this toro riding mower was donated to us after the engine locked up while doing fall cleanup, its a Kohler Command engine 18 hp, it failed in a way I have never seen before, can you guess what happened?

Go hey guys and how's it going. This is a. I know, 15 20 year old, toro riding mower that got donated to me and the back story that i have on it is they were cutting. Actually, sucking up leaves, i think, in the fall and it suddenly died on them and that was it.

The person moving getting out of a house into a. I think, a townhouse, and i said you just gave it to us. We're gon na go figure out what happened to it. I think the motor is locked up more than likely again it died while it was running and it wasn't like it was sat and they tried to run it.

I have not looked at it other than loading. It onto the truck, so i think we'll do a little bit of autopsy on it. Possibly we can fix it, probably we're just going to tear it apart, find out what happened so, let's get set up. Maybe we get that hood off of there give us a little room.

Let's go start wrenching. These are pretty easy. They don't even have um any bolts. You got to take out just gon na get the power wire to the headlights and you kind of kind of like a tailgate at a pickup.

You find the happy spot halfway open and should lift right out there. We go makes for a little bit of room. I know it looks a little bit of dirt a little bit dirty. It looks dirty, but when you're doing fall cleanup, it's generally what happens because you kick so much dust up.

It really creates a storm. My mower does the exact same thing too. I see it's a tad low on oil, it's got oil in it, but it is low on the stick. I'm sure that doesn't help things.

I don't know. If the battery has any power in it, we could probably bump into key and just get an idea. What happens? I don't have to be sitting on the seat. I mean it's a brake pedal though yeah, that's not looking good now.

Is it let's see if we can get anything yeah she's, not turning okay, so we got a locked up motor. Let's pop this cover off, get that out of our way and get into a little bit more, be able to grab a little on the flywheel a bit more too. Those screws out common in our area, too, is a mouse nest, see if that's an issue now it's pretty clean all right. Let's see if we can go, give her it's turning chalky, let's turn it and the starter is in the engaged position.

It's locked in the up position, but that's probably just from trying to crank it with the starter. Let's see if we can get that down that even in there tight now. So that's not any part of the issue. Let's get the plug out of it, i'm starting to think that i mean the oil level's low.

You can kind of see it's been seeping oil around it too. Everything is, you know, even all the seams, you see oil wet. You see oil wet around the oil filter. My guess right now is it just kind of ran low, probably locked up on the crank, but that's just guessing big thing is whether the connecting rod let go of the piston yeah.

It looks normal turn it see if it goes. Let's go get a screwdriver down inside there or pick, let's see if that piston is moving up and down yeah the piston's moving, that's good yeah, so the piston and the connecting rod and the crank are still connected to each other. And now it's freeing itself up. Might be not totally fried after all, i'm gon na take a quick peek.
Let's take a pic a peek underneath on the crank, make sure we got nothing going on with the pulley or the flywheel jamming us up to get a higher belt up here that drives the trans, make sure there's just nothing jammed up inside there yeah it's not Making a full turn, though, rubbing right there: no, that clunk's, not good they're, not supposed to do that. I still think we got a rod problem and you'll pop you back in the stand and we'll see what we can do. Yes, you can get the spin all the way around. The starter is out of the way.

Now computer went down yeah, something definitely let go sounds like strip gears. Doesn't it that weird that noise? I actually think we can crack the top of this engine off of here, while it's all in one piece, but i haven't, you know, remove it. I think we could take the whole top right off of here. Let's get the flywheel off, we know it's got some kind of internal damage, something is just not whether maybe the governor.

Let go it's getting better. Let's um, let's see if the starter will spin it. I don't know what the batteries got for charge that don't sound good yeah. It's got some internal issues, let's get the flywheel off of it as you get that flower off of there.

You know what right back on a little bit and get underneath it with a pry bar and area not going to harm anything. Let's go right. Where that bolt is there we get there. I want to get that plate to go upward.

I'm going to whack down with a hammer, so you can get the pop i'm right on the magnet. Let's fight me, i'm gon na have to take see if we got room there, damn it there, we go. It didn't shear, the flywheel key, that's still good there. You go put away, let's look at the magnets, real, quick i've seen where the magnets have broken themselves off too and caused it to jam up.

