Repair-It

I have a Homelite something or other that my father in law gave me. It's a baby one with a 16" bar. Perfect for someone like me who, well, has never owned a chainsaw.

I cut down my first tree this weekend and began chopping up the trunk. Then it suddenly stopped and would not restart. Starting fluid did not work. I removed the spark plug and turned the engine over with my drill on high speed. It did not appear to have any spark at all.

Here is the coil. I ordered a new aftermarket one for $22 or something. Should have been here today actually.

Model info. I had sharpened the chain and everything so I was kind of bummed. Hopefully the coil fixes it. I'll try to get better pics when I install the new coil.

I probably shouldn't spend too much money on it.

Here's a brand new one for $130 shipped. It was a display model but this says never used.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Homelite-UT1056 ... 2a6ea51487

Got the coil today. As promised, here are some pics.

Remove the top cover, which is two T-25 screws in the rear and just a clip in the front. This gives you access to the spark plug and air filter. Then remove the recoil starter with cover. 4 more T-25 screws. Also remove the fuel cap and bar chain oil tank cap. Close-up of the original coil installed. Flywheel magnets that trigger the coil. Somehow I forgot to snap a shot of the new coil but is pretty similar to the old coil. A few minor differences but same design. I did have to screw around for a while with the gap. The coil bolt holes are slotted to set the gap but the flywheel magnets kept contacting the coil. I really had to work at prying it to the very end of its travel and tightening the bolts. That seemed to work. Oh, T-25, again.

The result? It lives again! Freak thing though...hope it doesn't happen again. As soon as the video finishes uploading, you can hear it upon first start with the new coil. Ok, second start.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75wqk8g ... e=youtu.be

The chainsaw has been working since my repair. I just ad gas, bar oil and sharpen the chain when I use it.

My toy chainsaw needs another coil I think. I had a ton of trees cut down and I am starting to clean up the front wooded area for firewood. First it would just randomly die and instantly restart and be fine for a while. Then it got worse. I regapped the coil. Didn't change. I opened the gap to 0.015". Still no start. So...new coil, again. This replacement did not have that many hours on it really. Maybe I will see if there is a higher quality option.

You know sometimes eBay is better than Amazon. I have said this before. The coil I bought before was $22 (current price $20.45) and was very clearly advertised as aftermarket. I could really not find a better coil which is probably why I bought that one originally. Well I just checked eBay.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-OEM-Homeli ... 2822!US!-1

Claims to be new OEM for $18. The label on it does look like my OEM coil that I kept. How about that. Hopefully this is the issue and it lasts longer. I mean technically that aftermarket one lasted 3 years but I really don't use my chainsaw much so that doesn't really count.

Coil came a day early. I will have to inspect to ensure it is what was pictured on the listing. Shadier things have happened...

Looks legit. Evidently that is a date code. So the old coil was 2010 which was definitely original. This has a 2018 date code. In any event I think this will last a good while, hopefully until I get sick of this saw or maybe I still upgrade but keep this for lighter work. We'll see how it goes.

Installed new coil. Gapped to 0.012". Runs well again, no stalling (except when it ran out of gas...).