The 330

[hammerheadc4]

Short story....

I ain't very mechanically inclined,.....

I had taken my 330 to a small engine repair shop near my house. I had heard a few guys talk about this shop, they said the guy was REAL good.
I bring the 330 to his shop (he works outta his home), he says there is no fee for diagnostics, He will check it out and let me know what the cost to fix it will be....He will call me in a day or two.
A few days go by, no word from him, so I stop in to see if he checked the saw out.....He says...sorry, but the saw has no compression, it ain't worth fixing it....I say no problem, Do I owe you anything?...He says nope. I take the saw and head home.

This happened around the time I found this site ;D

I called a stihl dealer and asked for a price for a compression check...$25.00.
So I go to the auto parts store, get a gauge for $20.00...the 330 has 135lbs of compression.

I take the saw apart with the help of the guide from this site, sure enough, the Intake boot is shot. I reassemble the saw quickly, (before I forget what goes were)

I order the Intake boot, had the time to work on it today....
Bring the laptop in the garage, follow the House of Homelite Guide......new plug, fresh gas, try starting the saw...re-set the carb adjustments according to the manual.....try starting the saw again.....She fired right up!!!!

Thanks for the Intake Boot Guide...it really helped ALOT

[RBW]

;D Glad to be of some assistance.


Your compression is very good for that saw, but Im sure you can understand their reluctance to work on it now. He probably got as far as trying to seperate the outer case halves and gave up.



Whenever I get some time I have three of them to put new boots on, Ill probably reference the guide myself.




Eric

[chainsawwhisperer]

330's have a bad rap, because of there intake boot problems. But I think they're a darn good saw. Not the best saw that Homelite ever produced, but certainly not the worst. Most of the time a 330 would be more saw than a casual user would need. I find myself grabbing my 330's 1st, there nice and quiet (no muffler mods). A couple of weeks ago, one of them lost spark. I am hoping that it's somthing simple (grounded wire or bad coil). I'm hoping to get to it this week. Fortunatualy, there are a ton of them out there for parts, and there pretty cheap.
FYI Farey9n has a some not running 330's and some parts that he would love to rid himself of. The stuff would be in my garage, but the shipping is a killer. the CSW.

[hammerheadc4]

I bought the 330 brand new...it was ALWAYS a PITA to get it
running.
Over the years it has been in a couple different shops, all they ever did was change the plug, fresh gas, adjust the carb...but it would still be hard to start.....like I said, I ain't mechanically inclined.

It's like the evil spirits have been exorcised from my 330, the dam thing starts right up and purrs like a kitten....it never did that before.

[chainsawwhisperer]

You had an air leak from day 1. I've heard of 330's having bad boots when new! Glad to see thats she's running great! CSW

[billg]

I am a very dedicated Homelite gyuy but the 330 was a poor saw. As noted by CSW they were notorious for bad boots out of the factory. The Wal-Mart chain sold them for $180 while the SXL at the farm store was $300 That should tell you something. I may still have an original box here. Now there are a lot of guys that got a good one and love them. My problem is that many new ones were junk from the start and that is all I have seen.

Bill

[lesorubcheek]

hammerheadc4,
Glad to hear ya got your 330 running nicely! I have a couple of 'em and they ain't really a bad saw. Just a very different design than other Homelites and just not quite as easy to work on as some others. I do prefer the '50s but 330s are a nice smaller firewood saw.

Dan

[chainsawwhisperer]

I took a look at my 330 yesterday. the darn plug was loose, but that was not the only problem. she starts but at no load WOT it is breaking up, not 4 stroking, but missing. Thoughts?

[woodplayer]

CSW is your fuel more than 6 months old?

If the plug was loose could it have danced around and perhaps loosened/wore the grip which the end of the wire connector had on the plug or some plugs the top part which mates to the wire connector are screwed on and maybe it came loose?

If you stop the saw quickly while it's acting up and check the plug does it look to be very light brown or almost white, if so it's running lean and maybe the fuel tank filter should be changed.

[chainsawwhisperer]

The fuel was new when this problem started, and the plug boot is tight. the saw was a basket case when i got it. I don't have more than 10 minutes on the saw since I put it back together. It needed a boot , the lower handle bar mount was broken off, the bar itself was bent and it had no bar and chain. i think that the saw was run over.
The miss sounds like an intermittent spark, it's its not rhythmic,
but I will check all the things you mentioned, thanks. CSW

Edit: the saw was also missing the plug boot when I got it.
I replaced it with a used one from a junk saw. I will double check it, to see it it's frigged up.

[lesorubcheek]

hmmm,
I'd check the fuel system first. Make sure filter's clean, lines are good, and carb is OK. Make sure the carb is adjusted on the high side. If this all looks OK, might be worth checking the clearance between the flywheel and module. If the crank bearing has a bit of slop, it may be brushing the module a bit too close at time. Try rocking the flywheel to see if it has any movement.
Good luck,
Dan