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Meadow Vista Saw, 17475 LAKEVIEW HILLS Road, Meadow Vista, CA (2026)

05/22/2026

I loooooove the Echo CS2511t 12 inch climber chainsaw. It’s the lightest and most compact chainsaw I’ve ever had in my workshop.

I can’t honestly remember where or when I got my first one, but it was love at first sight. Especially when I discovered all the aftermarket mods you can put on them and at the top of that he is the Egan Performance Saws exhaust pipe.

I loved this little chainsaw so much that I bought as many as I could get from every source I could get them from. I called them my hamsters. 😆

I even have a brand new one under the monitor of my computer desk which, before I retired, used to be my day job work desk.

During management zoom meetings, I could look down below the monitor and see my little hamster there to remind me that there’s more going on in my career than the brain dead stuff I was doing in my day job. it was my therapy saw.

OMG people! You’ve got to try this. Literally every artist that was curious about this saw and bought one has fallen in love. And then their friends come wanting exactly the same setup as they got.

Anyway, I had fixed someone’s power washer and decided to test it by washing a few used chainsaws that I have purchased months before. When you power wash a chainsaw, you have to quickly service it because leaving it wet will cause essential parts of it to rust.

I’ve had this formerly-dirty little hamster (pictured) next to the aisle in my workshop for months or even maybe a year. Just never got around to working on it.

So after I’ve got a bath, I quickly took it apart and blow dried with compressed air and lubricated and cleaned and serviced the saw so it looks like new again. And then I decided to upgrade it with the Egan pipe and stabby dogs.

05/21/2026

While I’m always trying to save my customers money, I will try to differentiate between mechanic specific jobs versus things. The customer can do on their own. Sometimes I’m a little tone deaf when a customer just wants the thing working perfectly again and is willing to pay the labor, whatever it is, to get that done.

Case in point is this power washer that a customer brought in. I’m sure he said at least once that he just wants it working again and that he is a fan of my work and brought it to me so that I could keep life simple for him.

What I heard was that the power washer will stall when connected to water and engine running but while he is not spraying. This point straight to the unloader valve in the pump, which has the task of unloading the pressure that is not being used at the moment. When the pump gets going it builds up pressure and is ready for you to pull the trigger on the spray gun but when you don’t have the trigger pulled that buildup of pressure can stall the motor.

In order to avoid stalling, the motor, the unloader valve is spring loaded and will allow water to recirculate rather than go straight into the hose. You have to adjust this valve from time to time because either the sprayer will not spray when you pull the trigger, this means that the unloader valve is set too weak. Or if you are not spraying, the motor will be overloaded and install, which means that the unloader valve is set too strong.

Based on his description of how recently the motor had been maintained, how frequently he uses the unit, and the fact that he has never adjusted or even been aware of the unload valve, I came to the very safe conclusion that the motor is probably not running very strong right now and in need of maintenance in order to run stronger and not be overwhelmed by whatever the current setting of the unloaded valve is.

So I said about to get the motor running strong again. Of course the carburetor needed maintenance and of course, I found debris in the carburetor bowl and the primary jet was partially clogged.

I had drained the fuel into a glass jar and noticed that there was condensation/water in the bottom. So I cleaned the fuel tank before reconnecting it to the rebuilt carburetor. Loaded with fresh fuel, the trustee Honda GC 160 engine started first pull and ran strong.

The water was connected, and the unit did not stall, although it clearly was dealing with a heavy load.

I adjusted the unloader valve to find the cut off between heavy load and light load and then wanted to test the sprayer, but the connections were all oxidated, and the spray gun was clogged. This unit hadn’t been used in years and it showed.

So I updated the customer, telling him that replacing the hose and wand is a non-mechanic activity and he can take care of that himself and save a little money. And I said that the unit is ready to go home.

He replied with relief that it’s running well and not stalling, but there was silence about what to do with the hose.

It wasn’t until the next day that I realize he really was baffled about the rest of the solution. He had asked questions about where he might buy adapters or hose parts.

Then occurred to me that he really just wanted the whole thing working and so I offered the option of an extra hour of labor plus the cost of parts and I would research how to adapt his quick release hose fitting from the pump to the more popularly available M22 pressure, washer, hose connections, and a good replacement for the hose and spray gun. He was thrilled! Agreed to the extra labor and thanked me for offering.

