Repaired Disintegrated McCulloch 3216 Fuel Parts

[wingless]

Many, many, many years ago I purchased a new McCulloch 3216 chainsaw for my father. I liked it so much that I also bought one for me.

My father, who has since passed, was a terrific guy, but mechanics was not his forte. One day he told me his saw wouldn't start. I told him, no problem, we'll swap and I'll fix yours. When I got home I found the fuel tank filled w/ bar oil. Not wanting to disassemble it, I flushed fresh fuel into the tank and got it going by alternating spray start and WD-40 through the carb until all the crud was cleared and it resumed running great.

Fast forward to current time, the saw has not been working. The outward fault was the fuel primer bulb had cracked. A replacement w/ hoses and filters was ordered on eBay from China. Three weeks later the parts arrived.

When I disassembled the saw to change the bulb I also discovered all the fuel and oil lines had disintegrated. That was very handy because it made it impossible to document the original routing.

Through some research I found that the primer bulb pulls gasoline through the carburetor and dumps it back into the tank. The new primer bulb had no markings, so I used my pet food water bowl and fresh hoses to identify the in and out hose barbs.

The saw was disassembled and cleaned, including removing all the crumbled hose fragments from the fuel and the oil tanks. The kit was supplied w/ a fuel filter identical to the original. The original metal oil filter has a metal screen that was cleaned and the filter reused. The foam air filter disintegrated when washed, so I replaced it w/ an identical foam block that I already had on-hand, trimmed to the correct size.

The new fuel and oil hoses were poked into the small tank holes, after cutting the hose end at an angle, then pulled up to the fill hole to attach the filters. The hose ends were then returned to the interior, routed to the proper interior tank location, then to the correct exterior location.

The rest of the chainsaw was cleaned. It now looks very nice.

Now it starts right up and runs great again.

[dougand3]

Nice pics. Good you got it fixed. The 3200s are competent little saws - but a little more involved to do routine repairs.

[wingless]

The chainsaw runs great! It starts right up, idles well and has excellent throttle response.

Here is a short video.


Ooops, sorry I forgot no external links, plus AVI files not permitted in library.

[Ianab]

Links to video clips on Youtube are OK

[thecfarm]

wingless,welcome to the forum.
Good job on the saw.  ;D

[birdcolonel]

Nice post, wingless.

I'm currently working my way through a similar little project with an older Husqvarna brush saw.  The fuel system employs a primer bulb and three fuel lines.  Two of the fuel lines (the main from tank to carb and the return from primer bulb to tank) pass into the tank through grommets.  Husqvarna calls them bushings.  These grommets seem to be the main source of my leak problem.  Not certain if the fuel is leaking out of the tank through the "inside hole" of the grommet – between the fuel line and the grommet OR if it's leaking through the "outside hole" around the grommet – between the grommet and the tank.  In either case the grommets must be replaced.

It has been a learning experience for me.  I will need to remove the carb just to replace the grommets.  Also learned that LONG hemostats are great tools for working with fuels lines – just don't squeeze too tight.