Archive through November 01, 2009

[kide]

Dave:
Back in the 60's I worked for a gas station in my hometown, run by a couple of brothers who were pretty good at fabbing stuff up. After the blizzard of '67, they decided the cabover Jeep PU/wrecker w/327 Chevy wasn't enough for plowing driveways.. They took another Jeep PU frame, mounted a Chrysler 361 for the 4WD and then mounted a second 361 on an angle over the transmission of the first engine. This one (w/transmission) drove a right angle gearbox that was mounted on the rear of the frame, which had a shaft extending to the right rear corner with sprockets and chain driving a pair of 7 foot long augers that fed - a silage blower! I can't remeber how they got the power to the silage blower, but the back end of the rig looked like one of the big airport runway clearing jobs.. They topped the frame off with a 56-57-58 Chevy pickup cab (big wraparound rear window) which had one bucket seat facing forward and another facing backwards on the passenger side. They used a full hydraulic steering setup with the column set vertical between the seats...They finished the body off with a small tubular frame and aluminum for the front end.. I wish I had pictures..... They used it once, the next winter - as I understood it, they filled a driveway two doors down from the one they tried it on..The silage blower might have been a little too big. They moved it out on their dad's farm, where it sat for years... I've always wondered what else you could use a silage blower for....
Back to cleaning the yard with the OT Sc.g.. Got the clamshell vac set up out and on it today - already torn the yard up, as we've had several days of rain and the yard is soft. 129 sets off to the side thinking that it NEVER tore up the lawn like that..

 

[pdorow]

Dfisk,with my many years in the industrial heating industry, I would think a 16" wheel on your blower should be more than enough to handle the volume. I would redesign the intake & slant the wheel blades a bit-- just my .02 cents

 

[dfrisk]

PAUL - That was Engineering Change #1. Change #2 was the engine change. Change #3 was the PTO clutch install after I almost tore My thumb off one night while flipping the belt off the pulleys. Original design just used a belt tightener as a clutch.

When I was planning the blower I discovered info in of all places, Grainger's catalog about blowers and material movement. The intake is dead center in the side of the housing now. And the paddles actually tilt back just a bit as was suggested by the info in Graingers. It specifically mentioned "Blowing" sawdust, wood chips, etc which was about what I was trying to do. Most OEM's designs I've seen have them straight up

It moves a lot of material. Depends on conditions, damp grass & leaves it slows down but when it's dry it only takes maybe ten minutes to fill the cart. I have filled it with dry grass clippings in as little as five minutes.

But I'm using the current vac on only a 38" deck, to step up to a 50" deck like on the 982 I think at least bigger hoses would be required. Along with Leaves in the fall come falling tree branches ALL year and the corrogated plastic tubing I'm using tends to hold onto small twigs and eventually plug as material packs in behind them.

 

[pdorow]

Dennis, I sent you an email

 

[wshytle]

Wsteffens, Changing the needle and seat is one of the simplest jobs once the carb is on the bench. After taking the bowl off you'll see what to do. You will need a thin walled 3/8" deep socket to remove the seat. I didn't have one so I just took a 3/8" deep socket and turned it on a grinder (only about an inch is necessary) a little at a time until it went over the seat good then just polished it a little. It's now dedicated to that job. A new seat is in the kit. Be sure to have some carb cleaner on hand and compressed air to blow it out. Run a wire through any and all ports/holes. I assume you know about removing the needle valves, cleaning and replacing them so... Once it's all clean and blown out or dry, put it back together with the new parts. There are only about seven parts including gaskets in the basic rebuild kit.
Good luck and hope this helps, Wayne

 

[rwilke]

Fellas,
Regarding the gap of the fins on a blower unit; if you make the gap too large (say 1/8" or more), wouldn't it
allow small sticks and such to become lodged in between the fins and housing?

Ryan Wilke

 

[fsnerd]

my 128 with the stalling problem.

for those of you i confused, i tried to condense the previous problems, that i believe were eliminated, and only mention the current problem of only starting on carb cleaner.
the order of parts replacing was,and this is the short , condensed list,
stalls when hot.
changed carb because it would leak over night. engine ran, only stalled when hot, at full throttle.that is how i got 8 hours on the carb.
coil was replaced due to a broken terminal that previous owner tried to solder together.
while chasing the stalling problem, lost spark at plug, no electricity to coil.
replaced electric harness and all other wires.
now, it will only start on carb cleaner, then stall in a few seconds.
i hope that clears up the confusion.
as for it might not being the carb, but still an electrical problem, I did not know it could start on carb cleaner but not gas if there was a problem with the coil.
I will check to see if i have electricity at coil, points, plug.
after I got it all together I realized the electric mower deck goes up when you push the switch down, so, i may have wired the coil backwards too.
yes, I have the schematic from the service manual, but the deck wires are not color coded.
that is my defense.
of course, if i wired the coil wrong, not sure what my excuse will be.

is there a way test the voltage regulator ?

thanks again for the help.

 

[kide]

Dennhis:
The impeller on the vac blower attachment on my Sc.g is about 12.5 inches in diameter and the paddles are a little over 5 inches wide. That's on a 48 inch high vac deck, but they are spinning it fast...

