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#Post#: 4359--------------------------------------------------
Homelite 540
DIR By: Chainsawrepair
Date: October 2, 2011, 10:31 am
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Just helping someone out and want to save UT # and IPL while I
am looking.
UT 10611
A97690
#Post#: 88232--------------------------------------------------
Re: Homelite 540 ad
DIR By: Cut4fun
Date: July 29, 2021, 7:51 am
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First time seeing a homelite ad like this.
#Post#: 88517--------------------------------------------------
Re: Homelite 540
DIR By: Spike60
Date: October 13, 2021, 7:18 pm
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My 540 didn't come with that accessory. :(
#Post#: 91830--------------------------------------------------
Re: Homelite 540
DIR By: Chainsawrepair
Date: February 6, 2026, 8:08 am
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Just saving a old post.
There's been lots of discussions in the past regarding why
Homelite changed the 540's thin ring piston and cylinder to the
8800's design. Many people have reports that it was due to
overheating, and that's been the accepted answer. A few days ago
on a Homelite group on facebook, an individual shed a whole new
light on this topic. I won't name him, since he may not want
that, but hopefully he'll come over here and share even more of
his knowledge of history on these saws. Heck, he may even be a
member here already. I just know that when I read this, it
really made sense and wanted to share what he said. And, I
believe every word since he was a regional service manager for
Homelite. I won't quote his post verbatim but will try to
summarize.
Previous field service individuals told stories about how one
540 would be bulletproof and yet the very next serial number
unit would blow up. To solve the problem, engineering took the
shotgun blast approach by changing to the thick ringed piston
and also mods to the cylinder, instead of trying to pinpoint the
root cause for 540 failures. Soon after the 8800 design
changeover took place, a worker-bee on the assembly line spoke
up and said "why did you change all this stuff and not fix the
alignment pin issue on the crankcase halves?". ???
So, I'll be a .... that just makes perfect sense. If the case
halves didn't align, the cylinder deck would have a gap and the
base gasket was very thin on these. Air leak would develop and
there's another bad saw.
Still questions remain though. If the 8800s had the same
crankcase alignment problems, how many of them also developed an
air leak? Maybe the leak was so insignificant and the thin rings
on the 540 just happened to push past the limit. Maybe the pin
alignment problem was beyond control of the in-house engineering
team since pretty sure Lunt produced the castings, and maybe
they just did whatever was available to try to band-aid the
problem. The market was very competitive with Husqvarna and
stihl coming on strong, so maybe they just reacted in the only
way they could to try to hope the saw wouldn't get a bad name.
The changeover from the plastic to magnesium rear handle was
likely based on another failure or quality incident. It'd be
great to learn the details on that one.
Anyways, stills lots of unknowns, but this little tidbit of
information makes good sense of at least one aspect of this
series of saws.
Dan
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