Gifted old poulan

[Btucker805]

I was given an old poulan 14, labels pretty worn but I think it’s a woodsman 1800. Got a new plug and air filter, there wasn’t any old gas, put some new 40-1 trufuel in, and pulled away. Finally got it started after spraying some starting fluid in the carb. At first it ran great as long as you held the throttle open a bit, but would die after a few seconds if let idle. Cut up a tree that had fallen in my yard for about 15 minutes. Let it sit for a few minutes then started again, it’ll idle all day fine now but when you try to throttle up it dies. Was going to try to run some cleaner and let sit over night, replace the fuel line and filter, and clean the fuel cap. Read somewhere vapor lock can be a problem with older saws. Oh and check the muffler screen. It just seems odd to me it ran and cut like a champ at first but wouldn’t idle, but after warming up will idle great but dies under load. Any suggestions? Thanks for the help.

 

[Bob Hedgecutter]

Probably crap in the fuel system, damaged diaphragm in the carb, collapsing fuel line when the vacuum load comes on.
Basically a fuel delivery problem, check and replace (if possible to find?) fuel lines, tank pickup filters and carb kit (again, if you can find one).
While you have all that apart, probably clean and flush the fuel tank interior.

 

[Btucker805]

Probably crap in the fuel system, damaged diaphragm in the carb, collapsing fuel line when the vacuum load comes on.
Basically a fuel delivery problem, check and replace (if possible to find?) fuel lines, tank pickup filters and carb kit (again, if you can find one).
While you have all that apart, probably clean and flush the fuel tank interior.

Thanks, will try and replace what I can, most parts are discontinued from what I can tell. Can probably at least get fuel lines/filter and also clean the tank.

 

[Btucker805]

I realized that the losing of power under load came when the gas tank was more than half empty, pulled the fuel line out and sure enough it was cracked towards the tank end. Put a new fuel line in, runs like a top now.