bought a saw

osb_mail

I dont usually get to happy about buying saw but I got a good deal today .I bought a used 025 stihl for $80 pawn shop .Felt like it had good compression at the shop so I bought the pawn shop owner said it would not start but pulled very hard .I got it to friends house pulled it 4 times ran great . This saw still has 99% of original paint on the bar .The saw has 140 pounds of compression .

Eric Frei

Great little saw, out of all the home owner series saws that one is a little hummer.

If you get the chance to, convert it over to 3/8 picco chain with 3/8 sprocket and 16" bar. Usually they run 0.325" guage which sucks, once swapped it's like a BIG 200T.

Also, the front of the muffler comes off, open it up and take the guaze out, then get a screw drive and pry open those "gills a tad" ... retune as it will be screaming.

Now do those 2 mods and you got a great saw. I get around 2 years plus out of them professional use, being fully plastic the palms dont knock them around much.

Good saw, remember the above mods.

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mdvaden

Yeah... the ol' gauze issue

That's one of the sneakiest ways for a saw to "peter-out". I even took mine to a saw shop once and it slipped-by them for about 15 minutes until they saw a light bulb in their minds, then remembered about that spark arresting screen.

newguy18

Post some pics please.

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old schooler

Therrin

Bought an MS200T.... used. Not overly impressed. Been using an 011 up till now for my in-tree saw. The 200 is comfy to handle, but seems pretty underpowered. I've got a 12" bar on my 011, and a 16" on my MS200. Maybe that's all it is. <shrugs>

Whats the best bar for the MS200T?

newguy18

I wouldn't go with bigger than a 14" on a 200t.

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old schooler

osb_mail

Here is a picture of my 80 dollar saw

newguy18

Any mods done to it yet?

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old schooler

osb_mail

yeah I took out muff screen and opened it up a little I think I am going to change the chain like ekka said when I get a chance .

newguy18

yeah it should only take about a half hour to change a sprocket bar and chain.Its pretty simple.Before it burnt up I changed my 141 to a 325 pitch and it didn't slow it down any.That isn't what burnt it up though what happened was the little rubber tube thats in between the jug and air filter broke and it let saw dust in everytime I cut until I was cutting some firewood and all of a sudden it came to a hard suddden stop and it siezed up tight as a drum so I took it home and tore it down and cleaned every inch of it and when I get to it I'll rebuild it.

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Jamie Myers

IMO a 12" bar is best

Eric Frei

I hope you retuned it.

I run 200T with that 14" lightweight Stihl bar, it's a lil ripper.

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osb_mail

No not yet, any certain number of turns on the screws or just do it by ear ?

newguy18

You can do it by ear if you have done it before but if its your first time I highly recomend using a tach.

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old schooler

windthrown

$80 for a $300 saw? Good find that! Around here the pawn shops all want about 99% of new list price for used Stihls.

I have several in that series of Stihl saws (021/210, 023/230, 025/250). And as said by Ekka, the .325 is a sucky gauge bar and chain size. I have both a 16 and 18 inch in .325 b&c's. Even when they are razor sharp they have such a fat kerf swath that they bog in larger wood. I call them the wood massagers. The picco has a better narrow kerf, and I have a 16 inch picco B&C and sprocket on the 210 now. They all run better that way. I am going to off my .325 bars, chains and sprockets and replace them all with picco sets.

As for modding these guys, be careful about getting them too lean. The screwdriver muffler mod is an easy one to do, just bend open the vents more. I leave the screens in 'cause we have serious fire control here in summer months. But you will also need to break the limiter tab off the H screw on the carb (if it has one) and open it up to about 1 turn to richen it up a bit. The L screw can be opened up to about 1-1/4 turn. Some fiddeling will be required, depending on how far you open up the muffler.

osb_mail

Yeah I am with about pawn usually rip off but this was a deal . I went to another pawn shop today and they had a 034 for 99 dollars the guy said it had a broken dust cover when he pointed at the muffler and it kind of felt low on compression I was thinking about buying it for something to fix up . I always check the air filter covers on saws before even think about buying a used saw just to make nobody got a call if stolen # in it .The 025 pawn shop guy must have been kind of a sissy he said it pulled to hard for him .

windthrown

Well, the 025 has some bite to it, if you start it on the ground. Drop starting is pretty easy... I drop start all my saws. Supposed to be a bad habit, but it is the only way to start the mid to smaller size saws, really.

A hard pull on the 025 is a good sign of great compression though. The dealer could have gotten $175 for that saw on Ebay.