Thread: Husqvarna 266xp price check?

Hi all

I was hoping to tap into the forums chainsaw wisdom...
Looking at buying a old 266xp saw (1990 mfg), by all accounts a good saw in its day. Seems to have had light use, everything is original, good compression, oils bar okay,no play in clutch/drive shaft I can feel. Cuts bloody good! Asking local agent parts are available but getting scarcer. Big question what's it worth? Guy wants $550, that reasonable?

I'm wanting it as a domestic firewood saw so not looking for loads of use but like good kit!

That’s a reasonable price

I agree, good price and an excellent saw, have one in the shed.


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If its an XP that's a very fair price.

If its been looked after, which it sounds like it has, it will see you out if you look after it.

good price, good saw

I'd buy it if you don't at that price

I'm going to be the one negative comment by the looks of it. Not because of any fault with the saw design, they go really good, easy to work on for a fiddly arse Husqvarna (thats a relative thing for Husqvarna - some of their designs are an exercise in microsurgery to work on) and not too heavy. Also relatively decent vibration dampening but that's not that important if you aren't full time on them.

From my experience of peeing about with older saws it's a high likelihood of needing to really get into the thing in the carb and fuel system - replacing the carb gaskets and diaphragms and also replacing the fuel lines and everything related to liquid handling. I've even had the oil pump rubber components poo themselves with the change to the modern cleaner bar oils. This isn't a problem if you enjoy working on saws and have the gear and know-how to strip out the bits, rekit them and refit and then retune the saw to start and run correctly but if you have to pay someone to do it that becomes a pretty pricey old saw. There's very high likelihood of this needing to be done in the first times you put a day on the saw, as our fuel has changed and likely the newer fuel will cause the diaphragms, hoses and gaskets to give up the ghost.

That said if it's in truly mint condition than probably it might be worth a premium price if you're a saw collector considering it's 32 odd years old. If it was me, I'd be looking to track down a newer model either near new or with a known history from a good user who looks after their kit and turns it over regularly. You'd be looking at spending something in the region of $650 - $850 and getting something that would be easier to find bits for and less likely to require a full rebuild of the fluid system.

run it 45;1 instead of 50;1 or there abouts...my older Bro is a husky man and does this with all of his as they had issues some time back with the slightly leaner mix...
its not a Stihl but thats good price for what is considered a good saw.

That's good advice, I run everything on 40:1 simply because all of the mixing bottles come marked for 25, 30, 40 and 50:1 - the difference in cost is negligible but at 50:1 the difference between an accidentally skinny brew of mixed fuel and correctly mixed could be the piston and cylinder hanging up. 40:1 gives you a slightly greater cock up margin but it's a denser fuel mix though so you may need to retune your saw to run correctly on it in terms of the metering setup with the high and low adjustment screws.

Cheers all, have taken a punt on it and bought it. See it was originally spec'ed to run on 40:1, might keep doing that for reasons out lined above.

My mate just paid $400 for this 266 , it had a service diary original bar and the original chainbrake . Mechanically it’s mint .

https://www.trademe.co.nz/home-livin...3802405286.htm

Imho $550 is really getting up there for one of them and while they share most parts they don’t share all parts with the later saws even though they look the same . Great saws though and pretty easy to work on .

Recently scored a Huskie 346XP via local dealer from deceased estate, still in box & pretty much unused for $500. Been dealing to some fallen down old pines - it’s a bloody ripper.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

run it 45;1 instead of 50;1 or there abouts...my older Bro is a husky man and does this with all of his as they had issues some time back with the slightly leaner mix...
its not a Stihl but thats good price for what is considered a good saw.

Up to and including 75cc Husky recommend 50:1, and now recommend 33:1 on saws above 75cc.

Originally Posted by chainsaw

Recently scored a Huskie 346XP via local dealer from deceased estate, still in box & pretty much unused for $500. Been dealing to some fallen down old pines - it’s a bloody ripper.

I’ve got one of those aswell, great little saw. Mine needs a little love though, but it’s way down the list.


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Originally Posted by McNotty

Up to and including 75cc Husky recommend 50:1, and now recommend 33:1 on saws above 75cc.

It's an environmental recommendation not for any benefit to the saw - although the newest spec synthetic modern oils are very capable of running at 50:1 mixes or even leaner in lightly loaded engines. The bigger issue for me is when you are buying small quantities of oils and using different suppliers (the good old whatever you can get at the time). You won't burn a piston/cylinder or damage a bearing on a 40:1 mix even swapping out the brands of 2-stroke oil you are using randomly. I've even had to use marine two-stroke oil designed for water cooled boat engines at 75:1, in small two-stroke engines when in the back of the wops and we ran out of the normal stuff (much bigger job than lead to believe as per normal). Not ideal, but no damage to the little pumps and they are still in use today a couple of years later.

I have a lot of Chinese gear here, blower/mister units etc and they all advise 25:1 in the user manuals that come with them. I've been told that is due to often they do not have oil designed to be used as part of a 2stroke mixed fuel so are effectively using 4-stroke oil in fuel - I just use my normal 2-stroke oil at 40:1 in them and haven't had any issues yet.

The bigger engines revving slower can produce more load on contact points with lower airflow through the engine, so it kind of makes sense to me on the 33:1 on larger engines although Stihl recommend 50:1 on everything.

The 33 to 1 mix for the 60cc and larger saws is specifically to protect the clutch side crank bearing

The large bar mount huskies/Stihl suffer when noobs run the chain too tight