The symptom pattern

The chain brake is meant to be an emergency stop: pull it forward — by hand, or automatically on kickback — and the chain should stop dead. The fault here is that it doesn’t. The lever moves, it engages, and the chain keeps spinning anyway, or slows without actually stopping.

This is worth taking seriously precisely because it’s rarely obvious in normal cutting. The brake only gets tested in an emergency, so a saw can run for a long time with a brake that no longer works before anyone finds out — at exactly the moment it matters most.

What’s actually happening

Makita’s own manual for this saw lists this exact symptom in its troubleshooting table, in the same terms owners report it: “chain does not stop even the chain brake is engaged.” Their stated cause is a worn brake band — the band inside the clutch drum that the brake mechanism clamps down to arrest the chain. As it wears, it loses the friction needed to stop the drum quickly, and eventually stops working at all even though the lever still moves and clicks normally.

It’s worth separating this from two things it can look like. A chain that won’t run at all, brake engaged or not, usually just means the brake is still on — release it first. And a saw that vibrates abnormally is something Makita trace to a loose or mistensioned guide bar and chain, which is a completely different fault from a worn brake band and doesn’t affect braking at all.

Working through it

Unplug the saw before touching anything — this is not a fault to investigate live, and there’s no diagnostic value in running a saw with a suspect brake to see what happens.

With the saw unplugged, work the brake lever by hand and confirm it travels its full range and engages with a positive click. If the lever itself is stiff, obstructed, or doesn’t latch, that’s a mechanical problem with the lever or linkage rather than the band, though the manual doesn’t split that case out separately.

If the lever engages properly and the chain still isn’t held, Makita’s troubleshooting table gives one answer: the brake band is worn. There’s no inspection step offered for checking band wear directly, because Makita don’t intend for an owner to open the clutch drum on this saw.

The fix

Makita’s instruction is unambiguous, and it’s worth quoting rather than softening: stop using the tool immediately, and ask your local authorised service centre. That’s their standard remedy for a worn brake band on this model, alongside a cable fault and general tool malfunction elsewhere in the same table. There’s no owner-level repair path offered, and given what a chain brake is for, that’s not a corner worth cutting yourself.

Verdict

Get it looked at rather than get it back into use. A chain saw is a comparatively inexpensive tool in this class, and a service-centre brake repair is worth pricing against a replacement saw before deciding which way to go — but that’s a decision to make with the saw sitting unused, not one to make by continuing to cut with a brake that doesn’t reliably stop the chain.