Sometimes an upsell is not an upsell if that’s what they wanted in the first place. 😆

So I made the order on Amazon later that afternoon and the next day the parts arrived. I was able to install everything and test it by washing three of my chainsaw projects.

Everything worked beautifully and the customer is very happy to come pick it up today.

05/21/2026

Customer said that this concrete saw leaked fuel and completely soaked the air filter. There are several things that could cause flooding and getting the fuel filter wet.

Flooding can be caused by low compression, but not in the extreme case where the air filter gets soaked in fuel.

Improper starting can cause flooding. Pull too many times with the choke on and you’re going to get liquid rather than v***r going into the crank case and some more backwash into the air filter.

Storing the saw in a very hot environment, will cause the fuel tank to pressurize and possibly overwhelm the needle valve in the carburetor which would cause fuel to come up through the carburetor and out the airway into the air filter.

The latter cause will be made worse if there’s debris or pitting in the tip of the needle valve.

So, sometimes there’s no obvious cause for what happened and all you do is go in there to do maintenance and look for a smoking gun. In this case, I was relieved to see there was a little debris in the carburetor and pitting in the metering needle valve so I swapped that out. I verified the height of the metering lever to rule out the possibility that the valve remained open.

There really wasn’t much else I could do. Compression was good and even upon testing the saw, there was no buildup of fluid in the air filter mount.

This gave me a chance to do some much-needed maintenance on the saw and verified that the tuning is good.

I didn’t realize that the air filter was missing so I had to order one (customer was fine with an aftermarket air filter, since the OEM one is back ordered until end of June), but the saw will be ready for the customer at the end of today.

05/20/2026

In my years working on chainsaws, Mac often represent the most difficult ones to service, mostly because of the archaic engineering practices of the time (complete lack of design for maintainability (DFM is a real thing; look it up) and McCullough’s penchant for experimentation and advancement of chainsaw technology.

The McCullough Wildcat, despite the hyperbolic name, it’s actually a very tame little chainsaw. It’s extra heavy and bulky for the small size of the actual engine. So it’s usually a bit of a disappointment when you get it running to find it. It doesn’t rev quickly and it top speed isn’t very high. Still a charming little chainsaw, though.

What is not charming is trying to get that carburetor out of there in order to work on it.

First of all, to remove the bar and chain, you have to remove the bar nuts, and then go to the other side of the saw and remove the bolt/shaft that pivots the chain brake.

You then remove the screws that hold the carburetor in and cover in place but you can’t just lift it off. There are connections behind the cover that you can’t see that you have to navigate.

In order to do that, you have to remove the starter recoil, but you can’t remove the starter recoil until you disconnect the base of the front handle. Once the recoil is off, you can look sideways behind the cover to see all the connections you have to undo. The main one is the throttle lock for starting the saw, which is somehow under the carburetor throttle lever from behind the carburetor, so you are lifting the carburetor a few millimeters away from the intake manifold, and then twisting the carburetor cover to free the throttle lock from under the throttle lever.

If you followed that at all, you must have either done this before or you’re a visualization genius. 🙄😆😆

Then you have to undo three connections from three side directions. The throttle trigger cable connects from the right, the impulse line connects from the inside, and the fuel line connects from the bottom. The trick is to disconnect the impulse and fuel hoses and then flip the carburetor up and outward in order to unhook the throttle table, which has a stiff wire hook that won’t allow any other way of removal.

This was an especially well preserved Wildcat. The impulse and fuel hoses were supple and healthy. Of course the carburetor had the old pink tipped metering needle valve that had to be replaced, and the meter and diaphragm was in the early stages of stiffening up, so it could have worked fine, but I decided to change it anyway for longevity.

Unfortunately, none of the the Zama metering diaphragms that I have in stock matched the length of the button in the middle of this unit unit’s metering diaphragm so I adapted a Walbro meter and diaphragm to work. How do you do is use a caliper to measure the length of the button and then adjust the metering lever slightly to match it and the difference was maybe half a millimeter.

I had expected this job to take 1.5 hours and that’s the estimate I had given the customer. But it was done in almost exactly an hour, so I adjusted the billing accordingly.