I don't see that being an issue, though all right, so the crank's going to stay behind. We need to get rid of the charging system, we'll unbolt the starter, get that out of the way and we'll run get all these bolts all the way around off and we'll see. If the case, we can get the top of the case to pop off of here. Actually this can stay yeah.

We get this out of the way. Some of the other hardware see if we get this to pop up. Of course, they're not the same. The starter out of the way, but they got like a little quick clamp on the wire going through the charging system.

I don't can get on that or not going those little one-way tabs. You need a little poker whoops, so you can get underneath that very good. Just throw that anywhere just a wire free, i don't think that's gon na stop us. I can get it out of our way, though we can flip it up out to the side, because the plugs go into a bunch of other plugs not like.
I can take it right off the system. It's got loctite on it. I think. That's it.

There's all the crud. That's on it. I'm gon na take a minute to take a rag kind of clean some of this crap off, so it doesn't go falling. So you can get a hammer underneath and tap the cover see if it will pop up for us.

Let's give her a couple taps see if it comes free seems like one something's holding it somewhere still give a couple more taps. It's it's free, but it's it could be just a gasket material, so you can get on the other side, probably a couple of dowel pins too. It's not the oil filter on it. It feels like, let's get that key out of the way that might have a problem for us too yeah that seal is going to probably run into it.

It's up about a quarter inch all the way around. I still have the oil filter on. I don't know if that's running into something, i don't think so. The other thing i see is like a set screw right here.

Let's give her a little bit more caps. The ear cleaner housing has me right there. I think that's all of it, but the lip is up over the cover. Now something something fell, probably a governor.

I would think: let's go put that to the side we'll take a peek see if we see anything, that's totally fried right away, looks like it was. Probably a thrust washer that might be the governor right there or that might be a um, a decompression valve. I don't see one on the other side. Yeah, let's go grab a light and look down inside.

I don't see any blueing on the crank. I don't see any immediate telltale. What was here something was right there, that's not there anymore. What did that go onto so that fell right in this lines right up in this groove right here, and it's got some hammering that looks kind of suspect.

Doesn't it okay, counter balance, shaft and maybe whatever pin was in there? It seemed like it fell out. I don't know if that was it huh and go grab a light, we'll take a peek down inside see. We can see. I've never had one of these part before that's the governor lever right here.

That probably is something that did fall apart. That might be where that cannon is right there, whatever the governor somebody that was on that lined up right there i see pieces, and i see a governor gear - is that gear that gear is gone. I think the governor might have blew apart. Let's go pull up.

Some bits: oh yeah, now there's your problem, the governor destructed itself, and then i wonder if it went full throttle or it just jammed itself. I just jammed itself in the gears or in the crank and stopped it from turning. I did not expect to see that i think i just oiled up my light too all right. What piece is that come in? I thought we were gon na have a problem with low oil she's in the crank we got metal bits or something there's shrapnel.
What is that? What is that? It's all part of the governor too a little further yeah, that's part of the governor, that's nothing! I thought that was something right there. That's part of the case. Let's drain the oil out of it, i want to leave the oil in because i wanted to see what we had for a level. I don't think that was what it failed for yeah little bits and pieces: let's go drain, the oil out of it.

So if the level comes down we'll we'll get to see kind of, what's floating, underneath all that crap down in there and see if you can see anything else, that's uh an issue and where all that stuff came from which i believe is going to be stacked Up right here and then again, this is kind of this counterbalance shift all right. Let's get the oil out of it, get a better idea yeah. I definitely expected to see the rod just blowing out from the rest of it and definitely say it doesn't even did need an oil change. Let that pee out for a while i'm going to lift up the other side of the tractor a little bit and tilt it this way, to give it a little bit better flow, we'll let that level go down we'll we'll see what kind of dinosaurs are left When we drain the swamp there little bits around the bottom, we'll figure out kind of what blew apart, try to anyway whoops.

