Stihl 051 AVL 1. - What did I buy?

Motivation

This was a true impulse buy, because I didn’t really need such a monster, but for some reason I like these older machines. When I saw a few of these for sale, I wanted to find one that is a good candidate for a restoration project. What’s the challenge in buying a mint condition one, right?

The 051 AV is 89 CC saw from the 70’s, I didn’t weigh it, but I’d guess that it must be around 14-15 kg when fueled up, with a hefty bar. More specs here.

This exact one is interestingly an AVL variant, and I couldn’t really find any reliable info on how this differs from the AV(E). However, this is probably earlier model, since it has a metal top cover, I think the later ones had a plastic one. And of course no break, only the later ones had that, but I’m definitely not an expert in this.

So is it worth restoring this?

Absolutely, the saw seemingly doesn’t have any big issues, apart from the normal wear and tear. I mean, this is a 50 year old machine, of course the rubber mounts are gone, probably the fuel lines need to be replaced, carb kit etc. The engine itself has a healthy sound as far as I can tell, maybe a bit of a bearing noise? I’m not sure, but I intend to tear it down completely, and rebuild with new bearing and seals.

The oil pump also works, the only issue is that the stop switch is not working, but hopefully that’s just a bad switch, or some wiring problem.

I didn’t do much cutting with it though since some of the rubber mounts are completely broken, and some screws just started to fall out, well yeah, this beast has seen some better days.

The next step is take it apart, clean everything, and see exactly what we got. I’m already excited about this project, because I think this saw is really good for a restoration, as the main parts seem to be working well, and what it needs is a general maintenance, fixes and probably some cosmetics.