05/20/2026

I’ve been tripping over these saws for a couple of days, an old Homelite XL12 and a Mac Wildcat. I put them in the aisle mostly because of a lack of space, all the shelves are filled with my backlog of saws to fix or saws, waiting for pick up, but having them underfoot also reminds me several times a day that I need to service them for a customer.

The reason there isn’t a rush is because he also brought in a large weedeater and I have a new string head on order that’s taking forever to get here. The customer wants to pick them all up at once so that means I can do other customer jobs in the meantime.

Also, although I enjoy working on all chainsaws, very old, classic saws tend to be the most troublesome and are my least favorite. So I will confess to a little procrastination here. 😆😆🙄

Anyway, this XL 12 is in amazing condition considering it’s been sitting on a shelf for at least three years and probably hasn’t been used much since it was new in (wild guess) 1978 - 1983. They were made long before that as well, but I’m guessing this one is from that era.

This job started out being just a basic carburetor rebuild, but I started to find missing screws and one screw that was the wrong thread forced into a hole in the chassis. I had to re-tap the screw hole to match the screw that was forced in… if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

I love how the XL 12 sounds when it’s running well. The Super is a little nicer, more cc and the oil tank in the front. But this one seems to have a lot of zip to it, and the sound of the muffler is unparalleled.

It was after I had it running that I came back to the workbench and noticed that the clutch drum was missing. In fact, it actually had only fallen off on the workbench when I was flipping the around while working on it. Turns out the clutch drum retainer washer was missing so I found a matching washer and put it on.

Customer wanted the chain sharpened, but the chain was too far gone and too hammered to make it worth sharpening so I offered to cut him a new chain in my new wildfire base camp workshop trailer. Got to use the Oregon heavy duty chain breaker and spinner, which I’m completely out accustomed to. 😬

The customers saw had a 59DL chain on it so I went ahead and matched that chain. I should’ve verified the proper length of chain, which turned out to be 60DL, so I cut another chain, the proper length, mostly out of curiosity to see which one would fit. Turns out they both fit, so I am giving him the extra chain for free. My loss for following what was on the saw instead of verifying what should properly be on it.

Then it was onto the Wildcat…

05/19/2026

This happens a lot with people from Sacramento. 😆😆😆 But they rarely want to drive out.

For those not from the area, I’m in a very small town in the foothills and about an hour drive down in the valley there’s a huge population, and they love to inquire about my saw ads.

So I always ask everybody who inquires “A are you local? Which town?” and if they say, Sacramento, I pretty much can count on them not wanting to drive out. 😉

The irony is that I have regular customers from as far away as Salinas (almost 5 hours), Santa Cruz (4h), Mariposa (3.5h), Redding (3h), South Lake Tahoe (2h), and even Elko NV (5.5h) who think it’s fine to travel for a good saw shop. Some of them bring their families and drop them off at our local café. We plan several hours to repair all their saws and they sometimes buy new ones.

Of course, everybody from down in the valley is welcome up here, but I do ask a few questions ahead of time due to the high flake factor.

All part of the fun of being a specialist in some people need and can’t find locally. 😊

05/18/2026

Justin bought this Husqvarna 390 XP for $300 and brought it to me to turn a pumpkin into a magnificent orange carriage. (That’s a Cinderella reference for you manly men. 😆)

Although this saw has clearly been through a lot of abuse, its bones are solid. Good compression, no signs of air leaks, runs fairly well, and most of the damaged parts are replaceable.

The main concern I had was the air filter not being screwed down, allowing a lot of air & debris to sneak past it at the mount. The 8mm M5 hex screw that is supposed to hold the air filter down was likely lost and replaced with a too-short screw that didn't reach the mount nut, so the air filter was just sitting there on top of the mount and not sealing against it.

I didn't have the correct length hex screw so I replaced it with a correct length barrel head screw. Customer's workaround will be to use a 4mm Allen wrench to screw it down just like we do on the older 365 air filter. Easy peasy.

The 2nd most significant concern was the hokey muffler port job the prior owner did and the broken muffler gasket, causing hot gasses to escape in the direction of the top cover, melting it. The muffler was also held on with only two screws and missing the muffler support bracket. Big mess here.

