# Stihl 026 chainsaw wont start



## John Lolli (Nov 3, 2005)

I am working on a Stihl 026 chainsaw. It will not start. It has good spark and the plug is wet when I remove it after trying to start it. It also has 150 psi compression. For some reason there is no muffler screen. I did have it running for a short time, then it died and will not start again. I tested the spark with a tester and then by laying the plug on the head. Got spark on both occasions. I have never worked on Stihl products so please bear with me. Thanks in advance. Also, how do you remove the carburetor ???


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## justin3 (Apr 10, 2007)

You may be getting two much fuel and its flooding out, normally it will run very poorly for a short period of time, then die and not restart. Its been awhile since ive worked on an 026 but removing the carburetor is very simple on most stihl saws. There should be two air cleaner screws, then you need to look at the throttle linkage and how it comes off. The Carburetor slides off its two studs then you can remove the fuel line. In some cases you may also have to remove the choke lever and it just pops out.


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## John Lolli (Nov 3, 2005)

Thanks for the response. I drained the fuel again, made up some fresh fuel, cleaned out the cylinder, changed the plug, and it finally started. I am figuring bad plug even though I had spark with the old one. I could only get the carburetor to slide partially out, that is why I asked the question. Again thank you. I really didnt want to disassemble the handle assembly to get the carb off.


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## G-Mann (Dec 29, 2007)

A lot of times, spark plugs will have spark when out of the engine. But will not work when back in. Have seen this often mostly with 2 cycle engines.


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## John Lolli (Nov 3, 2005)

Certainly appears to be the case here as it is starting on the first or second pull.


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