Breathing new life into my saw

[Flat47]

With all of this horrid weather preventing any kind of woodlot work, I bit the bullet and tore down my Husqvarna 268 saw. It's getting all new bearings and seals, and a new 272 cylinder kit to boost it from 68cc to 72cc. It'll essentially be a 272xp with 268 stickers. Really easy to work on these saws. Love em! Going to open up the exhaust port shroud so it'll run a bit cooler - maybe this time it won't burn the top cover. Pics to come.

Anybody got a dead 268 or 272 they want to part with. I'm need a good top cover and chain brake side cover. I'd consider a whole other saw, too.

[adk1]

I have a 357xp?

[Flat47]

The 300 series is the next newer generation from my 268/272. Totally different saws.

[madmapler]

You're smart to fix up you're old saw. I had a 359 and I now have a 372 and I cant stand all the plastic. Especially in the on/off and choke switches. I used to just choke out my 359 and my 372 choke pull just let go. Fortunately I still have an old Jonsered to fall back on.

[Flat47]

I think things went down hill when they went to the 400 series. To me, the greatest saws they made were the 362/365/371/372 family. All but early 362 were the same except for the piston and cylinder (late 362 used the same frame as the others). My primary saw is a '98 362xp and I've always wanted to put a big bore cylinder kit in it, but it runs flawlessly so it'll remain as is until later down the road. This '97 268xp needed the attention far more, anyway. When done I'll have a saw with zero time on all of the critical parts, and at a fraction of the cost of a new saw.

[madmapler]

Were they using the same type switches then as they are now? My jonsered is from the late 90s era and it has a metal on/off switch and a plastic but not flimsy choke button. I could'nt imagine either one ever breaking. My 372 is less than a year old.

[Flat47]

Both of my Huskys have the red plastic slide switch. Since Husky and J-reds were built in the same factory, lots of parts will swap over. It's fairly common up here to see a saw with red (Jonsered) and orange (Husky) parts - a true franken-saw. I'm not really up on what J-red models were the same as Huskys, but you could see about swapping in a different switch. There's just one screw holding it in the case and one wire with a spade connector. As for the choke, the pull rod (plastic) snaps into a cam on the carb (metal), so after about 100 times of that metal wearing on the plastic, it breaks. Again, easy fix - but I hear what your saying, it's a pain to keep replacing plastic parts.

[madmapler]

The slide switches work well. Thats what my older saw has. My new one has a pull out choke thats flimsy as anything. Its either disconnected or broken. I have'nt looked yet. I just went to choke it and it was flopping around. I expect They'll have made in China stamped on them sometime soon.

[Flat47]

Here's the muffler before and after...should run much cooler now.