I offered Justin to port the replacement Hyway muffler but he said he'd prefer the saw to be quiet. 90cc is a LOT of chainsaw power for the 24" bar he had on it so not porting the muffler made good sense.

I was about to order him a new top cover when I realized there was a new, still sealed in the package, top cover in a box of parts I'd gotten from my chainsaw repair friend up the hill. What amazing luck!

I also sharpened his old chain (to use later) and installed a brand new Oregon JPX skip chain for his upcoming firewood bucking session.

The saw needed tuning but ran great. I didn't see the need to charge Justin more money for a carb rebuild since it was running so well. We can save this for later when it comes back for routine maintenance.

First message back after he picked up the saw was "This thing is ripping through wood! Thanks again. Couldn't be happier!" 🙃

05/17/2026

This Stihl M201tc climber saw would pop, but would not run. The carburetor has been cleaned and I’ve checked out the entire fuel system. This had symptoms reflecting an electrical problem.

I saw a video where there was a broken wire to the mtronic carburetor so I traced the entire wire and visually checked it for abrasions or damage.

Nothing

So I sent out to remove the wire in order to have a closer inspection. That was certainly an operation because this is the central nervous system of the entire saw.

Long story short, when I finally had the cable harness in my hands, I looked in the connector for the carburetor and that’s when I saw it.

One of the pins on the connector had been bent and crushed inward when somebody forced the plug without aligning it carefully.

It wasn’t me. 🙄😆

Anyway, I have some jewelers need those pliers that got in there pretty easily and bent the pin straight again. The saw runs beautifully.

I only wish I had thought of checking the carburetor plug before going through the whole procedure of removing the wire harness. 😫😆

05/17/2026

Andrew brought in 2 echo SRM 225s that weren’t running correctly. The one that belonged to his significant other was flooding itself, and his was simply not starting.

He also expressed concern that the two units might get mixed up. His partner had put her initials on hers and he wanted his identified as well. I aim to please, so I created a little label for his. He got a real kick out of that. 😆😆😆

Katie’s weedeater had a very clogged air filter, which might’ve contributed to its frequent flooding since air is restricted from coming into the carburetor so it will suck more fuel instead. I still needed to clean the carburetor in case the needle valve was jammed, which is the other contributor to flooding.

Andrew’s weedeater was good more complicated. The plugs that prevent access to the tuning screws had been removed already so that raise a little suspicion. The metering diaphragm and his carburetor was absolutely stiff so there’s no way that thing was going to start.

His carburetor was very difficult to tune, but I finally got the high and low jets in balance.

05/17/2026

Yesterday was Echo weedeater repair day in my workshop. Several had come in over the last few days and I had to crank them out to get my aisle space back.

This SRM 211 is old but has plenty of life left in it. I was initially concerned about the low compression reading, but then it occurred to me that possibly this had not been used in a long time and the cylinder walls were dry. So I used my little eyedropper and put a few drops of two-stroke oil on the exhaust and intake sides of the piston and tested again. Kumpe compression definitely improved!

A carburetor rebuild, new air filter, and some tuning and it was good to go again.

05/16/2026

This Stihl FS 250 was very hard to start and kept flooding itself. Obviously, I tried to unflood it with the customer there. And then gradually moved toward the workbench to do a compression test.

100 psi …not good

Took the muffler off, expecting to find piston scoring, and there was none. Either way, this thing needs at least new rings and possibly a new piston and cylinder if they are damaged.

The customer and I agreed that I would tear it down and order the parts needed for a rebuild.

After he left, I couldn’t resist tearing it apart right away since it was already on my workbench. Why put it at the end of the line if I can just knock it out now?

Long story short, there’s no sign of overheat, no scoring, just good healthy worn out piston rings from a lot of mileage.

Little bit of oxidation on the crankshaft, but the bearings and all movable parts are in good condition. The labor is the same for changing piston rings as it is for changing a piston, or even a cylinder. There’s no reason to think this piston cannot be reused, although it does show a little wear on the skirt, but that’s likely more to do with piston ring wear than anything to do with the piston itself. Cylinder is in great shape.

This should be a fairly easy, inexpensive job. And will bring new life to the brush cutter.

Meadow Vista Saw

05/22/2026

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