Homelite xl2 Stalling after 5 seconds

[olivierf]

Hi everyone,

I just "restored" my homelite xl2 

I bought the new decals, sanded and powder coated eveything.

Completely taken the engine apart en made everything new.

it's hard to find parts here in belgium so I orded some thing on sugar creek and amazon.

I'm really happy with the result.


I tried starting it and it ran after 3 pulls on choke ! amazing !! 

Put the choke down and it stalls

With the choke on after 10-15 pulls it starts again.

While playing with the choke lever on off on off I can keep it running but with choke off it stalls again.

I have a good spark and compression, new fuel, new air filter.

It seems that it doesn't get enough fuel 

After trying multiple times no feul in the exhaut er anything pointing on too much feul 

I also lost the pointy thing on the small oil line in the oil tank , is this bad ? chain seems to get oil.

any help here ? Thanks

[pioneer1200a]

sounds to me like the carb is plugged. Have you checked the wire filter mesh in the carb, Ive had it a couple times that a chainsaw will do the same thing as yours and I found the mesh filter was plugged. When I go through a carburetor I take some carb cleaner with the straw and spray it into every port in the carb. Have you changed the fuel filter in the fuel tank?

[blythkd]

If you haven't rebuilt the carb, it could just need new diaphragms. When they're old and stiff, they will act like what you described. And like Pioneer1200a mentioned, carb screen could be plugged up. That happens a lot when the fuel filter falls off the fuel line or the line breaks at the filter nipple and you no longer have fuel filtration.

As far as the "pointy thing" in the oil tank pressure line, it's a duckbill connected to the pressure line with a little porous metal connector. Did you lose it? Or have you checked for it in the bottom of the tank? Unless you actually lost it, it's probably in the tank. And you likely need a new rubber duckbill but you need that metal connector. I believe they're getting hard to come by through parts. What will happen with a full tank of oil especially, when you tip the saw on it's side, you could take on oil in the crankcase and make the saw smoke profusely. Not a big deal, doesn't really hurt anything but it hurts your power and might gag you a bit.

[olivierf]

Jan 18, 2024 10:46:03 GMT -5 pioneer1200a said:

sounds to me like the carb is plugged. Have you checked the wire filter mesh in the carb, Ive had it a couple times that a chainsaw will do the same thing as yours and I found the mesh filter was plugged. When I go through a carburetor I take some carb cleaner with the straw and spray it into every port in the carb. Have you changed the fuel filter in the fuel tank?

Hi thanks I will check it today and let you know, I can also ultrasonic clea it i have a small tank.

thanks for the respons

[olivierf]

Jan 18, 2024 12:28:12 GMT -5 blythkd said:

If you haven't rebuilt the carb, it could just need new diaphragms. When they're old and stiff, they will act like what you described. And like Pioneer1200a mentioned, carb screen could be plugged up. That happens a lot when the fuel filter falls off the fuel line or the line breaks at the filter nipple and you no longer have fuel filtration.

As far as the "pointy thing" in the oil tank pressure line, it's a duckbill connected to the pressure line with a little porous metal connector. Did you lose it? Or have you checked for it in the bottom of the tank? Unless you actually lost it, it's probably in the tank. And you likely need a new rubber duckbill but you need that metal connector. I believe they're getting hard to come by through parts. What will happen with a full tank of oil especially, when you tip the saw on it's side, you could take on oil in the crankcase and make the saw smoke profusely. Not a big deal, doesn't really hurt anything but it hurts your power and might gag you a bit.

I didn't rebuilt it because it was running great before and I didn't want to make it worse.

But I will order a gasket kit with diagram

I still have the metal thing and I lost the "duckbill" while it was outside of the tank.

couldn't find it anywhere, really stupid --> but thanks for the info ! 

Thanks fo the respons 


 

[blythkd]

Was running great before as in right before you restored the saw or a long time ago? If it was running great recently, it doesn't make much sense that the carb would suddently need rebuilt. But it might not hurt anyway. We might have to keep digging on the stalling issue.

69451 is the duckbill number. They're readily available aftermarket.

[olivierf]

Sorry it has been a while, ih had a lot of other machines to keep running.
So I put in new diagrams en gaskets, left of the fuel filter for now.
Put in fresh feul.

choke on and after 3 pulls it runs and stalls.

Choke off 1 pull full throttle it runs great.

Full throttle all the time and goes like hell !! I cut down a tree with it and it went like butter.

Idle isn't possible, idle screw is like it should be and even with just some throttle it just down after a view seconds.

Air screw is on factory setting so needs maybe some fine tuning butt that shouldn't be the problem I think

Put full throttle it keep running until the tank is empty.

Any thoughts here ?

