Poulan Pro PR 5020

[jbPR5020]

I have 3 Poulans. I have a light duty from the mid to late 80's still runs and looks great. I needed some heavier duty saws and discovered the Poulan Pro lines learning that Husquavara bought out Poulan, McCullock and a variety of other companies. I aquired 2 Poulan Pros: a PR4218 and heavier PR5020. Both are excellent saws. I recently had problems with the sarter pulley freezing up on the PR5020. I noted that the hub spring was distorted and appeared squished. I ordered the designated replacement part for the model: Poulan 576744401 EPS Starter Kit. The new parts were an exact match to what I was replacing. This is when the fun began. The starter kit consists of a new spring, pulley, starter hub, shoulder screw, Hub spring and plastite screw. First problem was the directions which states to tighten the shoulder spring to so many foot pounds. after inserting the spring. I quickly learned that when turning the screw down without overtightening it the pulley would not turn. The only way it would wind out and rewind was having the shoulder screw turned in only enough to hold the pulley in place without a great deal of play. I also noted that the spring band below the pulley was showing. This model includes a hub spring mechanism the hub fits upon. When fastining the fan housing to the saw I noted that when tightening down there were problems with spacing and not a snug fit suggesting the pulley assembly was too long. When I pulled it again to re-fit I noted the new hub spring was again squashed and distorted. I discovered that there are 3 types of pulley systems for the PR4218. I took a chance and ordered the Poulan 581594701 2 piece starter hub and Poulan 580973601 2 piece starter pulley. It uses the same spring but I noted the new pulley and hub fits into the PR5020 housing perfectly and spins freely with the shoulder screw tightened down. The fan housing fits perfectly onto the saw as well. Simple fix to an engineering mistake.