McColough 32cc chainsaw bike

[FarRider]

I wish I had taken pics of mine, but I was 13 years old and just didn't think to take pics of it.
Heck... I was happy it ran, it took me 2 weeks to completely taco both the front and rear 27" single wall aluminum rims and old side pull brakes...
I upgraded to dual wall steel rims and double pivot calipers...
It ran the entire summer till I blew up the motor with a to lean mix...
It was a white knuckle ride from the start, I still remember the thrill of riding under power for the first time, It's what keeps me in this hobby.
So post those pics... give an old guy a thrill.
FR

 

[deacon]

Good news and crappy news.

The brass cable stop will splice cable just fine. The crappy news is this thing will not run for more than a couple of seconds. I think the primer is pumping gas into the carb and when that is gone it just dies. I have run so much crap through the carb that it won't do anything now. I also have had the carb off a dozen times so it's probably toast now.

Cannon you know these engines how much of the plastic can I take off and still make the engine work. I can't get to anything the what it is now. If I take off the case I know i will lose the gas tank no big deal. I expect I will lose the starter as well, but will I lose the intake manifold.

I didn't like the mount or the drive spindle so I stripped all that off. If I can get it down to the actual engine I will give it another go. It's going to be a mess to make this thing work. Honest I think I might just get some kind of kit and forget this DIY stuff lol.

By the way I have toasted so many bikes and engines both gas and electric I could take a cruise for the money I have spent lol. But I am also still alive when the docs told me I should be dead years ago. So I guess I will keep on doing whatever it is that works.

 

[FarRider]

Good news and crappy news.

The brass cable stop will splice cable just fine. The crappy news is this thing will not run for more than a couple of seconds. I think the primer is pumping gas into the carb and when that is gone it just dies. I have run so much crap through the carb that it won't do anything now. I also have had the carb off a dozen times so it's probably toast now.

Cannon you know these engines how much of the plastic can I take off and still make the engine work. I can't get to anything the what it is now. If I take off the case I know i will lose the gas tank no big deal. I expect I will lose the starter as well, but will I lose the intake manifold.

I didn't like the mount or the drive spindle so I stripped all that off. If I can get it down to the actual engine I will give it another go. It's going to be a mess to make this thing work. Honest I think I might just get some kind of kit and forget this DIY stuff lol.

By the way I have toasted so many bikes and engines both gas and electric I could take a cruise for the money I have spent lol. But I am also still alive when the docs told me I should be dead years ago. So I guess I will keep on doing whatever it is that works.

I hate to say it... but your probably right about scrapping the DIY engine... not that it CANT be done, its what its going to cost you in time and skill and money in fabricating new parts to take the place of everything you stripped off.

I knew a guy that wanted to put a jet helicopter engine in his old corvette, after lengthening a nd reinforcing the frame, hood and fenders and fabricating the reduction drive he had spent more than the cost of a new Vette!
Yes it worked-
Yes it was blindingly fast-
No, you couldn't drive it on the road-
It had really crappy throttle response but once it got going LOOK OUT!
my point being... why bother if its going to be more trouble than its worth?
I hearty recommend a China Girl GT5R "super rat" kit and a shift kit.
Just my 2 cents worth-
FR

 

[cannonball2]

How about some pics deacon. The late Poulan, Homeys, some of the early Husqvarnas were held into the case with 4 bolts. The come out of the case looking like a giant model airplane engine(which they work great for). I dont know about the Mac. You probably just need to kit the carb. Keep it together as much as possible as you need most of the case for cooling, unless you are going to free air it, which I wouldnt recomend mounted on the rear unless its in good air flow(still dont recomend).

 

[deacon]

I was thinking free air yeah. That case is a drag and yeah I have never done a carb, but I'm looking seriously at it. everything else seems to be okay. And it did run just not very well. If you use it in an rc project it would be rip off the case. Thats kinda why I thought it might be usable that way. I think I will just take my angle grinder to it and cut down the parts that I know aren't doing anything instead of chopping it completely.

