Hello All- I have a Mac 838 (seems to be very similar to the 738) that I bought from new about 18 months ago. I have not used it very much at all, maybe 10 times in that period. We recently had a woodburner installed, and now I really need the saw, it`s playing up. There does not seem to be enough bar oil getting to the bar and chain. The tank is full, but only a small amount is delivered to the bar, resulting in smoke when cutting wood and a blunt chain. I`ve had the bar off and cleaned everything up- bar groove, oil holes, curved chamber where oil comes from etc, but no change. Seems unlikely pump malfunctioning after such a short time? Any ideas?

Most saws have an adjustment screw to alter the oil flow. Have you found that and opened it up? Correct flow rate is oil tank should just get to empty from full on a full tank of fuel. Not enough oil would not normally blunt the chain, just cause it to stretch (the links and bar sprocket would wear, not the cutting teeth). An overheating chain can also be caused by it being set too tight or by the teeth being blunt.
Always test that oil is being fed to the chain before use by holding it at 90 deg to a piece of wood (ie. end of the bar / chain pointing at the wood) about 4-6" away and reving the engine. You should see oil splatter on the wood after quite a short period as it flies off the chain as the chain goes around the end sprocket. If the pump is set to max and you are still not getting enough oil on the chain you can still use the saw until you identify the problem by squirting 2 or 3 squitrs of oil on the chain from an oil can every 2 or 3 cuts.

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Mike

Hi Mike- All info I`ve seen on the net about this saw just says that lubrication is `automatic`, and I can`t see in the manual any mention of adjustment of oil flow, so I take it that it`s fixed. It used to work fine at first, oil and fuel tanks emptying at roughly same rate, but recently this problem has arisen. None/ very little oil is apparent when pointing bar at a piece of wood. I`ll fire it up with bar off and see how much oil if any comes out of oil hole in body. Cheers Gary

hmm, Never seen a chain cutter that did not have a oil flow adjustment screw before.
Something to do with page 1 part number 32 maybe?

http://www.4mcculloch.co.uk/images/mediator/1282/mipl2008_545103497.pdf

Try here as well

http://lawnandgarden.manualsonline.com/support/mcculloch/chainsaw

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Mike

Finally got round to taking bar off and firing it up. Plenty of oil coming from the oil hole in the bar mount. Noticed that the bar was bent (maybe 3-4mm out in the centre when held against a straight edge), tried to gently tease it back straight by pushing down on ends with centre against edge of bench. This did`nt seem to work. Turned bar over and re fitted and now seems to have oil flow again. I think bend in bar was spurious- I think I just had`nt let saw warm up enough (weather cold), and maybe bar oil not as viscose as it should have been.