If you change coil before taking of the old one note the clearance between the coil and flywheel. It can effect the spark.
Fred
yeah. I just watched a youtube video and someone had an issue with their rev limiter which is in the coil which I didn’t know and it was slogging down prior to this issue. I’m about 90% sure it is the coil at this point.
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You just got to love those old Stihls, the first ones ever made. The whole electric part was identical to that of a Tomos motorbikes, and Puchs too, wery popular here, every house had one, so there was no problems for spare parts.
But the down side is just the magnet (flyweel), coils and the coil houseing weights about as much as a modern small chainsaw 
A full saw with a medium long sward weights about 13kg if l remember right. About 30 pounds.
Had to wake ours up after about 10 years of sleep (she is about 40 years old her self) the other day, a thick spruce had to be cacrificed for our new apartment. A shot of gas squirted in the air filter, started right away. Its like holding a enduro in your hand
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I have an old homelite that weighs literally like 30lbs. I tried using that thing, and my arms hurt. 
It needs an overhaul kit, but with the weight of that saw, you don’t even have to hold it. It just sits in the groove and goes.
The stihl is an ms361 so not the old series. I like it minus the pain to get it started which is like 3 pulls at full choke then you have to hear fire, then move it to half choke and pull a couple more times. If you miss hearing it pop, then it floods, and you have to wait 5 minutes.
The coil will fix that… if not just ship it out here that is the saw I need to get my 460 gets heavy fast…
This is the kind we have. Two of these, and two of the newer 051.
Like you sayd, the weight is in a way your friend.
My father in law had to carry this saw, two galons of oil and a gallon of oil plus a axe to a forest about 10km far, work all day, then carry it back home, at the age of 13. The times were tough. He often says how he cryed from exauction.
Hand one of these to nowdays teenagers, they weigh a bit more then a smartphone
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the 361 is actually pretty nice when it works. 
I can use a 28" bar with a skip chain and it cuts fairly fast. the 460 cuts faster, but not worth it for me since I don’t even use the 28" bar very often. I usually have a 18" bar on it. and for brush, I usually use the woodshark with the 14" bar.
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Jo,
I see in sweden, you don’t mess around climbing the mountains to cut down trees. You just cut down the mountains.
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You may be right actually, when it comes to mining 
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For those of you who mess with wood
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Coil is on order. Apparently there are 2-3 knock off versions of the ignition coil from China at least judging from the pictures. Hopefully I ended up with one that “starts in two pulls” like the comments said.
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Got some wood comeing out of the hopper too clean out the pluged char bed,fun just learing now that the vacuem gauges are installed,
for some reason i drove home at max 35 mph with 25–1 vac.
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Wayne Sutton is actually a local neighbor to me.
Was sad loss when he sold his saw shop. We’d used that for those 20 years. Buyer man and wife team did a good job too until forced out by a combo of personal health and the collapse of their next door state licensed liqueur store. Big box chain stores put up a voter initiative to have grocery story liqueur. Passed. With now an additional per liter 40% “spirits” tax.
Now liquor much more available for a 30% higher walk out price.
Stihl saw starting is enhanced with all of the points made above.
And I do this best with PNW loggers, drop-saw pulling. Caution. Not for amateurs/hobbists. Why the operator/safety manuals explicitly forbid drop-saw/pull starting.
J-I-C Steve Unruh
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Steve I use that same method of starting them. Most of the time I don’t even bother with the compression release because the drop method works so well.
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Wow JO, that’s one big chainsaw from the angle of the picture was taken and the guy behind it. Does it run on woodgas? Put some wheels on it, and go for ride though the forest cutting all the trees down. OPPS! Hope no tree hauggers read this. Went, a minute, I love trees too, but I do like cutting up dead ones and putting all that wood to good use, getting all the energy out of it that I can before putting the ash back into the ground to grow more trees. Renewable resources and all organic, carbon neutral. Good for the environment. Yes!
Bob
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I just can’t figure out who they get to flip that saw on its side. Around here the blade needs to be horizontal to fall my trees… lol
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The old McCulloch’s had a swivel and clamp so that the saw remained horizontal and the blade could be at any angle
The centrifugal clutch was a rubber bladder filled with mercury rather than the weights and springs in use today
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I have a Stihl 036, 25 years old. Still starts and runs like when it was new. I had trouble years ago probably related to alcohol blended fuel. The original fuel filter stone disintegrated, filling the carburetor with fine residue, requiring disassembly and cleaning. The carb is a fairly simple aluminum cube, and the settings are fairly simple, laid out in the manual. It’s running on it’s second spark plug, but probably due for a new one.
The air filtration isn’t as good as the Husqvarna centrifugal system by a wide margin, but quite adequate. I carry a plastic brush to clean the sawdust off at refueling. The original flock coated air filters were problematic, as the flocking is delicate and would wear off, allowing debris to pass the filter. I recently replaced the filter, now Stihl uses a fine stainless mesh instead, that will last.
I always use the brake on my saw, and to date it has required no attention. Not employing the brake, or disabling it is amongst the most dangerous things that could be done. Really a person shouldn’t even take a step without the brake applied, a chainsaw should be considered safe only if your feet don’t move. Cleaning brush is good practice, but in practice it’s impossible to safely clear all tripping hazards around trees. You certainly will trip now and then, and probably on the most insignificant things, so I see it as just minimizing the consequences.
As for bucking up logs, cutting over snow is great for providing safe clearance. I also agree generally with what Steve says. I also like to bend over and cut fairly perpendicular to the ground, but if you have a good sense of where the bar tip is, you can cut pretty close to the bottom without great risk, and generally one cut somewhere should be right through, then you can kick the log over a bit, and safely complete the other cuts.
It might be over cautious, but I like to blend the fuel at 25:1, rather than the 50:1 they recommend. I feel it gives a wider margin of protection, and doesn’t seem to cause plug fouling. It does seem to serve to repel mosquitoes…
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