My Husqvarna 450 died mid-cut on a big maple yesterday

I was about 3/4 through a 30 inch limb over a driveway in Portland when the saw just quit. No sputter, no warning, just dead. Pulled the cord maybe 20 times with no luck. Ended up having to tie off the limb and finish it with a handsaw while balancing on the ladder. Got it home and found the spark plug wire had completely corroded through at the boot. Never had that happen on a saw with under 200 hours on it. Anyone else run into weird electrical failures on these newer models?

4 comments

4 Comments

wendy_lee4816d ago

Yeah @spencer_gonzalez1, electrical gremlins are the worst.

josephbailey17d ago

My buddy had almost the same thing happen with his 450 last summer. He was cutting up some storm damage behind his garage, saw just died mid cut like someone flipped a switch. He spent two days going through the carb and fuel lines before he finally noticed the wire had rubbed through where it passed under the air filter housing. Said the insulation was completely gone and it was grounding out on the metal.

spencer_gonzalez116d ago

Man that's exactly what happened with my Stihl 261 last fall. I chased fuel issues for two days before I noticed the wire insulation was rubbed raw where it ran along the handlebar. A little electrical tape and she's been running fine ever since.

olivermason16d ago

Not so sure it was the wire itself causing the problem though. @josephbailey mentioned his buddy spent two days on the carb and fuel lines, which is exactly the trap these gremlins set. A rubbed wire can kill spark in a heartbeat, but a loose kill switch wire or a bad plug wire connection does the same thing and looks identical. You sure it wasn't the connection at the coil or the plug boot that was the root cause, not just the tape fix?