 

[kide]

Frank, as mentioned previously, you can see if the charging system is working by using a digital VOM, measuring the battery voltage with the engine off and then with the engine running. It should be higher with the engine running - typically by 1 - 2 volts. If your battery is charged fully, the difference will be less. The voltage regulator should not be the source of your problem.

Go back to basics.. You must have gas (mixture), spark, compression and correct timing for the spark to occur and the valves to open in the right sequence. If the coil is wired backwards, broken, or not the correct coil, it could be your problem. Make sure it's got hot, reliable spark on EVERY compression stroke before you move on to the carb. I have never seen a small engine run smooth on carb cleaner that had a bad ignition, but there's a first for everything..

 

[jmuncie]

Dennis, Marlin, & Paul,

Clearance in my Trac Vac blower is a lot more open than what you're discussing. There's about 1" radial clearance around the blades. There's about 3/8" clearance between the blades and front cover and about 1/4" between the impeller base plate and the back wall of the housing. Wet grass fills the gaps, but it doesn't cause it to plug. The grass buildup seems to cushion the walls from rocks and sticks that get picked up. The only area that the buildup inside the blower actually causes a problem is on the corner where the outlet meets the blower housing wall. Extremely wet grass will build-up and bridge the outlet.

My biggest clogging problem is at the deck discharge because I cut a lot of taller grass the gets wrapped around the bottom edge of the deck chute.

Jerry

 

[rpalmer]

frank snerd,
I'm still going to try to help you. I have two questions. First you said for those of you i confused, i tried to condense the previous problems, that i believe were eliminated, and only mention the current problem of only starting on carb cleaner.
the order of parts replacing was,and this is the short , condensed list,
stalls when hot.
changed carb because it would leak over night. engine ran, only stalled when hot, at full throttle.that is how i got 8 hours on the carb.
coil was replaced due to a broken terminal that previous owner tried to solder together.
while chasing the stalling problem, lost spark at plug, no electricity to coil.

So your carb was leaking gas overnight. So you changed the carb. It was then stalling under load at full throttle. So you changed the coil. Frank. Did it run after you changed the coil?

You said above that you lost spark at plug, no electricity to coil. But latter in your above post you said I will check to see if i have electricity at coil, points, plug.

Which leads me to the second question. Do you have voltage at the coil? Or did you miss speak when you said you will have to check. I'm not trying to give you a hard time. But you have to know what you did and did not do. And you have to be able to recall how you did what you did.

 

[rpalmer]

Mr. Paul Bell,
Do you have time to talk K161 Magnetos? I remembered the last Original you posted pictures of had one. My leads were cut by a PO and I'm guessing I need a new one.

Please point in a the direction I need to go.

 

[dtanner]

Richard P did you break it????

 

[nhasson]

Well I got the rebuilt engine back in the 149 today and ran it for a few minutes. After a few carb and throttle cable adjustments I got the governor to settle down and it sounded pretty good. How do you guys measure the rpm's of our kohlers? And what about breaking a "new" one in? Thanks, Nick

 

[dtanner]

Nick Hasson
I have a tiny tack that I used on my 149. Change the oil soon after running ( 5hrs) . I pulled some weight so it had to work to seat the rings. I worked it till it got hot and then shut it down to cool off. Then did it all again. I don`t know what everybody here does but I think you have to make them pull and work to get the rings to seat properly. Just my .02 Later Don T

 

[jmuncie]

Question for the electrical gurus -- Is there a solid state voltage regulator that can be succesfully swapped in place of the mechanical regulator on the narrow frames? Thanks, Jerry

 

[rwilke]

Nick H.,
Don't forget to re-check the torque of the head bolts after it cools down for a few hours.

Also agree with Donald T., change the oil.
It's easy and cheap and will get any break-in metal dust outta there.....

Ryan Wilke

 

[mgonitzke]

Nick-

Run about half an hour no load, varying the throttle the whole time. Drive the tractor around without putting any sort of load on it, and again, vary the throttle; do this for about half an hour. I'd change the oil after the first hour; don't wait for 5 hours. Then you can put a load on it, and don't forget to retorque the head after the first hard pull. I would change the oil frequently (like every 5 hours) for the first 25 hours or so. Make sure the carb is not set too rich, as you don't want gas washing the oil off those fresh rings. A magnetic drain plug would be a good idea to catch all the ferrous metal debris from the rings seating.

 

[jott]

Mick M, ok, I checked the oil level before i changed it and it was a little overfull. But now a much BIGGER problem could exist. I cant tell for sure, but i think she's (the kohler) knocking. and i dont need this now with no job and winter right around the corner!

Marlin H, on the whole Colorado thing, sorry i had a duh moment.

 

[ccarney]

Richard Palmer -

I've owned several recoil 7hp cubs and from what I can see of your close up picture its likely all you'll have to replace is the ignition lead. You'll have to pull the flywheel and see what you've got. If its the original coil though you probably will want to replace it. Original coils had a plastic coating that cracked and didn't fare well with the decades. Replacement coils can be had new, and have a solder tab to put a new ignition lead on. Take your flywheel off and post a picture and we can help. I have information on the new coils.