inverting the saw to let it drain. I think I did this four times before the oil came out with out the milky look.Then set up a hair dryer to blow down the port for a while to help dry it out.




Next removed four screws in the fan housing and remove the pull starter exposing the Ignition module and flywheel. I didnt remove the flywheel but gave it a good wash whit a pressure cleaner. Removed the Ignition module (two screws)and set it up with a hair dryer for 3 hours to get any moisture out of it.

Dave's fourth batch of pictures. (You can only include 10 pics in a single post.)

While the hair dryer was doing its job i turned my attention to the clutch and oil pump for the bar and chain. Seeing the bar and chain have all ready been removed next to go is the inner side plate only one screw. Then remove the e-clip on the rim sprocket. Remove the washer,rim sprocket and slid of clutch drum





Take out three screws in the cover around the clutch and remove.



Theres a small needle bearing on the shaft. This can be removed remember to lub it up on a regular basis.


To remove the clutch you need to get a small piece of nylon rope. Get the piston at the bottom of its stroke and feed in the rope through the spark plug hole. Get a socket to fit the clutch nut and turn it clock wise (left hand thread)Spin the clutch to remove it from the shaft.





Remove the large washer that is under the clutch. Then the spring and worm drive for the bar oil pump.






And it even starts, A bit of work to do to get it to idle properly. Hope this help some people. If anyone wants any more info just ask....

Dave's sixth batch of pictures:

take out two screws in the pump and pull it out. Checked it over and put some air through the oil line from the pump to the tank.






So every thing is clean time to put it all back together. Basicly just went in reverse to what I did here. The only thing I had to do was buy a new Ignition module the old one didn't survive.

Just some extra photos I took putting it back together.

Dave's last few pictures:

Thanks for setting that out for us Dave, it keeps the previous thread on this repair from being an orphan. Having a clear outcome from the project makes it a lot more interesting in the Outdoorking archives.

I'm sorry about carving your long post into slabs so crudely, but you can only have 10 pics per post, and obviously I wasn't going to edit what you had written, so I just took a meat axe to it and divided it up, as you can see. If you'd prefer to have it handled differently just send me a PM - this is your thread and should be handled your way.

No worries Grumpy. Hope it helps some people...