The "I'm Obsessive With Lawn Tractors" Thread
- Thread starter pagrunt
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Old friend of mine moved down there many years ago. He landed somewhere on the panhandle. he keeps bugging me to come on down when we talk; not gonna happen, mostly because I can't the health care down there that I get here unless I am willing to shell out $$$$$. Plus which, if choosing between -40 degree winter weather up here vs hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods down there, I'll take the cold. At least it doesn't dump you up to your *ss in gators and snakes.
Not so much that I don't understand that you have and enjoy a totally different type of life and lifestyle down there, more a case of me being too old to bother with the hassle of packing up my life and belongings and relocating to somewhere different. Here, at least, while the B.S level is about eyeball deep, it is all familiar c**p and I know how to work the system. There, not at all, and for a lot of things I am not as patient as i used to be. (If i ever was) The adage about "different countries, different customs", about says it all.
Nick
Nick
Had a break in the rain so I got outside and started into the Craftsman. Had already put fresh oil in it, plug was good. New gas tank and starter solenoid came in on Thursday so I installed them, put some gas in it, connected the battery and hit it.
Pretty much started instantly under the choke setting. Let it hold there for a little bit then backed down the throttle to mid way and it just took off in RPM. Put it back up into choke mode and it idled down. Held it there for longer and tried to get it to hold a mid range RPM. It kept idling to the limit until it started knocking and clattering so there went the rod bearing. Got it start again and that time it held a mid range RPM so whatever it was in the carb finally started acting right but the engine was already toast at that point. Held idle until it locked up. Yay carbs....🙄
I walked away for a minute and got the other riding mower that I got that day since it was also a Briggs & Stratton engine. Rolled it up and looked it over, pretty much identical on the mounting point, exhaust port, starter, coil, and carb was identical, throttle linkage the same, so said yup and started into looking that one over. Drained the oil, pulled the plug, spun over nice. Same thing as the first the float stuck open and it was all full of old gas. Got all that out and prepped it for install. I wanted to use the Craftsman because it was in better shape and already put money into new parts for it.
Started tearing the Craftsman one down, drained the oil and it was full of glitter..
Pulled the engine from the other mower and got it ready for install..
Bolted it up, hooked everything up that needed to be hooked up, muffler & main drive pulley bolted up fine. Fuel line, wiring, throttle linkage all installed fine. Fresh oil in, plug back in, turned the key and it fired off instantly..
It held RPM under choke setting fine, went to idle down and it stalled out. So pretty much opposite of the first time. I couldn't get it to run right so I swapped the carb out with the first one. The old gas definitely gummed up the one that was originally on it. Put the carb on from the first engine and it started up under choke mode fine, this time I had mid range RPM when I idled it down so whatever it was decided to work. The joys...
Made an adjustment to the brake linkage so I had functioning brakes, and ran a few passes through the yard with it..
Worked perfectly fine. Not one hiccup. I'll have to do some research into what this engine exactly is..
Pulled the starter and coil from the engine that blew up and put them in a box, they are identical to what is on here. I put the gummed up carb in there too, I'll keep it as a backup incase I need it. Saved the deck belt from the other mower. My next day off I'll go through the wiring and clean it up, di-electric grease on all connections, secure moving parts that could wear out like the fuel line, etc. I put the other mower chassis with the blown up engine and everything else not needed on the curb for the neighborhood cleanup crew.
Not too bad for $100 in. 🙂
Pretty much started instantly under the choke setting. Let it hold there for a little bit then backed down the throttle to mid way and it just took off in RPM. Put it back up into choke mode and it idled down. Held it there for longer and tried to get it to hold a mid range RPM. It kept idling to the limit until it started knocking and clattering so there went the rod bearing. Got it start again and that time it held a mid range RPM so whatever it was in the carb finally started acting right but the engine was already toast at that point. Held idle until it locked up. Yay carbs....🙄
I walked away for a minute and got the other riding mower that I got that day since it was also a Briggs & Stratton engine. Rolled it up and looked it over, pretty much identical on the mounting point, exhaust port, starter, coil, and carb was identical, throttle linkage the same, so said yup and started into looking that one over. Drained the oil, pulled the plug, spun over nice. Same thing as the first the float stuck open and it was all full of old gas. Got all that out and prepped it for install. I wanted to use the Craftsman because it was in better shape and already put money into new parts for it.
Started tearing the Craftsman one down, drained the oil and it was full of glitter..
Pulled the engine from the other mower and got it ready for install..
Bolted it up, hooked everything up that needed to be hooked up, muffler & main drive pulley bolted up fine. Fuel line, wiring, throttle linkage all installed fine. Fresh oil in, plug back in, turned the key and it fired off instantly..
It held RPM under choke setting fine, went to idle down and it stalled out. So pretty much opposite of the first time. I couldn't get it to run right so I swapped the carb out with the first one. The old gas definitely gummed up the one that was originally on it. Put the carb on from the first engine and it started up under choke mode fine, this time I had mid range RPM when I idled it down so whatever it was decided to work. The joys...
Made an adjustment to the brake linkage so I had functioning brakes, and ran a few passes through the yard with it..
Worked perfectly fine. Not one hiccup. I'll have to do some research into what this engine exactly is..
