Stihl MS290Z chainsaw

[woodburner67]

Working on this for a friend, who loaned it to a friend who returned it all jacked out. The problem is that it's extremely hard to pull the starter rope. There is no de-compression valve that I can find. I can remove the starter/recoil assy and turn the flywheel by hand with relative ease. The starter/recoil assy operates freely off the machine and I see no signs of components binding anywhere. Could I be the only one out there with this problem?

 

[Boobala]

If you remove the spark-plug does it pull easier..?? If so, I would remove the muffler, check for blockage of exhaust port, reinstall plug, try pullin recoil without the muffler, it MIGHT be a plugged muffler.