Dolmar PS-510 starts and dies

ILENGINE

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Rare
As I said anything is possible. The first and last time I saw coil failure like this was a Homelite chainsaw about 13 yrs ago. So this is a very rare problem apparently.
Rare, but not as rare as I would like.
 

jviews12

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Incomplete history. Did it run well before changing the plug??? Or was this sitting for 5-10 years, then new plug and does not run. I do not know what the status was before you started this thread. When was the last time you used this?, and were you happy with it. Was it run dry, and stored in a dry place. Simple background is helpful.
 

ILENGINE

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Incomplete history. Did it run well before changing the plug??? Or was this sitting for 5-10 years, then new plug and does not run. I do not know what the status was before you started this thread. When was the last time you used this?, and were you happy with it. Was it run dry, and stored in a dry place. Simple background is helpful.
The history on this saw is I sold it new to a neigbor customer that burns firewood for heat. This saw is run every year mostly in the fall like now, but does get used over the rest of the year for storm cleanup and various tree jobs. The saw presented to the shop with not running properly, and had the running out of fuel/ restricted carb/dirty carb symptom. But this thread was started to highlight the fact that you can have a faulty ignition system that will mimic a fuel system issue and not loose spark to the spark plug.

I own the high performace version of this saw the PS-5105 that has had 2 igniton modules fail since I owned it. The last one was it would idle perfectly but would die as soon as the trigger was pulled, but would go back to idle if released, or would restart on the first pull if it died. My nephew owns a Solo 694 which was made by Dolmar as the PS-9010 that saw will present with a 4 stroke rev limiter effect when it fails.
 

Etbrown44

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Years ago I had a similar problem on a 35hp 2 stroke motor on an ultralight airplane. It would start, run 5 min and quit. Problem there was it forced several emergency landings. New ignition module, problem solved.

I learned to avoid flying over large sections of forest, so that there was always somewhere to land. If I was 5000' altitude or above, it gave me more landing options because I could glide from that height. Engine reliability takes on a whole new meaning in the air.
 

kjonxx

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Lets see if you guys can figure this one out. New NGK BPMR7A spark plug, new OEM fuel filter. Saw starts after about 4 pulls cold and runs a few seconds and bogs down and dies and takes another 4 pulls to restart. Have checked internal carb screen, checked carb adjustment, and checks fuel passages and carb diaphragms are in good shape. Also there is no loss of spark when checked with a spark tester while the engine is running and/or bogging down and dying.
intake crack or leak?
 

TobyU

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@StarTech Good consideration but not that complicated. This thing acts like it is running out of fuel but it isn't a fuel problem.
This isn't a guessing game game show.
If you've already fixed it and know what the problem was then tell the whole story up front.
Many of us don't have time or enjoy the carrot game.
We come here to help people fix problems they can't figure out or two tell them what they're doing wrong or what they shouldn't have done to begin with.
 

TobyU

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I'm just glad you got it fixed. I have certainly seen Stihl ignition coils that had a timing issue. In fact there was a TSB or something on this a number of years ago. They would run but they were hard to start and they certainly wouldn't run well with stuttering and stammering and what felt like misfires but it did not act like it was starving her fuel like yours did.

I also ran into a weird situation one time on a Husqvarna where if someone puts the wrong type of plug in it will start and run but won't rev up and almost acts like it has a timing retard or governor on it.
Now I can't remember off the top of my head because I just don't mess with chainsaws anymore but I believe it was putting a resistor plug in a chainsaw that came with a non resistor plug.
Of course it could have been the other way around.
I don't think it affected all the Husqvarna saws either but there were a number of them and it was probably based on the type of coil they had or who manufactured it for them that month etc.
I have seen more than one of them do this and all you have to do is switch the plug for the other type and the saw runs beautifully.

It is a shame, and I greatly dislike, that they have gone to so many more needless electronics on these small engines.
I don't want to go back to points and condensers as I really despise those but these are what we always called magnetos and they shouldn't need a whole lot of electronics to make them work because it's all about a coil of wire and a magnet for the most part.

I don't like the new ones that as soon as you touch the kill switch it automatically dies even if you let go of the switch.
I know an argument can be made that this is better for the engine but we had equipment for decades that you could hold the kill switch down for a couple of seconds and let go of it and it would take off running again and that's what I like.
This obviously is a little bit simpler system than the new one that automatically turns off as soon as it detects the kill switch ground.

I don't feel that the coil should be able to affect the initial timing at all.
It should be so basic that all it can do is fire when the magnet rolls past and it's triggered and the only thing that can affect this is the speed of the engine which is proportional to when it needs to spark anyways or the position of the flywheel which should be in the right spot due to being keyed into the crankshaft.
It shouldn't be able to be messed up because there should be no capability and the timing should always be right as long as it fires.
Your story is a good example of what I complain about all the time with humans messing with things that don't need to be messed with.
In this case they weren't trying to reinvent the wheel but they were trying to improve something or fix something that wasn't a problem.
 
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