Is there a good set of instructions that are easy to follow for doing the carb thing. I have several laying around I can practice on. Before I rip into the good one.

 

[cannonball2]

You can run it free air, on an airplane it has a big fan out front. Just be sure the cylinder is in the airflow. The carb is not hard to do. I use carb cleaner from Walmart to blow through the passages. If its a Zama carb avoid spraying cleaner into the primer housing, the valving doesnt like it. Probably just has stiff diaphragms, you ca get her goin!

 

[kev1n]

Deacon, here's a couple of videos that show a carb rebuild. You can rebuild the carb, I have faith in you. Take it all apart and spray in every hole really well with carb cleaner with the straw nozzle on it. Then spray it out with compressed air. Take note of the high and low screws position before you take them out( 1 turn out or near there), , then remember which one is which. Put the new gaskets back in the way they came outthere may be some spare parts in the kit. Make sure the metering lever is just barely flush with the top of the carb or there will be two bosses to get it flush with. Try not to damage the gasket between the carb and the intake, there will not be a new on in the kit. They can be made easily with some gasket making material. Let us know what carb is on there, Good luck and keep on DIY.
Kevin





YouTube - ‪Chainsaw Carburetor Repair Part 1‬‏
YouTube - ‪Chainsaw Carburetor Repair Part 2‬‏

 

[deacon]

thanks kevin... My wife has told me I can't build it on the kitchen table so I will build it in my office. She doesn't know how bad this stuff is going to stink. I don't have a clean dry spot in the shot to work. My shop is a mess at all times. And dark as a tomb.

That guy does make it look simple. I think I might check that needle valve after I try to clean it first. I am really clumsy. If it is working, I might just skip that step. First thing today I want to put the carb cover back on and cut that saw down to the bare case. I am going to try something else with the mounting later.

Then I want to pull that carb and try making sure the pulse hole is open. I never realized that is what it was before. That might be part of the problem with it since I have been fooling with it so long. If that doesn't do the trick, I will see if I can't build that carb over the weekend.

Right now I'm going to feed my two dogs and then go ride on the greenway, a walking and bike trail. I need the work out. I had a few clear moments last night from my world of generally foggy mind. I feel a bit better today about trying to work on this bike again.

Once this brain tumor ends it for me, some one should go back and publish all this crap as a study on how the deteriorating mind works. Mine is a different case, but still it might be interesting to see how my writing changed.

I don't make life changing decisions any more. Bikes are about the only thing I make decisions about. I don't trust my mind any more at all.

 

[deacon]

Well something did work right today. I cut the case and modified the intake manifold to accept the carb from a weed whacker. I had a good carb from a blower but it has a broken choke lever. I put it on anyway set the throttle and closed the choke with a screwdriver. It took right off and did fine. So it is definitely the carb. Also of interest is a weedeater carb seems to run it just fine at all throttle positions.

http://img819.imageshack.us/i/imag0001pq.jpg

The yellow lever is the throttle not the choke

So I am going to have to give carb rebuilding a shot. I think I will go with one of the weed whacker carbs since they are so much easier to deal with when on the motor. I just had a thought. I think I will take that gas tank and attach it to the handle somehow maybe a hose clamp to the side that should work just fine. Then I will get a bigger tank one day. I used a round desert canteen once and liked that.

 

[rustycase]

Tnx for the advice on the carb... I'm gonna do it in a position where I can make adjustments to it easily. I'd like to point the cylinder head down, because that would put the crank with FD up highest, and easiest to get at the tire. I think... but I'm still concerned about residual fuel draining down to foul the plug when it's shut off. probably better to have that excess charge setting in the crankcase, then it will mix in once the motor is started again???
rc

 

[cannonball2]

You will probably be ok with the cylinder down. If your carb is working well then the fuel is pretty well shut off when it stops being a pumper carb. Flew inverted 2stroke aircraft engines for years with no problems, but the carb was on the side. Ran platnium plugs, I guess those are old school now. What ever was in the crankcase in The a/c engines made its way to the cylinder head, but they always fired right off after sitting(provided you shut the fuel off).

