Finally A New 540 Cylinder!

[edju1958]

Almost exactly 4 yrs.ago I got a 540 for $15.I found out not long after that the piston & cylinder were toast.I ended up getting a new piston kit for $56 & I let it set for a yr.before I pulled it down.The cylinder was scored,but I managed to clean the transfer up really well,except for one small spot.No matter how much I tried I couldn't get that one little spot to clean up.I finally came to the conclusion that it wasn't transfer in that spot,the plating was gone.I wasn't about to play with acid to confirm my suspicions.So the saw got put on hold till this month.I'd been checking with a couple of old time parts dealers (hoarders is more like it) & found out this last summer that I could no longer buy the cylinder separately,Homelite decided that the cylinder & piston needed to be together in a kit.The guy I buy a lot of parts from (Bob Johnson) discovered he had 2 of those kits in stock at a cost of $290+.Being old he forgot to include the kit in my order twice.Then last week he was getting my order together & he gave me a call.One of the kits was missing the piston kit.I told him I already had the piston kit here from 4 yrs.ago & all I needed was the cylinder anyway.He sold me that cylinder for $90.I ended up getting the entire kit for $146,just half price of the entire original kit.Now when I get caught up on my projects I can put the 540 back together again.

      I was able to get in touch with the original owner from a work order tag that was on the saw.He was over the moon that I had his old saw.I'll contact him again when the saw is finished.

[undee70ss]

Those are difficult to find anywhere.

[onlyhomelites]

That's neat that you could contact the original owner...I'm sure he assumed the saw was long scrap. Nice score and looking forward to seeing the build!