Bringing my older Poulan chainsaw back to life
Posted By RichC on August 25, 2019
Five years ago (2014), I was in the middle of cutting wood and my older lighter weight Poulan chainsaw wasn’t running right. I used some small fuel lines in a attempt to hurriedly fix it suspecting it was the ethanol in the fuel … 
but my quick fix was to no avail. Instead, I ordered a “similar” reconditioned model for a fair price and continued on. It ran fine, but Poulan had modified a few of the controls on it’s slightly smaller consumer line saw for what I assumed were “safety reasons” and I never enjoyed using it as much as the original 2150.
Fast forward to last week – I cleared the woods and fence line with the newer recon replacement 2014 saw so the guy I hired to do the fence staining could continue (we have a LOT of fence). The lone worker, Roger, worked long hours and did a great job; he worked more hours than he estimated, yet didn’t complain. My neighbor was impressed with his work too, and asked Roger if he could stain his fence and also clear his fence line. After they haggled price, Roger asked me if he could borrow my chainsaw to clear the neighbor’s fence line. Hm?
Now, for starters I am not one to loan out tools … especially the tools that require a little more care and sharp blades like a chainsaw (and unless you are a tool guy, you probably don’t understand this kind of selfishness). 
Anyway … I decided to just give him my newer saw (with the better Oregon bar and chain – should have put the stock one back on) as a thank you for doing a great job on my fence. I could see the appreciation in his eyes as he said, “oh, I can accept it.” That even made me feel better about giving him the saw … so I helped him get started with the clearing process and warned him about the poison ivy. I also gave him some bar oil and 2-cycle fuel, then picked up and prepaid for my neighbor’s stain and then repaired the saw when it got jammed (he is a great worker, but not a great businessman). It was obvious Roger was new to using a chainsaw and sorely lacking of tools … I’m not sure he even knows about sharpening?
Back to my “old” Poulan 2150 chainsaw story
Now that I was no longer in a hurry, I took the old 2150 apart, cleaned the gum out of the carburetor, reset the 
jets, bought a new “tune-up” kit with filters and sparkplug and new 16” Oregon bar & chain for $23.
I’m happy to have my old favorite small saw back in operation again, even after telling my wife I was going to buy a quality commercial Stihl chainsaw next time … although for heavy cutting it is hard to beat my old and very heavy McCulloch 610 with a square-cut lumberjack chain – just watch the kickback.
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