Free to me-Old McCollough Eager Beaver 3.7 ci/20" bar-worth fixing?

[Badfish740]

A guy I work with just gave me his old Eager Beaver as he used to heat with wood but had to stop because of an injury. The saw is at least 20 years old if not older and hasn't been run in quite a while. I gave it a few pulls and everything moves freely-it seems to have compression. The tank is full of old gas/oil mix so the entire fuel system is likely clogged with varnish, so that's problem number one. Anyway, I know that the new McCollough's are considered crap, but aren't the older ones supposed to be decent? Would it be worth it to put $50 into this one? I have an 18" ECHO CS-400 that really does a great job for a small saw, but I could use something with a longer bar and more power for bucking.

 

[day52]

I would take off the cover. Get a squirt bottle (dish detergent) of 40:1 mix and squirt it in the carb or straight in the cylinder. If you can get it to fire, you can go from there. Those old Macs seemed to be pretty indestructable, however they had plastic parts on the recoil starter that would go bad occasionally and they seemed to have a tendency to "vaporlock" in extremely hot conditions. We tried to never let ours (610) run out of fuel. That seemed to work well for us. Good luck--the price was right!

 

[big_fish]

well in my own opinion if it does not have a chain brake on it then no I wouldn't use it but thats your demon to fight on the other hand I have a few old macs what I run into when trying to get an old saw running is like posted earlier the plastic parts are brittle the rubber parts are dry rotted and then the gas problem I usualy clean them up and put on a shelf (collect old saws) but if it does have a chain brake there are sites that sill have surplus parts I'll look through my stuff and see if I can find any parts suppliers

 

[computeruser]

Definitely try to get it up and running again. Assuming that all it needs is a carb kit and fuel line/filter, you could have a good saw that would be pretty happy with 24" bar and skip chain.

I know a guy who was retired and was clearcutting his family property prior to selling it (for commercial development, hence his 100% clearcut practices). He cut and split hundreds of cords of firewood using a couple of those boxy Macs, a couple little 33cc Homelite XLs, and a scratch-and-dent log splitter from TSC. Solid old saws that will get the job done and are surprisingly durable!

 

[Badfish740]

Well it does have a chain brake so I'm going for it! Expect updates on "Project Beaver" soon! One more thing-are there any ways to "hot rod" saw engines? Someone mentioned adding a 24" bar which I guess is simple enough, but how about squeezing a bit more power out of it?

 

[computeruser]

Well it does have a chain brake so I'm going for it! Expect updates on "Project Beaver" soon! One more thing-are there any ways to "hot rod" saw engines? Someone mentioned adding a 24" bar which I guess is simple enough, but how about squeezing a bit more power out of it?

Yes, you can "hotrod" saws but I'm not sure that the cost-benefit would be there for that saw. A mild muffler modification might be worthwhile, depending on how restrictive (or not) the current setup is. That series - 605, 610, EB, etc. - was never intended to be a screamer of a saw, just a torquey, reliable firewood machine. I'd get it in good running condition and use it.

If it were my saw and I wanted a 2nd saw for occasional bigger stuff, I'd just swap the bar for a 24 with skip chain (not full-comp!) and try a couple sprockets - 7t and 8t - to see what you like best for the cutting you do, and call it a day.

 

[akhilljack]

i have one and no it is way under powered for even my 16 inch bar. i like it for small stuff sometimes but would rather use my sthil's or husky. they feel lighter even if they are hevier.

 

[eernest4]

I prefer, in a gas job, saws that have vibration dampening handles, mounted on springs so that my hands dont tingle all day long after only 30 minutes of chain sawing.

even better, I prefer electric chain saws over gas if I can get electricity to the sight.
Even if I have to fire up a 4000 wt generator.

If you don't already know, electric chain saws are almost vibration free even compaired
to a gas saw with vibration dampening handle.

You can saw for hours & hours with a electric and never have tingles.

Electrics are a bit slower than gas but i dont mind spending 1 minute more per cut if it means i dont have to put up with tingling hands for 3 hours or longer after i stop cutting.

As to fixing up your saw, see if it will start with direct injection of 2 cycle gas mix thru the carb with a squish bottle & take it from there. Maybe you can just back out the high speed & low speed jets & spray some carb cleaner through the holes. Count the number of turns to bottom out each jet (dont bottom out the jets hard,just gentlyfinger tight) & this way you have an idea
where to set the jets after clean out.

actually, I have never again used a gas saw since I bought my first electric,so I bet all my saws
are varnished now too.

As long as my electric runs,i really don't care.

 

[Badfish740]

The following is a X-post from the Arborist. I figured I'd pick some brains over here as well...

I had a little time to fool around with the saw last night and here's what I found:

-The starter rope occasionally doesn't "catch," but once the rope is jerked around a bit it will. I took the housing off and there seem to be two little catches on the flywheel with springs-one of the springs is either out of place or damaged.

-The fuel tank is very gummed up so I removed it, filled it with a mixture of gas/oil mix and Chevron Techron fuel system cleaner, shook it up, and let it sit. I'm hoping that most of the crud will dissolve and that I can pour most of it out when I get home tonight.

-I got the fuel line detached from the carb to get the tank off of the saw, but how do you remove the little fuel filter inside the tank? It doesn't seem to come out-do you have to fish it through the filler hole?

-The saw seems to have good compression when I crank it, but even when I removed the air cleaner/choke assembly and poured a little gas/oil into the carb it wouldn't fire. I'm sure a new plug is in order, but what's a reliable way to check that I'm actually getting spark besides shocking myself?

-I'm debating on just buying a new carb since the saw was free and they were relatively cheap. How does one remove the carb since the adjustment screws run through the body of the saw?

I want to strip the saw down as much as possible mostly to get it clean. I found TONS of sawdust/bar oil mix caked into every crack and crevice behind the starter rope housing so I'm sure there's more where that came from. I want to try to get this thing up and running before I head out to my new honey hole (six downed oaks the landowner wants gone) during my week off at Christmas.

Also, I'm definitely looking to put a 24" bar on it and the Oregon site recommended the Power Match Plus (# 240RNDD176) bar and two different chains-Super Guard Chisel and Super 70. There was a third but it's low kickback chain. I'll probably be using this saw mostly to cut downed (read full of dirt) wood as I try to scrounge as much as possible. Given that-what's my best chain choice? Would it be a good idea to update the sprocket as well?

 

[Gooserider]

The following is a X-post from the Arborist. I figured I'd pick some brains over here as well...
<lots of trimming>
-The fuel tank is very gummed up so I removed it, filled it with a mixture of gas/oil mix and Chevron Techron fuel system cleaner, shook it up, and let it sit. I'm hoping that most of the crud will dissolve and that I can pour most of it out when I get home tonight.

Sounds like a good plan, certainly won't hurt. May need a couple iterations

-I got the fuel line detached from the carb to get the tank off of the saw, but how do you remove the little fuel filter inside the tank? It doesn't seem to come out-do you have to fish it through the filler hole?

Yup, typically fish it out the filler hole w/ a bit of coat hanger wire

-The saw seems to have good compression when I crank it, but even when I removed the air cleaner/choke assembly and poured a little gas/oil into the carb it wouldn't fire. I'm sure a new plug is in order, but what's a reliable way to check that I'm actually getting spark besides shocking myself?

Get the wife / girlfriend to hold it while you pull the engine over - "Here honey, hold this for me..." If she can hang onto it, you have a problem... If she lets go and tries to deck you, it's good... You can also get one of your drinking buddies to do it, but you have a greater possible risk of injury if it is working... ;-P

Gooserider