Fixing Our Electric Chainsaw

Last summer, we needed some trees taken down in the yard.  The trees being large enough to smash something valuable in any direction they fell, our landlords outsourced the operation to professionals.  The wood from the trees, representing a disposal cost for the arborists (and a valuable source of heat for us), stayed in the yard, but in barely-small-enough-to-move portions.  This spring, we got an electric chainsaw to convert it into more bite-size bits.  It worked gloriously.

This summer, we tackled another tree on our own (being amateur arborists ourselves) that was less dangerous, but had a bit of an ingrown fence problem.  As luck would have it, the last cut of the felling operation saw a chainsaw tooth collide with a link of chainlink fence.  The result was that the electric motor continued to spin, but the chain, not so much.  The fix turned out to be relatively simple, but there were a few tricks we wanted to make note of in case we have to do it again.  It's here on the blog because 1. we'll know where to find it and 2. someone else might also find the tricks useful.  Here goes:

Sprocket gear comparison: well, there's your problem!  That there sprocket gear on the left only has half his teeth!  Solution: buy a new sprocket gear.  Useful trick #1: the sprocket gear assembly sold by Sears for this model is the wrong part for our saw, which came from Lowe's.  Fortunately, PartsTree has us covered and gives two options, which prompted us to count the teeth to make sure we got the right one.  Our saw has (had) 59 teeth on its sprocket gear.

Drive gear in place, then new sprocket gear on top like this.

Then the bar, the sprocket cover and e-ring (it's not just for getting electronically engaged anymore!).  The sprocket cover isn't shown directly on the parts diagram.

When putting the shield back on, the chain tensioner has a hook that has to engage with the bar in order for the tension screw to work.  Useful trick #2: the best view of that is from the bottom of the saw, although it's not great even from there.

With the new sprocket gear, it cuts like a boss!  Or at least, the chain moves with the motor now.  It would cut a lot better if the chain were sharp.  Guess we know what the next task is!

Do you have any other tips for replacing the sprocket gear on a chainsaw?