chainsaw got wet in flooded basement

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WonderingWoman

New Member
Jun 5, 2008
116
Pacific NW
Hi everyone. Due to extreme weather here in the Cascades my basement flooded and I had to rescue my chainsaw which got halfway soaked before I remembered it was there. I've lived here 15 years and have never had any situation like this, but the warm temperatures and heavy rain have combined to create a crisis around here.

Will it be okay when it dries out or should I have it serviced first?
 
Pull the spark plug and turn it upside down till any water that's in it drains out. Make sure your air filter isn't soaked. Then top up the bar oil reservoir, replace the plug, and fire up the saw. Run it WFO for a minute or two. That'll get oil on your bar and chain.
 
Depends...the weak link in that chain is the electronics.

Take apart as much as you can,bar and chain, dump all gas and oil etc take off the air filter remove the plug pour some penetrating oil in see if you can turn the drive clutch and move the piston. If you can good, now fill the rest of the way up with pen oil and put the plug back in. Over a few days while it's still drying rotate the same to and fro so the oil covers all the cylinder/piston without spilling out.

On day three remove plug rotate saw so oil drains out and let the saw continue to dry out. At some point down the road reload with new air filter and plug and try starting. Not it may start up and still not be mission capable for a day in the woods...then again it might.

If not just bring it back to the dealer could be some inside part like a coil needs replacing...no big deal. Sorry to hear about the water problem...I thought you were still getting record snow there.

ps my advice was if the saw was under for a prolonged period...if you caught it right away do what Bigg Redd says.
 
savageactor7 said:
Depends...the weak link in that chain is the electronics.

Take apart as much as you can,bar and chain, dump all gas and oil etc take off the air filter remove the plug pour some penetrating oil in see if you can turn the drive clutch and move the piston. If you can good, now fill the rest of the way up with pen oil and put the plug back in. Over a few days while it's still drying rotate the same to and fro so the oil covers all the cylinder/piston without spilling out.

On day three remove plug rotate saw so oil drains out and let the saw continue to dry out. At some point down the road reload with new air filter and plug and try starting. Not it may start up and still not be mission capable for a day in the woods...then again it might.

If not just bring it back to the dealer could be some inside part like a coil needs replacing...no big deal. Sorry to hear about the water problem...I thought you were still getting record snow there.

ps my advice was if the saw was under for a prolonged period...if you caught it right away do what Bigg Redd says.
Click to expand...

She was. Then it turned into record rain, which turned the record snow into record flooding.
 
Bigg_Redd said:
savageactor7 said:
Depends...the weak link in that chain is the electronics.

Take apart as much as you can,bar and chain, dump all gas and oil etc take off the air filter remove the plug pour some penetrating oil in see if you can turn the drive clutch and move the piston. If you can good, now fill the rest of the way up with pen oil and put the plug back in. Over a few days while it's still drying rotate the same to and fro so the oil covers all the cylinder/piston without spilling out.

On day three remove plug rotate saw so oil drains out and let the saw continue to dry out. At some point down the road reload with new air filter and plug and try starting. Not it may start up and still not be mission capable for a day in the woods...then again it might.

If not just bring it back to the dealer could be some inside part like a coil needs replacing...no big deal. Sorry to hear about the water problem...I thought you were still getting record snow there.

ps my advice was if the saw was under for a prolonged period...if you caught it right away do what Bigg Redd says.
Click to expand...

She was. Then it turned into record rain, which turned the record snow into record flooding.
Click to expand...

I'm in Upper Kittitas County. Our power was out all day yesterday, and all major roads are shut down around here, including any road even to Ellensburg. It's been very stressful.
 
I'm not sure how to get the spark plug out. Don't I need those tools that came with the saw? They are currently under 2 1/2 feet of water in the basement.
 
OH my...sounds like you may have an insurance claim pending. If so include the saw otherwise...since you have a full plate why not just drop it off at a small engine shop.
 
Good idea. First I need to get this basement pumped out. Someone posted a nice sump pump for only $25, he even came over and helped me get it set up. I just got back from getting a hose for it, it should do the trick.
 
Take care of the really important stuff first (like drying out that basement), but as soon as you can, get to that saw. Was the saw submerged when you got to it? Or just up the side a bit??

Edit: Yep a scrench should be able to remove the plug. A socket and wrench can also be used if the scrench is...lets say.....not available.
 
I had one of my saws go under for a week and a half when the Cedar river flooded this summer. When the water went down we retrieved the saw hosed the mud off drained the gas pulled the spark plug pulled her over sprayed some WD 40 in the plug hole, new plug new gas and wallah she works great. Now the Jonsereds 49sp didn't fair so good never found it for a month and by then she was locked up tight.
 
Ital live the important thing is if water got in the motor is to get the plug out and get some WD40 in there. I unfortunately got more experience with wet motors this summer than I wanted, 4 four wheelers 2 riding lawn mowers 1 generator 1 leaf sucker and 1 skid loader not to mention a couple chainsaws. Everything but the Jonsereds 49sp made it couldn't find it in the shed believe it or not to much mud and debre and yes we got caught with our shorts down.
 
I got the basement totally pumped out and it is drying, so I took the chainsaw to Ellensburg today, since I-90 was opening up. It was a relief to get out of town. I have a fan and heater on the oil furnace fan motor which was submerged unfortunately. I'm sure glad I put this woodstove in this year! This winter would have been miserable with all these power outages we've had here.
 
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