I don't see the normal rainbow in the oil. It does look like there might be a little bit of metallic in it, but i don't see usually when the rod or spins are bearing it really kind of metallics out the oil, but i'm not sure those long skinny there's more of it right there, whatever. That is, if that's bearing, or is that something else my guess is that that is bearing. I see what looks like a spring or a bolt right there.

I got ta, stop doing that and there's a pin, there's a pin. What else we got it's got. Ta be whatever was right here that kept the crank in a straight line, this counterbalance and straight line. I wonder if that was the guts from that.

You know the rod, bearing will be lower. Did it spit it out of there yeah? I think that's where it came from, so i think this counterweight seized up spit out the bearings it just got to be too much on that pin and that's why even on that cover, it's got that beat up those marks on it right there, that's probably binding And that was working real hard. Normally, it's a smooth flow back and forth, but because this was binding up, i started pushing against the sides real hard. Oh yeah write your own jokes yeah, i'm not seeing any.

Usually, here's the rod right here, you'd see blue around that it looks like this counter. Balance is what let go. Go grab a magnet, we'll fish out all the little pieces out of there. I'll have a better idea what's going on, then we can start maybe pulling these gears off and dig a little further and see what's happening inside here i got you suspended from the roof of the ceiling you getting a head rush.
Let's go uh a little bit of picking with the magnet fishing expedition, so that's the piece that's set on the top for the governor just kind of go plopping around. I got something a lot of hamburger. It's just a bunch of magnetic mush see if you can find more bigger pieces. I got ta, get you to look that way here.

Go see what that spring. Looking thing was that we saw magnet what's going on everything else, but a magnet or a bolt. What's that something with threads on it more shrapnel, i would definitely say: that's, probably the whatever used for bearing might be better off with little gripper pliers. You know, can i just go and grab my fingers yeah.

I definitely say that's what it did. Let me really squish that out huh. I wonder if that was like flat just just on this surface and it got so hot it like literally rolled the corner and did that or did it have a lip on? It probably put it back together and get an idea anything else swimming down in there, a bunch of metal there's a whole big, something there. I got something good hold on get this out of the way.

What's that your battery's flashing, we're gon na go as long as we can we'll just throw that in oil pan see you can get this big piece out there. That is like a lever, a bunch of more crap going in it's not metal. That's why it's a rubber pickup tube that might be for the oil mirrors the oil pick up too i'm going to change your battery. Well, let's see if we can get, i don't these are going to lift out of here or not.

Let's get them out of the way, if i see down in them better i'll, try to line them up how they came out i'll put them on the bench in the same fashion. Out of the way leave those rods in there for now give us a better chance to go peak and let's go a little, do a little bit more fishing. Here's my magnet and my i'll meet flashlight on the other side. Let's go and see see more! Oh! We got all kinds of crap in there huh more governor parts.

It looks like yeah that can't be good. One thing i haven't seen yet is i don't know if they had a bolt going through that or not i haven't seen where that ended up. I see a pin up over here. I don't know if you can see up there, you can't there's a pin of some sort right there.

That's not the magnet trying to pick it up with the flashlight there. We go. Here's the pin out of something all right. The crank i don't know about if we get that rod off of there, if we get the bolts off the rod, maybe we can push the piston up, but we'll lift that whole crank right up.

Actually, no, we got, we got to get the um all the stuff underneath the engine off. First before that can happen actually see. If we lift that gear off of there, i want a little bit there. It goes.

Let me see if you get that you need to lift that off of there right now, let's see if the weight will come off there we go, it's got two halves upper and a lower that really doesn't look like. It looks like it still has a bearing to it. Doesn't it that one something let go somewhere that shrapnel came from somewhere? Let's go see it that's for a fit it's loose, but it's you know it's just a counterweight. I don't see anything.
That's really. This is like a two-part bearing i'm not sure i'll wipe that down with a rag see if that surface is all like marred up. No, it doesn't there's a lower half to it. Here's the pin all right, you're swinging, here's a chance of spit out of that lower half huh yeah.

That's really sloppy! There's your problem! That's where it came from on the lower side, which is odd, because you would think that the um you know if it's starved for oil. This is this was wet. That's like literally under you know, bathed in oil. Why did that one? Let go hmm got a locating pin for the two halves.

