This thing.
It’s a Husqvarna (with a Q) 236 chainsaw, from Huskvarna (with a K) in Sweden. The town changed its spelling, the company didn’t. Actually, it’s probably made in China but it’s spiritually Swedish.
It’s powered, as is the nature of machines like this, by an example of the Spawn of Satan. The starting procedure is:
- Push primer six times
- Pull choke
- Pull starter cord three times or until the engine tries to start, whichever comes first
- Push in choke, pull cord two or three times and engine starts.
When it was new, all of the above went just fine. After a year of ownership but very little use you can pull the cord until you’re blue in the face before it starts and even then it proceeds very reluctantly indeed.
So I investigated, suspecting that stale fuel that had sat there until it dried out wouldn’t do much for the carburettor. I eventually extracted and opened the carb to find nothing amiss. Put everything back together and eventually succeeded in starting the engine but still had to nurse it into keeping going.
So we’ll need to adjust some adjustable bits. Here they are, down the holes marked T, L and H. T is tickover speed, L is low speed jet and H is therefore high speed jet.
Except we can’t, or not easily anyway. Emissions get in the way. To prevent the owner fiddling and increasing usability at the expense of the environment the jets are adjusted by exotic splined screws. Husqvarna don’t readily sell the tool needed. Fortunately though the carb is made in China and you get the tool posted from there for about €3. Might have to do that then.