[charliec]

Hi,

I read through all the comments and while you have done the carb rebuild kit have you checked the "check valve" inside the carb? Note, most if not all rebuild kits do not include the check valve. Depending on how old your saw it is, it probably (90% probability) has a Walbro HDC carb. I mention this because Leon has multiple videos on his Youtube channel that discusses how to check it and replace it if necessary. If you have a newer model saw (post 1988ish) it may have a Zama C2S carb which I have never worked on.
I mention this because the saw starts but then dies out at idle but runs great a full throttle sounds to me like a check valve issue that I have had experienced myself. It is very easy to test the check valve. Leon refers this test as the "suck/blow test" with a short piece of oil/gas line hose (i.e., review his videos). In fact, he has a video from a couple weeks ago (HDC carbs) that includes this very thing from start to finish.

[olivierf]

Feb 12, 2024 9:09:08 GMT -5 charliec said:

Hi,

I read through all the comments and while you have done the carb rebuild kit have you checked the "check valve" inside the carb? Note, most if not all rebuild kits do not include the check valve. Depending on how old your saw it is, it probably (90% probability) has a Walbro HDC carb. I mention this because Leon has multiple videos on his Youtube channel that discusses how to check it and replace it if necessary. If you have a newer model saw (post 1988ish) it may have a Zama C2S carb which I have never worked on.
I mention this because the saw starts but then dies out at idle but runs great a full throttle sounds to me like a check valve issue that I have had experienced myself. It is very easy to test the check valve. Leon refers this test as the "suck/blow test" with a short piece of oil/gas line hose (i.e., review his videos). In fact, he has a video from a couple weeks ago (HDC carbs) that includes this very thing from start to finish.

thank you, I will check the video tonight and see what I can do.

I have the walbro HDC carb --> is it just walbro hdc or is there any more specific part number ? I would mayby like to look for a complete new one.

I will let you know if it worked

[charliec]

Hi,
I have a couple follow-up comments regarding your most recent post (see above). The Walbro HDC started on Homelites somewhere around model/version 38 (pure guess on my part). If you look on the side you should see a model/version number (e.g., 38 - 80??). This is not the small year stamp near the Hi/Low needles. Obviously, there is a correlation between the model number and the year stamp but I do not have the history/knowledge of when each model/version was manufactured.

The Walbro HDC carb had a few changes over the years, but they are basically the same unit with a few noticeable exceptions... 1) the earlier units had only a low adjustment needle (i.e. no Hi needle. in other words, factory set/fixed). This feature saved a lot of saws in my opinion (i.e., owners could not make it too lean or rich on full throttle). I would bet this saved many saws from scorching cylinders/pistons/run too lean. My personal favorite is the HDC model 65 and 67 which is when Walbro added the Hi side adjustment needle to the HDC line of carbs. I did not like the 1/2 head screw which necessitated a custom tool to adjust correctly/quickly. Basically, they cut one side of the head away for some reason (my assumption, this made it difficult for the owner to mess/adjust it thus reducing the issue of making it too lean as noted above, but I may be wrong.). I own a few of these carbs and I bought a few full needles out on eBay (evil bay) and swapped-out the crippled/half needles making adjustments easy! 2) In later years (post 1988??) Homelite started to use the push fuel bulb version (not a fan of this design). In my opinion, this just made more points of future failure (i.e., additional hose connections and the bulb tended to leak or crack after a few years of use, my opinion).

With respect to replacing the carb..... I would not proceed down this path for a few reasons. 1) If the carb is original to the saw, I like to keep the matching parts together when/where possible. 2) These carbs are durable once they are up and running. The tough part of these freaky little HDC carbs is getting them up and running after years of potential neglect/abuse (e.g., leaving stale fuel in them for years). Another issue is the cost..... A NOS Homelite HDC carb will likely run you $60+ and then add on shipping not to mention the gaskets and/or rubber components are old and may (30% chance??) need to be replaced anyways. Personally, I would email Leon and ask if he would rebuild the carb for you if you are not able to get it up and running. Remember, there is a chance it is not the carb at all (i.e., something else is the problem). Therefore, buying a new carb would be a potential waste of money. Depending if Leon is willing to work on your carb the shipping is fairly nominal (e.g., $6 each way). The parts and labor fee I leave up to you and Leon to discuss... but I would hazard to guess it would be considerably cheaper than buying a NOS carb on Ebay.

With respect to a Homelite part number..... I am not sure if they really differentiated between the Walbro model/version numbers. Other members, feel free to chime in.

Charlie

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HDC repair Video Link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNePwvGBzf8

Leon's home page for his parts and repair website: www.leonschainsawpartsandrepair.com/store/c1/Featured_Products.html#/

[charliec]

Sorry, I forgot you live in Belgium. Therefore, the shipping cost to Leon will be considerably higher than the $6 (US) each way that I mentioned in my comment above.

Charlie