MS250 Rebuild issues

[bruce55]

I have an MS250 that I bought 20 years ago. It finally gave up the ghost a year or so ago. The piston and cylinder were toast. Last fall, I bought a Hyway Short block along with new crank bearings. I put everything back together and had no issues until I tried to put the bar and chain and side cover on. Once I did this, I was unable to pull the starter cord. Does anyone haver an idea what might be going on and how I might fix it?

 

[Bob Hedgecutter]

Chain not sitting in drive gear properly- jammed between clutch bell and sprocket- pinching the chain and ceasing rotation?
Pretty much nothing else can be done on the PTO side to lock the saw up- IF removing the bar and chain it returns to normal.