Pulled the starter and coil from the engine that blew up and put them in a box, they are identical to what is on here. I put the gummed up carb in there too, I'll keep it as a backup incase I need it. Saved the deck belt from the other mower. My next day off I'll go through the wiring and clean it up, di-electric grease on all connections, secure moving parts that could wear out like the fuel line, etc. I put the other mower chassis with the blown up engine and everything else not needed on the curb for the neighborhood cleanup crew.
Not too bad for $100 in. 🙂
Sounds like the governor mechanism had frozen; maybe rust or damage. Ran into that as a co-incidental problem during the carb float sinking thing a year or two ago.
The picture of the flywheel cover shows the logo "High Performance OHV"
What you are looking at is the Briggs and Stratton Over Head Valve edition of their motor. They came in one and two cylinder models; the twos were vertical twins and were mostly mounted to snowblower chassises. The OHV motors don't have the best reputation for two reasons, one being the country of production/origin, which just happens to be the same country that likes to fly balloons over NA for thrills and chills, and two, at least for the twins, they were known to catch fire due to the fuel lines being run too close to the cylinders. Whatever fuel hose was used was not heat resistant, or possibly not CSA fuel rated or approved, and tended to melt. Lot of recalls. Was in my neighborhood small engine dealership at Christmas and asked about the B&S twins and was told they are no longer being sold.
Learning that they were no longer being offered kind of bummed me out, even knowing the bad rep, simply because the fix is as simple as rerouting the line and/or using an insulated or high heat rated fuel line as a substitute. Depending on the geography it could even be possible to run the majority of the fuel line in copper or steel and just use rubber nipples to make the connections at the tank and carb.
Like a lot of mfgrs, Briggs went overseas when the whole global/ISO outsourcing fiasco became popular. I worked in a small engine shop decades ago and it was no big deal to take a supposedly worn out engine, tear it down, hone the barrel, and use an oversized piston and rebuild gasket set to put it back together. But that was when those motors were american made. Now they are just another bit of throw away technology; one and done. Really bums me out because my current lawnmower is a fugitive from under a lilac bush and is just about ready for new rings and valves. May just have to raid E-Beg for the parts.
Nick
The picture of the flywheel cover shows the logo "High Performance OHV"
What you are looking at is the Briggs and Stratton Over Head Valve edition of their motor. They came in one and two cylinder models; the twos were vertical twins and were mostly mounted to snowblower chassises. The OHV motors don't have the best reputation for two reasons, one being the country of production/origin, which just happens to be the same country that likes to fly balloons over NA for thrills and chills, and two, at least for the twins, they were known to catch fire due to the fuel lines being run too close to the cylinders. Whatever fuel hose was used was not heat resistant, or possibly not CSA fuel rated or approved, and tended to melt. Lot of recalls. Was in my neighborhood small engine dealership at Christmas and asked about the B&S twins and was told they are no longer being sold.
Learning that they were no longer being offered kind of bummed me out, even knowing the bad rep, simply because the fix is as simple as rerouting the line and/or using an insulated or high heat rated fuel line as a substitute. Depending on the geography it could even be possible to run the majority of the fuel line in copper or steel and just use rubber nipples to make the connections at the tank and carb.
Like a lot of mfgrs, Briggs went overseas when the whole global/ISO outsourcing fiasco became popular. I worked in a small engine shop decades ago and it was no big deal to take a supposedly worn out engine, tear it down, hone the barrel, and use an oversized piston and rebuild gasket set to put it back together. But that was when those motors were american made. Now they are just another bit of throw away technology; one and done. Really bums me out because my current lawnmower is a fugitive from under a lilac bush and is just about ready for new rings and valves. May just have to raid E-Beg for the parts.
Nick
Built6, agree that the cute little tag says/is "Made in USA." That acknowledged, that tag may not speak for the entire motor or its parts. While B&S might be corporately located in the US, it may still have its factories located elsewhere. The company can get away with saying it's products are "Made in the USA" just by having all the major components created abroad and then importing the sub-assemblies and other pieces into the country and doing the final assembly there. Here, where I live, we have a major commuter rail fabrication and assembly plant that builds cars for cities all over North America. Recently, because of free trade and some politikally driven manufacturing agreement,, the frames for these cars started to get produced in Mexico. One of my chapter brothers works for the plant and several entire shipments of frames have been rejected on arrival. NOTHING fit. Wrong size holes, in the wrong places, or not drilled at all, poor measurements, you name it. And the kicker? They all supposedly passed a Quality Check prior to Shipment!!! To add insult to injury, due to a contract delivery clause, they couldn't just turf the junk and wait for a fresh supply to come in, instead they had to do an in-house total rework on those frames to get them corrected here, which put them behind schedule for delivery and cost BIG $$$$ in penalties.
I have also had personal experiences with parts being packaged in boxes and containers that said, "Made in the USA" only to open the box and find, "Made in Indonesia/Malaysia/India/China/Mexico/Iran............" take your pick. And when I jacked up the parts body about this apparent discrepancy, what I got was, "Oh yeah, the box is made in the States, just not what's in it. WTF???
Anyway, water, river, current. At least you were able to salvage one of the two units.
Nick
I have also had personal experiences with parts being packaged in boxes and containers that said, "Made in the USA" only to open the box and find, "Made in Indonesia/Malaysia/India/China/Mexico/Iran............" take your pick. And when I jacked up the parts body about this apparent discrepancy, what I got was, "Oh yeah, the box is made in the States, just not what's in it. WTF???
Anyway, water, river, current. At least you were able to salvage one of the two units.
Nick