Did that go all the way up through. I wonder if that pin went all the way up through what was supposed to be that that little guide that was keeping it square yeah, it's pinned into the bottom. Now we can't get it out now. If that broke off or not so, unfortunately, it's gon na be a pain in the ass to get the pulley off the bottom.

I'd still like to dig in a little further, though you would too right, so we got to get that crank, pulley out of the way get that down, and then i think everything can lift up out through the top once we get the connecting rod off. So let me get this mower deck out of the way we don't have a choice, because again we got to get there's a bolt right through the center of the crank on that pulley. That's stopping us plus there's an upper one. Yet too, that's just for the mower deck up here up.

There is another belt that drives the uh transmission, going in pull the latches pop the belt off cause you wiggle that out of there that's a tad dirty. It's a decent jig though well the pulley's. Still on the bottom, let's see if we could turn that, so that that rod is facing that way, lettuce all right, i guess we'll leave it right there as long as you get to the two bolts and that's not good we're going the other way. He has more room on this side.

Let's get the two bolts off the connecting rod. We'll drop, get an impact gun. If we can actually probably have to lift the front of the tractor to get that bottom pulley off, we should lift that crank right out of there. Let's see if we get that rod to break free the cap anyway, that's not even tight, we'll see if the connecting rod spun too oh yeah, that one wasn't bad the other one didn't have much on it.

Generally, that's a like an indicator that possibly spun i'm gon na find out in a second. So normally this has an oil pump. A lot of engines are splash, a lot of horizontals are splashed. This is a vertical and it's fed through the center of the crank.
The holes in the center of the crank that kind of push oil out of the middle, and it makes it so that the the rod never really touches the crank it just floats on a cushion of oil leaking out between so for starts for oil. Then it starts hammering on itself and eventually starts getting hot and it starts transferring bearing materials material to the crank. These might not even have a bearing might just be aluminum. Let's see if we get that rod to break loose.

Let me uh something hit it with the cap off. I guess drum roll, please see what we get. Are you going to fight me? Every inch. Aren't you it's probably a locating pin, maybe so you can get in there all right.

It actually looks good yeah. The rod didn't have an issue, be all scored up and burned up, so it was just that lower section and again, if it start for oil, there's much more pressure on the connecting rock it's fighting a compression stroke and then gets power. So there's a lot more energy between here and here than this thing just floating around on itself and again going that sure, possibly maybe something else let go, maybe that governor let go and caused it to go down to that bottom section and get hammered. I don't know, get that straightened up.

You should be able to push that piston straight up into the bore you can get off of it. We're going to need to get off of it to get the crank out so without taking the cylinder head off. You know. So you can give her a little bit of.

I think. That's it. I think the pistons all the way up. Well, let's get that bottom pulley off because that's what's holding us now.

We can't lift the crank out because of that, let's see if we get that out of the way we might be able to kind of you know it up and get a little bit of an angle to get it up and out really don't feel like splitting. All this stuff off of it right now, i think we have. We have it earlier. We hit that, let's try to take it with it.

Let's see, if we can do that, there we go now. We got it there that's out of the way. Now we should get that once the crank's off the pulley's off yeah, so you can get her up. That should be more than enough for an impact gun i'll get some room that was loud.

It's loctited in too it's still belt up there. If you can get around that, it's like a big mouse trap waiting to get me yeah, i'm gon na need two hands to get up underneath there, probably gon na put the foot pedal down or something get a little bit of slack. I think i got it. Take it off the idler police back there, that's enough room we're in get that crank to lift out of there anything else holding it could be that sucks.

I wanted to go in order feels like there's some kind of race on the bottom. Underneath it, i can spin up my fingers and feel like a shoulder. I don't know if it's just something that's kind of pressed on there. I don't feel any hardware holding it.
I'm gon na try putting a jack underneath it and push up on a little bit and see if uh we'll get the pop free. It might be just like a um a sleeve. That's on the bottom of the crank on the outside of the case. That's just kind of tapped up there.

It's got a little bit of a positive influence has on it all right. I think we need some kind of i want. Mallet nope could even be pressed down there. I'm not sure we're gon na go, take a mirror.

