# Craftsman chainsaw won't accelerate



## billymac (Apr 16, 2009)

I have a 16" Craftsman (Poulan) chainsaw that I have used 10-15 hours a year for 11 years and never had any problems with it.

The primer bulb developed a hole, so I bought a new bulb on line. The replacement bulb had a small nipple for the return line where the original had a large one. To deal with this, I had to splice a smaller tube onto the return line. To get to it, I needed to remove the carburetor.

I have the whole thing back together and it has a problem now.
It starts just fine: pump primer bulb, set choke, set throttle on start position, pull a couple of times, engine burps, set choke off, pull starter, engine runs fine with throttle at start position. I release the throttle, the engine slows down and idles fine.

However, as soon as I pull the throttle, the engine stalls. I can go through the starting process again (except pumping the primer bulb) and it starts fine. It just will not accelerate after idle.

I tried changing the high-speed needle setting and it doesn't seem to have any impact as far as this problem goes. I could just buy a new chainsaw, but it worked fine before and I'm sure it is fundamentally OK. Any suggestions as to what I could try to fix this?

- thanks.


----------



## glenjudy (Aug 26, 2006)

Lot of times, not accelerating properly is due to the L needle setting not being turned out enough.
Just for grins, I would lightly seat both H and L needle, turn them both out 1 1/2 turns, start from there.
11 years?? and people say that Poulan's are no good....
Have you ever replaced fuel lines/filter, cleaned air filter, changed plug, cleaned/re-kitted carb in that time frame?
Other reasons for this problem, but start with basics.
btw, what's the 358.?????? model no. ?
thanks,


----------



## billymac (Apr 16, 2009)

The craftsman modle # is 358.350060. 
I may or may not have changed the spark plug once - don't remember and didn't write it down. Other than that the only maintenance has been new bars & chains and occasional air filter cleaning.

In interest of keeping the already too-long post from being even longer, I left out some details:
When I took off the carb, the gasket ripped. I bought a rebuild kit, thinking it would have the gasket and it couldn't hurt to clean it up and replace any internal rubber parts. The kit didn't have the gasket, but I went ahead and replaced the rubber pieces. I didn't touch the needle valve assembly. I finally got the gasket and got to the point I was at yesterday.

The low speed screw did the trick - it seems to be fine now. I just need to adjust the high speed - I see warnings about running too lean burning up the motor. The high speed screw needs to be out 2.5 turns (which seems like too many from what I have read) or else the motor won't get up to speed. I have seen some procedures for setting this and will try today.

thanks for your help...


----------

