Help identifying old Homelite chainsaw

[coinoperated40]

Nice to see another one is still around. I have two, bought new a few years ago. Hearing these are old makes me feel ...well.. old. The first clutches were not to good and would break easy, then a newer version came out. I ran over one with a logging truck and bent the handle a little. Had to finally put in a new spark plug last year. I guess they don't last more than 38 years. Mine came with a plastic case. Still have it, but it has seen better days.
My second one has been used for parts for the last few years, so if you need the piece you broke, shoot me a PM and I'll see what I have.
Shane

 

[Spook50]

Nice to see another one is still around. I have two, bought new a few years ago. Hearing these are old makes me feel ...well.. old. The first clutches were not to good and would break easy, then a newer version came out. I ran over one with a logging truck and bent the handle a little. Had to finally put in a new spark plug last year. I guess they don't last more than 38 years. Mine came with a plastic case. Still have it, but it has seen better days.
My second one has been used for parts for the last few years, so if you need the piece you broke, shoot me a PM and I'll see what I have.
Shane

I was told on a Homelite forum that they can be easily repaired with JB Weld, so I'll give that a shot. Being only cast aluminum, I can see where a JB Welded repair would be stronger than the surrounding material.

A ton of cleanup to still do before reassembling it, and a new bar if I can find one locally. Going to stick with just the 16" instead of the Oregon 20" I found. Now that I've gotten the clutch apart (which is in damn near new condition surprisingly) I can see it possibly breaking if I were to bog down a larger than 16" bar. Maybe if the clutch itself were actually larger, but I'll just keep it stock at this point.

Got the carb rebuilt yesterday. It was NASTY when I took it out of the saw. I should've taken a pic before I cleaned it up. It was literally a hardened lump of greasy black clay. Got it apart and I'm surprised I was even able to start the saw before tearing it down. It must've been run without its air filter at some point at least briefly because both diaphragms were packed with gassy, fine sawdust. Can't wait to get this bad boy back together and fire it up now.

 

[Offroads4x4]

HXL model 16, 24, I believe. Dad bought one when they first came out.


Tig weld it.

 

[ojaij40]

HXL model 16, 24, I believe. Dad bought one when they first came out.


Tig weld it.

Have you tries this?

 

[Spook50]

Bit of an update

The saw was a nasty mess when I finally got it torn down to the engine. Since what I could see of the piston and cylinder looked like they were in really good shape, I didn't bother pulling that apart. The oiler still worked well when I was able to run it before taking it apart too, so no need that I see to participate in that.

Used a piece of mild steel stock to drill holes that allowed me to use it as a combination clutch and flywheel removal tool. Didn't cost me a cent


Got 'im


Broke the points assembly cover while trying to pull it off. Damnit.


The points were set WAY beyond the allowable limit, so I put the piston at TDC and set the gap to 0.015", which the manual specifies


Got a rebuild kit for the carb and knocked that out. When I first pulled it out it was a tightly packed tennis ball sized wad of tar/sawdust/oil/grease nastiness. Now it's all set to the manual's specs and ready to be tuned once I get everything together.


Case & fuel tank assembly all cleaned up.


Wish I could've taken it to be powdercoated, but unfortunately it's not in the budget at this point. Maybe one day I'll get a bug up my butt to do an actual restoration in addition to the overhaul it's getting now, and I'll put a new bar & chain assembly on at that point. Right now the chain needs sharpening and I got the corrosion off the original bar, but that's definitely shown the abuse it's gotten.

So far everything's going smoothly aside from the couple parts I broke (my own fault). Pretty good learning experience to teach myself about 2stroke engines.

 

[Spook50]

I keep getting deeper and deeper into this. Pretty sweet learning about older power tools by overhauling them. I didn't want to get myself into a spot where I would have trouble figuring out what to do or how to get it back together, so I took initiative to download the complete Homelite shop service manual (5th edition), parts breakdowns for the 150 Auto, and complete manuals for both the Walbro HDC and the Tillotson HK3 carburetors that were used in the 150. Mine uses a Tillotson, which I didn't realize are manufactured by Borg-Warner. I printed all the stuff (and the relevant pages from the shop service manual) and put it all in page protectors in a 7-hole binder that I yoinked out of a waste basket at work (using different binders now for maintenance forms, so the 7-hole ones got chucked). Now I've got a complete manual that I don't have to worry about getting greasy hands on and can just grab and open up whenever I have to tear into the saw in the future.