Take a peek underneath and get a better idea. What's going on. I should have done that first huh, there's really nothing on it. I don't see anything, that's holding it up.

Apparently you know something is, but it is now locked up. I can't turn this, give it to so much play. It's got to go whack down, it may just have a bur on the end of it. That's not allowing it to come out.

I don't know you got ta lift up on it. It locks in, like i said, unless there's like a pressed on sleeve that i'm not seeing it, i peeked, underneath all the only thing that's underneath is the seal that you can see and then, like this side of the shaft, with the seal on it, there's nothing Else around it, but if there's a shoulder like a on the crank that they put like a a ring say something like that, you know without the teeth is on the bottom of it, and i'm trying to get this off. The crank is my guess: i'm going to jack it back up, it's beat anyway. You can't beat it anymore.

We can beat it more. I'm gon na jack it back up and try to uh whale out a little bit, so you can get that crank that wiggle its way up out of there it's coming out just doesn't know it. Yet let the beatings begin and try tapping it from side to side it's up about a half inch. The rod doesn't want to uh.

Technically rod is going down that much further. I'm gon na keep working on that. I think it just needed a couple more huge daddies and it went popped up a good half inch or so not quite sure. If we got there all the way, but something's happening she's moving.

That's what i think it's got a collar on the bottom that got run up and now she's stuck on it. A couple more pumps with the jack. The tires are back on the ground, give her some of that beat the tractor down all right, guys, we're in! Oh yeah, it has a little bit of chaos. Here's where it went bad.

The funny part is the rod, is fine. Here's the oil passage and there's a bunch of metal burned right up on it all right, yeah grab you where you can see we'll take a peek down, look in the hole you need a light too hold up. So there's that counterbalance shaft and whatever was in there for a bearing, is no longer there's a bolt that went through the upper and lower half. You think it was threading on the top of that.

Why would it be a bolt right? It must have been in threads and it snapped off and that surface is cooked too. But that's is that what that wrote on? No, the crank was touching that so the base of the crank was chewing up that surface, any more bits hanging around going fishing. So whatever happened, it seemed like it went fairly quickly because it doesn't have a bunch of that like rainbow metal in it that metal or plastic feels like it's plastic. I wonder if it's just a guess.
I wonder if the governor let go and it over rep. Fortunately, the gentleman that had this has a hearing issue and he can't really hear what's happening. He wears a hearing aid, and so he wasn't, you know able to give a good definition what happened, because he just stopped on him. I would think i made a bit of a clock when it did it, but i'm seeing in the bits to pick up for the oil right there's the oil pump is the pickup.

That was definitely you know under the oil wasn't like it ran out of oil. I guess it's not all that clean, but i don't think that was with the failures. There might be something that's common with these. I don't know all right.

Let me go clean, my hands up and go back over the bench. We'll lay some pieces out and take a peek all right, so i'm going to give my little synopsis guest opsis of what happened and uh. You guys are welcome to give your input too, but here's my thoughts of what happened kind of looking at the bottom of the case. There you see how tore up that is all the damage that is on there and what's happened.

Uh. You can see that the the center is pretty good, but it drops off around the edge out here. Let's go, take a look at the parts on the bench, so what i think happened was the a failure on the large bolt going through the center of it. So these counterweights just uh, counteract the motion of the connecting around the piston on the other side of it.

It's a lot of times. The crankshaft just has a fixed weight on it. To try to take care of. It looks like they got fancy on this one by having one that swivels and has pivot points on it with a little locator and all that kind of stuff, and i think they possibly kind of uh over engineered themselves anyway.

So the bolt went through locking both halves together and this is actually a nut. It's got a weird like hex key on the end of it and then here's the rest of the threads that was on that. So that was all part like that bolted together, and this pin located this cam on the upper side of it right here and that kept everything in line kept it from flopping around. I think possibly what happened was.

I think this bolt actually kind of loosened up a little bit uh, maybe from the rocking from side to side motion. Especially it's got a large diameter hole here. It's got plate to it. You would think that if that was the case, that you have a cam where energy is trying to drive each each side of it, this would be snug.

