Stihl 361 carb adjustment

Use your chain saw tool, the one with a screw driver on one end and a spark plug/chain nut wrench on the other end. Insert the screw driver end into the LA slot and turn counter-clockwise to set the low adjustment (idle).

Most Idle (TAS) screws are phillips or slotted. And you are correct - it needs to be VERY narrow. Hi-Lo screws can be splined, pacman, D, double D, slotted. If I pull a carb - Hi-Lo screws go under the dremel cutoff wheel to become slotted. If you buy an AM carb, they all come slotted usually.

I've never seen a carb adjustment screw on a Stihl saw that wasn't just a plain Phillips/flat combo head. IE, use a 1/8 or 3/16 flat blade screwdriver. Might take you a while to "find" the slot but you should be able to feel when the blade engages and the screw provides resistance.

Now, the bigger question is, what changed to cause it to start idling fast? Saw chips packed in around the linkage? That happened to me, once, causing high idle.

The Stihl saws I'm familiar with all take a small flat screwdriver. If you're near a Stihl dealer, they can set you up with one for a dollar or less (free at my local shop).

Ashful's right, though; you need to figure out why it changed, unless it's been doing this for years and you're just getting around to dealing with it. A high idle can be a sign of an air leak, which can destroy your engine pretty quickly if you keep running it.

Ashful--I agree. If linkage/throttle is not going back to idle, that might indicate an air leak causing a lean condition. Think of it like this--with most small engines, idle will increase just before going dead when running out of gas. Adjusting richer would just "mask" a serious problem, for a while!