Not bad, eh?







Decided I may as well open up the oil tank and inspect everything while I have the saw apart. Other than being a goopy mess with God-knows how old chain oil in there, everything seemed okay. Just messy.

The cylinder base before cleaning


And after


Got a butt load of sloppily applied RTV out of there too. I hate how some people think they need to RTV the hell out of EVERYTHING, especially when they do it on a gasket. If the surfaces are prepared properly and fasteners not over torqued, s*** won't leak! I've never once had a gasket leak on me, and I've never used RTV.

Anyhoo, pulled the oil pump and inspected it. No issues, and it looks like I'll be able to reuse the diaphragm too. Not brittle or torn up or anything.

Dirty pump


Clean pump. The pick-up line was brittle, so I replaced it with some leftover fuel line I had. Almost ready to start putting things back together.


The diaphragm. Still good


This is turning out to be a pretty fun project. I'll have to try and get a legit Homelite carrying case for it once I have it back together so it can be kept clean when it's stored.

 

[Spook50]

Well more than ten years after pulling it all apart, I found the pieces in a box buried in the back of my shop. Needless to say after being back in my house since 2017 (divorce) and never seeing it I assumed the ex wife hucked it all in the trash or her younger brother had stolen it along with a lot of my other valuable tools that he stole. I was shocked it was still here so since the weather's been nice again and I have a boatload of firewood coming from a co worker that I'll have to cut and split, I'd finally finish it up.

Gaskets in the carb were dry and brittle so I rebuilt it again (good thing I did too because the first time I did it I hadn't set the metering valve right). Sadly this carb style is NOT one that Walboro makes a spiral diaphragm for so the only option is the old style with a rivet through the middle to connect to the metering valve. Before throwing it together, I plunked down a couple bucks for a Yamaha electronic ignition module so I could eliminate the points. Honestly wasn't entirely necessary I don't think, but now I won't have to break into it to adjust points over time and can keep a spare in my tool kit should one be needed.

I also realized that with magnesium different prep and primer is required for paint to properly adhere, as opposed to other metals. Since this was a functional restoration and not a "collector's piece" job (also evidenced by the "HOMELITE" on the intake and the surface rust on the bucking spike) I just ran with it for now. Maybe in the future I'll go through her again and redo it. I also put a new 18" bar and chain on as opposed to overdoing it with a 20". Filled 'er up with a 90:1 ratio of AMSOIL 2-stroke and 91 octane ethanol free (which I use in all my 2-stroke engines now), AMSOIL chain oil and it's a beast of a machine for something its size. Even with the larger 18" bar and chain it feels over powered after tuning it, but I'm going to stay with the 18". My only real complaints about this old saw are there's no priming bulb and no good spot to install one, so it takes a LOT of pulls to get it going after it's sat for a while, and there's no chain brake so I have to be extra careful to avoid kickback when using it and NOT let myself get complacent. Aside from those, it's an awesome saw and one I'll get a lot of use out of I'm sure.

Since it's running and now in great shape again I got a box to store it and all my extra gear for it in so I can just grab it and go if I need to take it somewhere. Finally another long running project crossed off the list.

 

[D'Animal]

The Homelite 150 has amazing power & torque for it size.

Congratulations on the restoration

 

[Spook50]

I had forgotten to post up when I did it, but shortly before Thanksgiving I was able to get outside and get some cutting and splitting done one afternoon. I threw together a sawbuck with some scrap lumber and cut and split and handful of the short logs. Having to pick them up and set them in the sawbuck myself let me only get a few done before getting tired, but the saw is a BEAST going through these. It passes through even dry wood like butter and absolutely screams when I get on it. To get a feel for the balance of the longer bar on this saw before I started cutting I did a few deliberate kickbacks. I was surprised that even though the chain isn't a low kickback design, there was far less kickback force than I expected. With no chain brake on this old machine I wanted to know exactly what to expect and minimize risk as much as possible.

Felt great to be outside in the chilly weather running the saw and swinging a splitting maul.

I also found out how to decipher the serial number on it and found out it was manufactured in either north or south Carolina, on 12 February 1980.