It would not have that kind of play in there like that. It seems a little odd to me being set up like that again, it's just a guess on my part, so i think what happened was this kind of worked its way out and uh still kind of pinned the top? Let's go see if that fits in there? No, it doesn't so this that doesn't even fit in there, but i think it kind of helped keep the top keyed for a while. You know it, it got loose the bolt broke, but it was still pinned into the top, so it was still kind of key in it there and then this pin the rest of the bolt rather went through and stayed key to this, so they kind of stayed In line with everything for a while, but this half was able to drop down, let's get this out of the way it was able to drop down, i'm going to exaggerate it now. This has a a bearing material.
That's on the inside! Actually, it's like that. Had a bearing material that was on the inside of it now a bearing when they're perpendicular to each other, i'm gon na over exaggerate again there's a film of oil from oil pump that keeps these two surfaces from ever touching each other. Actually, the oil pump kind of keeps it lifted apart and that's true, for you know pretty much any connecting rod or crank uh journal in an engine. It floats on a cushion of oil, but they're perpendicular they're perfectly.

You know level with each other. It's not racked in any position. I think what happened was this racked. Then it started pinching and rubbing on the material and it was able to touch and then over time.

I think it just kind of burned itself up and really got to the point where this probably started. Actually, just locking up, and once that happened or the you know that end or the pin kind of came out of the top of it, fell out and everything just kind of went to hamburger. But that's my guess of what happened. I don't think it went for a low oil pressure.

The reason why i say that is because oil pumps on the bottom, the crank, has holes in it. Let's get you to the very bottom one right, there's an oil hole there and an oil hole here this. I believe is going to be the main feed going in. This is what pressurizes the crankshaft, so the oil pumps on the bottom and there's a passage through here.

It's all hollow in the center, so oil squirts out of here oil squirts out of here oil sports out of here and then again another one on top there's also another part of it where it does the um, the other part of the. If it has a camshaft, a camshaft would have a feed on it also anyway. So if anything was going to burn up, it'd be the thing the furthest away from the oil, not the closest oil. This was actually the the very first thing that got fed in the path, and that would have the most oil, whereas the you know you would have thought it would have been an issue here.

More than really what happens is the connecting rod. The connecting rod has the most energy happening on because it goes under compression stroke and it pushes real hard on one side and then, when it comes around on the other side, it fires power and the power pushes that connecting rod against that surface real hard. We'll pretend this is the connecting rod, it's the other half of it, but pretend this is the connecting rod. Well, when the piston fires, it pushes real hard against there, this stuff, it's just floating, it's just trying to take the harmonics out of it.
It's not really trying to make a uh. You know any real work happening. It's just there to counter the motion of it. Take some of the vibration out.

So that's my guess. What happened? I think that just that long bowl having all that play, probably see it better here, the diameter of that hole and the diameter of that bolt is just got too much playing there and i can see over time that's just kind of shaking this up a little Bit, you can even see the bolt what's left of the bolt, how polished it is like that did that for a while and then it looks like it just snapped itself off. You know you keep working that the head of a bolt back and forth. It's eventually going to break there's the top of it, so you look how that broke off now.

The bolt itself, you know, seems to fit in there pretty good, but that upper part. It's probably about that much down inside there, and i i my opinions. I think it just kind of worked itself back and forth to the point where it just loosened that nut just got a little bit loosened up and then it just kind of ruptured from there again. That's just a guess on my end, you're welcome to make your own input you'll want to see how the governor works.

If i can kind of explain that so the governor, which is what's left of it, has a gear, ran off of probably that gear. I think it was on top and so that spins the faster that gear spins it has a set of weights on it, and these guys right here essentially are a set of weights. I know they're all hamburgered and beat up so it's gon na be a little hard to to say, but these are a set of weights. I don't know something like that: we'll go with there's a gear on the bottom, those are on top and this is sitting in the middle of it.

So the faster this gear, spins or the engine is spinning. It pushes this pin upward this pin in turn, pushes on a lever that sticks to through the block grab the light, which is that lever right there, so that whole assembly was sitting right here. So as it revs up it pushes up on this lever when it pushes up on that lever, you can see the linkage come down around here. That is idle that when this goes this way that's idle, that's full throttle.

