Chainsaw Won't Stay Running

[How Do I]

I have a chainsaw that won't stay running unless you keep your finger on the trigger. If you take your finger off, it idles for a few seconds and then starts gradually dying until it stops. Start it back up and it will idle for a few more seconds and then stop again unless you keep revving on it. When sawing with it, you have to keep pumping the trigger to keep it running fully through the cut or it dies out. What wrong with this chainsaw??

[WolfWalksSoftly]

Sounds like you need a carb kit. If you haven't used it in a while, the o rings probably dried out.

[stranger]

turn the idle screw up a little so the saw will stay running, start the saw, sink it into a log and adjust the mixture screw til the saw had power and snap when you give it the gas, then readjust the idle screw.

[WayneR]

May not be getting enough air. After replacing the filter on a Poulan actually drilled a series of small holes in the plastic cowling to admit more air directly to the filter. Drilled them on the side of the cover away from the chain (L).

This was after new carb kit, fuel line/filter and air filter. Ran fine without the cowling/filter. Of course you couldn't use it like that.

[sugarbush]

what brand and model?

[Missy M]

Carbs have small ports where the fuel feed the machine during idle. The problem you describes sounds like your idle ports are plugged. That's why you have to rev it to keep it going. Having to leave the choke on so it won't die is another way of knowing that this is the problem. Try a good cleaning.

[TNHermit]

What shape is the air filter in. if it got wet it could be your problem. If not the diaphragm in your carb might have a hole,split in it. Most of the time a good cleaning, air adjustment and new filter should fix it.
Once in a great while a plug will cause this. Somehow they build up a resistance of some kind.

[How Do I]

The saw is Echo CS-305. I checked the air filter before and it looked fine. After checking it again, up to a bright light, it looked pretty clogged. Nothing externally was showing on the filter, but if you held it up to a bright light you could see the darkened areas deep in the fiber of the filter. I cleaned it out retried it and it is running much better now (idling normal, no trigger pumping needed to keep it running through a cut). I'll go ahead and get a new filter for it at the hardware store this afternoon. Thanks for throwing all of those ideas out there for me to check!

[RACCOON]

Check ur gas filter ,it's inside ur gas tank ,they're noted for clogging ,and not letting gas to carb