Great deal on a Craftsman Riding Mower

[Okie]

Sounds like fun. Get a picture or two up when you get a chance.

I butchered my deer yesterday, and had tenderloins, onions, and rice last night. I'm geared up to check the valve lash today. I'm oscillating between optimism and doom on what I expect to find.

Seen where your deer was a road kill or hung in fence with a broken neck.

Inflation, gas, groceries keeps going up guess I might start riding a bicycle and patrolling the roadways for road kills myself. Might have to growl off others like a wolf would do, people trying to take my find away from me. Survival of the fittest. (survival mode)
Getting to expensive to drive my old fossil fuel 4x4 and too broke to get a battery operated bicycle or vec.

Brandon says he feels our pain, BUT, BUT, excuses, excuses.

Be sure and wear your covid mask when at the fuel pumps as a safety concern for your health per the CDC recommendation..

If you do not know why, just ask here

 

[grizz55chev]

I thought I'd show you my little lawn tractor,

And NO, I didn't have to pay too much for it.

SR

I love my Wheelhorse, best mower I've ever owned!

 

[Okie]

Sawyer Rob's wheel Horse looks like a Brute.

I've never been around a Wheel Horse tractor.

Sawyer Rob's looks to be the old style wrap the rope around the pulley type for cranking.
Lots of people now days would never get those type up and running.
I've cranked on those old 10 horse Briggs and Gravelys with that type manual rope crank.
The kickback on those types will take finger meat if one not aware of such.

 

[JRM]

I'm pretty sure the B series was made in the early70's. Good little tractors, for sure.

 

[user 122190]

As expected. Both rods bent, and the exhaust was completely off its mounts. I just took a rubber mallet and tapped them straight -- Good enough. Right side looks okay. I'll just do an adjustment to bring back to spec. Then we shall see it this was the full problem and the solution.

I don't recall pulling rods before. These are completely unsupported the full length of the rod. Only support is at the ends. Tis no wonder that they can fail like they do. Get a little out of spec and motor's got problems. Now I know.

 

[Okie]

You might want to REVIEW on-line:
What causes Briggs OHV twin engines to bend push rods?

Lot of info about such on-line and is a common complaint and you can do a visual of the head while the valve cover is off.

 

[user 122190]

You might want to REVIEW on-line:
What causes Briggs OHV twin engines to bend push rods?

Lot of info about such on-line and is a common complaint and you can do a visual of the head while the valve cover is off.

Thanks. I'll partly button it up and look into it before I try and start it. I did set the clearance at the minimum. Perhaps that will help.

As of now I don't believe that adjustment was ever made. The previous owner had no idea, and was possibly negligent in doing maintenance. The machine does have more then 650 hours on it, so it could have been running on borrowed time for some time. Don't feel like calling the previous owner, who I suspect doesn't know much about motors. No Spark. Yeeesh....

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Sawyer Rob's wheel Horse looks like a Brute.

I've never been around a Wheel Horse tractor.

Sawyer Rob's looks to be the old style wrap the rope around the pulley type for cranking.
Lots of people now days would never get those type up and running.
I've cranked on those old 10 horse Briggs and Gravelys with that type manual rope crank.
The kickback on those types will take finger meat if one not aware of such.

It's electric start, but that wrap around rope, start sure came in handy one day when the batt. was dead!

SR

 

[grizz55chev]

It's electric start, but that wrap around rope, start sure came in handy one day when the batt. was dead!

SR

Yes, because bump starting takes real determination!

 

[Okie]

Sawyer Rob:

What make and HP engine is that.
Big one cylinder?
Maybe old Tecumseh, Briggs or Wisconsin?

 

[Sawyer Rob]

8hp Kohler, it just doesn't need more hp.

In fact, that deere flywheel is hanging off the front to help keep the front end down.

It has enough traction, that you can pull start it too.

SR

 

[user 122190]

After drawing some gas out and comparing it to some fresh gas, some slight discoloration, I drained it, and put in fresh pump gas. Started right up. Runs smooth and quiet. There is some slight barely noticeable surging, but other then that runs like a champ. I put some fuel system cleaner in and will run it a few miles and then decide if I need to do further maintenance on it.

Right now, it feels like it is ready for sale.

I'll likely drop the mowing deck. I am about certain that the some cleaning, lubing and blade sharpening needs to be done.

All in all, tis a good machine.

 

[user 122190]

I took it for a good long ride today. Something seems off now. Worse then yesterday. Got it home and the left side exhaust is around 500 degrees, while the right side exhaust was under 300 degrees.

Kinda pissy out today, but next time it is good to work outside I'll be doing a compression test. Something is not right.

 

[grizz55chev]

I took it for a good long ride today. Something seems off now. Worse then yesterday. Got it home and the left side exhaust is around 500 degrees, while the right side exhaust was under 300 degrees.

Kinda pissy out today, but next time it is good to work outside I'll be doing a compression test. Something is not right.

Can't sell it like that, right? Hope it's something quick and obvious. ( and cheap! )

 

[user 122190]

Can't sell it like that, right? Hope it's something quick and obvious. ( and cheap! )

I like this mower. I'm more of a mind to fix it and keep it. I'm prepared to pull the engine and do a complete rebuild, as the rest of the mower is tight.

Listed is the good running Craftsman.

 

[Sportfury70]

I might have missed it, did you put new plugs in it? The cold side might be misfiring.

 

[user 122190]

I might have missed it, did you put new plugs in it? The cold side might be misfiring.

Plugs look new. I will swap them if the compression is good.

 

[Okie]

How does it sound when idling?
Is it smooth or a slight miss or just not quite smooth?

If I suspect a cylinder is weak on a twin instead of pulling plug wires to each cylinder one at a time I prefer to GROUND the plug wire and sometimes to do this I have a short length of GM plug wire that I can plug/splice onto the existing plug wire and the cap on the spark plug end is bare so as I can ground it out. The reason I momentarily apply Ground is with a electronic magneto type coil can become damaged from back feed spark if left in open air.

Sometimes you can carefully slide the spark plug boot back on the plug wire so as to expose the tip for grounding.

When I'm grounding the cylinders one at a time I pay attention to the rpm's drop, the strong cylinder will cause more of a rpm droop.

 

[user 122190]

How does it sound when idling?
Is it smooth or a slight miss or just not quite smooth?

If I suspect a cylinder is weak on a twin instead of pulling plug wires to each cylinder one at a time I prefer to GROUND the plug wire and sometimes to do this I have a short length of GM plug wire that I can plug/splice onto the existing plug wire and the cap on the spark plug end is bare so as I can ground it out. The reason I momentarily apply Ground is with a electronic magneto type coil can become damaged from back feed spark if left in open air.

Sometimes you can carefully slide the spark plug boot back on the plug wire so as to expose the tip for grounding.

When I'm grounding the cylinders one at a time I pay attention to the rpm's drop, the strong cylinder will cause more of a rpm droop.

When the left cylinder was crapped out due to the valve rod, I suspect the right was over worked. The entire machine should have been stored pending the fix. I'll draw a conclusion after the compression test.

 

[Okie]

What is the Model and type of the engine?

Some of them dogs have a dual throat type carb and intake. (one side of carb could be suspect if the dual throat type is why I mention such)

Do you have any idea why the push rods got bent?

Were they bent on both cylinders and just one?