Background
When I bought a Poulan 2150 gas chainsaw (16" bar) a few years ago to do some light work around the back yard and in the bush behind our home, I did so without doing any research on the brand or the saw itself. The saw was reasonably-priced and it worked very well for all the jobs I gave it.
At the end of last fall, when I put the saw away for the winter, it wasn't running very well and I had a very difficult time getting it to start or run from cold. As it wasn't convenient to tear it apart at the time, I went on-line to see if I could find out about the saw, the brand and any others' experience with this lightweight saw.
Research
I found, to my surprise, that Poulan had been manufacturing chain saws for many years, and has been in business since at least 1944. I had not heard much of this company before I bought the saw. I also discussed the difficulties I was having with my friends and relatives who had saws. From what I could gather, almost no-one thought the saw was worth having and thought it was also unreliable. I also found out on-line that a weak point was failure of the fuel-line.
Diagnosis
After removing the appropriate screws and cowling, I could get at the carburetor and proceeded to remove the fuel line from the spigot on the carburetor. The fuel line (which looked like plastic, Tygon, or the like) fell apart in my fingers. Each time I attempted to shorten the fuel line to find a better section, the line crumbled away. Obviously, this was a real problem, and this could easily explain the difficulties I was having with the operation of the saw. I checked the rest of the tubing which extended into the fuel tank through a hole in the casing and was attached to the fuel filter. The fuel filter was sitting loose in the bottom of the tank, obviously not connected to anything.
Repair
After removing all remaining traces of the main fuel line from the carburetor area and from the fuel tank, I flushed out the fuel tank and then went shopping for new fuel line and possibly a new fuel filter. None of the hardware stores and repair shops close by had anything suitable. I finally traveled farther afield and found a supplier for both items. However, when I attempted to insert the new fuel line through the casing, there was no easy way (and I tried different suggested methods) to get the fuel line through the plastic casing. The tubing was just too large in diameter. Against my feelings, I drilled out the plastic through hole in the casing so that the tubing was a good fit (tight) and re-assembled all with a new filter in place.
I suppose what this means is that I will have to replace the fuel line every couple of years as this tubing will likely dissolve in the gasoline as well. At least now, I can buy readily-available fuel line from not-too-distant supplier that will fit without trouble.
This is just a small repair but it saved me some money for repairs and gave me a usable saw again.
