Rant: That "free to good home" ad with the 20-year-old chainsaw was a disaster waiting to happen

I saw this Craigslist post last week for a free Stihl 029 that the owner said just needed a new spark plug. I know these older saws are tanks, so I figured I'd grab it for a backup. Got it home, put in a plug, and it fired up for about 10 seconds before shooting a cloud of smoke and locking up solid. Turns out the piston was scored from running on bad gas mix, and the carb was gummed up way worse than advertised. I spent 3 hours taking it apart only to find the cylinder was shot too. The lesson I learned is that "free" usually means someone else's headache dumped on your workbench. Has anyone else picked up a fixer-upper from marketplace that turned into a bigger mess than promised?

2 comments

2 Comments

max80810d ago

My buddy grabbed a "runs great" pressure washer off Facebook and the engine threw a rod in 20 minutes, sounded like a shotgun went off in his driveway. He said the seller was already blocked and gone by the time he messaged them.

young.emma10d ago

I picked up a Husqvarna 350 that was "just sitting for a year" and flushing the carb twice and replacing the fuel lines got it running like new for under 20 bucks. Sometimes you get lucky if the issue is simple laziness instead of real damage.

-1