Chain on Remington Outlaw saw goes slack quickly

[Robert P]

I've been using my Remington Outlaw 20" saw while I've got my Echo shown in my avatar apart. The Remington runs like a champ but the chain becomes really slack pretty quickly - after maybe 15 minutes of moderate brush clearing, cutting through growth of mostly 1" - 2".

It's the chain that came on it - could it be just a low grade metal that stretches readily?

How often do you re-tighten your chain?

 

[huskihl]

If you haven’t used it much, it could be the new chain stretching. If the saw has been used a lot, it could also be a worn sprocket on the clutch drum

 

[Raj]

How's it oiling?

 

[Bart]

Any residual dirt will have a tendency to keep grinding your pin clearances. Seems almost impossible to wash out, but eventually the oiling cleaning action slows down the stretching. The metal itself is not stretching, its the precision of all the pivot points wearing away. IMO

 

[Robert P]

How's it oiling?

Seems okay.

 

[gf beranek]

I recall a time when a chain was running loose. So I tightened it up until it was just right. Perfect!

Got to cutting and the chain become so tight it was smoking the bar. WTF?

So I loosened it until it was just perfect.

Got to cutting again and the chain became so loose it almost fall off the bar. WTF?

The culprit, I discovered, was a worn sprocket. It had two grooves: a deep groove and a shallow groove.

The chain would jump from one groove to the other depending on how it was tensioned.

Put a new sprocket on... perfect.

Funny.

 

[Nutball]

Some chains loosen when they get hot. That's why it is recommended to loosen a chain when the saw isn't in use, so it doesn't over tighten and hurt the bearings. I had a new stihl chain loosen a lot on a new bar when I was holding full throttle for a minute for the m-tronic calibration process. Then it would tighten up after cooling.

Some saws will tighten or loosen as the bar gradually creeps up or down. if you loosen the bar nuts and tighten the chain gust right, normally you can lift the bar and it will loosen the chain. I would have that problem with my 271t because it only had one bar stud. Regular cutting would loosen the chain, but cutting with the top of the bar would over tighten it gradually.

 

[Robert P]

I recall a time when a chain was running loose. So I tightened it up until it was just right. Perfect!

Got to cutting and the chain become so tight it was smoking the bar. WTF?

So I loosened it until it was just perfect.

Got to cutting again and the chain became so loose it almost fall off the bar. WTF?

The culprit, I discovered, was a worn sprocket. It had two grooves: a deep groove and a shallow groove.

The chain would jump from one groove to the other depending on how it was tensioned.

Put a new sprocket on... perfect.

Funny.

It hasn't had a huge amount of use - I wouldn't think enough to cause that but I'll look at it closely.

 

[Bart]

Another culprit is occasional partial bar nose kickbacks, in a plunge or just a mistake. They will kick the position of your bar, perhaps regardless of how aggressively you tighten the nuts. I believe this is the reason some bar installation instructions have you pivot the bar up as limited by the studs before tightening the nuts.

Consistent tightening/heating with use is poor oiling. Or you gotta run looser if that's as good as your oiling is gonna get.

 

[SeanKroll]

I've only ever heard to have to bar in the slightly bar-up position for tensioning.

Bar position will affect the gunning sight, slightly.

 

[Altissimus]

Rare (once or twice tops) , but I have had the semi stripped adjuster bolt ... did same thing until I figured it outa