 

[kev1n]

I never had any plug fouling issues, my cylinder was horizontal though not a vertical one. If your going to use the chainsaw gas tank you might want to check if that leaks upside down.


Deacon, please don't forget to wear safety glasses when cleaning the carb. It will dry your hands up real quick too. Sometimes the smaller chainsaws will idle better with a smaller carb venturi, you might want to use the weed whacker carb if that was working good. I would clean the carb outside on the driveway, with a couple of clean plastic containers to keep the parts in.

 

[deacon]

I wear glasses with plastic lens but you are right got some on my lips burned like heck. I got the new drive roller on. I manged to find some nuts that are nice snug fit over the drive shaft to weld onto the rear of my roller. It should help support it up close to the case. Maybe help with the break issue I had before. I got it running with the old blower carb on and man it runs nice and true the roller is centered and looks good. Now I need to mount it and get a better carb ready to go. The carb I have on there from the blower is the simplest carb I have even seen. You can adjust the idle I think but im not even sure about that since the throttle is click stop. The final setting may be gas off, it seems to be, but it idles good on click number one. If I just hadn't broke that choke I would just leave it alone.

I got the carb all clean and tore down. Since the needle seems to work alright I'm just going to change the diaphragms, both of them. Actually now that I have it running so that I can think about other things, I like the way this motor sounds. It roars which I am going to try to avoid.

I ended up with a 2.5 inch 3/4 inch pipe nipple with several varying sized nuts welded onto the end and then the reverse nut from the clutch holding the hole things in place. It looks like it will work okay. The outside diameter is about an inch which is about what a goped is, so it should do okay on the twenty inch tire. It sure looks like it has some pretty high rpms.

My issue now is mounting it on the bike and the problem is the muffler. It's in the way big time. These projects are a lot more fun when the motor is running though. I have to admit that.

 

[deacon]

I called about a kit for my carb but i didn't have all the numbers so when I found them all the parts house was closed. So I thought I would look it up on line. There is no carb with these numbers. Yet I'm holding it in my hand. how cool is that,, NOT..

So some of you guys are better with a computer than me so here is the information. It is a zama carb made in china of course. The model from down in the hole is C1U the number stamped on the outside is 164H I can not find anything like it.

I also figured out a mount I can try for the motor. It requires welding but I'm getting better at that. My wife calls it the hundredth monkey. One day it just gets better, for no apparent reason. When enough monkeys know how to open a lock, suddenly all monkeys know how.... go figure.

 

[daRog]

It is a zama carb made in china of course. The model from down in the hole is C1U the number stamped on the outside is 164H I can not find anything like it.

Does it look something like this?

 

[deacon]

yeah that i can find its the 164h that has me stumped... The parts place said that c1u wasn't enough you had to have the exact part number the second number to get the right kit. I'll call him back on monday but I swear nowhere not even their companys site list this carb

 

[daRog]

Dunno, maybe it's not the original carb? What's the Mcculloch saw model number?

 

[deacon]

it isnt the original . It's one I had laying around Im going to build it first to see if I can do it before I screw up the one that came with the saw. Im using one from a blower now and it works fine. except I broke the choke lever off.

 

[daRog]

Ah, OK. Any idea what the mystery carb came off of originally? Now I'm all curious & stuff. Heh

 

[kev1n]

I believe this is the kit you looking for, the kit number your looking for is (zama rb-39).

What brand blower did the new carb come off?
Maybe you can find it here.http://www.zamacarb.com/prodlist.html



repair kit ZAMA carburetor mcculloch 3200 3210 3214 | eBay

Genuine Zama Carburetor Kit RB-39 | eBay