So when it pushes up on that lever, where is it there? You go full throttle idle. It counteracts the motion to try to maintain an rpm. It's trying to maintain say you got full throttle, makes 3 600 rpm is what these engines run at 36 38. The throttle on the dashboard, how you you rev it up, it comes down to this plate right here.
This is your throttle coming in it, in turn, just pulls on a spring, so this is still able to move, but you can kind of influence it by how much you pull on the spring. To give it, you know more or less uh uh inflow. So here you want full throttle: you're gon na pull real hard. If you want to just idle you back off and as soon as that thing kind of revs up a little bit, it just goes right back to an idol unless it kind of comes back.

So that's what that does yeah. I am not seeing anything to give me any other indication of what would happen. I don't think it's start for oil. Doesn't look like it's the case, so it's dirty.

It was a little low, but i really don't see that being the problem. You would see a bad rod if that was if it was starting for oil even over the course of time they get kind of scored up and beat up. I just don't see anything as far as the tractor is concerned. I think uh, it's probably a five or six hundred dollar tractor altogether and to put a new engine on.

It's really not worth it. If you want to go, sell it you're not going to make any money out, but what i will do is i'll, probably keep an eye out for a used engine. Try to find a tractor maybe had a blown motor which is kind of calm, a blown gearbox, hydrostatic transmission kind of common that they fail and we can take another engine off of something else. You can go with any engine, you don't have to go with the same one that is on this tractor.

These chassis are kind of universal. You look at the floor of the decking. You can see all the different holes on them. You can bolt down pretty much any motor.

You can even put a a v, a v twin on it. If you want this, chassis is kind of set up. For you know, almost any, and every only things you want to kind of keep an eye on is the crank being the same on the bottom, so that the pulley can fit up underneath there and some of the charging system you want to try to find when It has a three wire uh voltage regulator, which is that on the side, what that does that stator that we took off on the top makes power? And it's got ac, has two legs of ac that come down to here, and they go in one side and the other side and then coming out of the middle is one wire coming out which is dc going to the recharge the battery. So as long as you find something really simple to that and again with the exhaust kind of uh that it ducks out in almost the same area you get like old craftsman, mower or something we could probably rob the motor off of that.

So that's what i'm gon na do with it is i'll hold on and see what i find for an engine coming along the rest of it looks very decent. The tires look like they're holding there not dry, rot seats, not tore up, i'm guessing. The trans is okay, bagger system looks like it's decent, so that'll be the uh outcome. I guess of this you'll get quick mustache till i find something else, and it's that time of the year anyway, where all this stuff starts showing up so we'll see what we have.
I might even have one now that i'm not even aware of all right guys with that it was kind of long-winded, but i do appreciate you hanging out with me uh, hopefully uh. It helps you to kind of understand how things work a little bit and just have a little fun a little bit of wrenching in the garage and i'm sure more will be on its way again. It's that time of the year. But with that guys, i want to sign off and thank you all for hanging out with me have a bit of fun.

If you like, make a comment down below what you think what possibly happened. Again, that's just a guess on my part, and you know yours could be just as good as mine. So with that i'll see you later bye. Well, the cam gears got mushed too, probably just debris when it got kicked up, went in there and took it out and the governor's burned up.

It has a gear one of the gears just smashed, pretty bad, we're going to try hitting it with a file, see if we can fix that enough to make it run or just make sure it's clear and give her in.

By Mustie

8 thoughts on “You Won’t Believe Why This Engine Blew Up,”
  1. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Robert Brooks says:

    I would suggest in the future, rather than running your fingers down in the engine, you spend a couple of bucks on a telescoping magnet. Saves the finger from sharp shaivings.

  2. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Mike Hudick says:

    Those things you've been calling "counterweights" are part of a mass damper that moves in opposition to the connecting rod journal and piston/rod assembly. It's purpose is to dampen vibration cause by the rotation of the engine.

  3. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Robert Groffel says:

    I had a big boy I worked on got hit by lightning and all the magnets were neutralized no polarity at all would not charge at all replaced recifier magneto and fly wheel and still would not charge only had 28 volts ac and nothing on the output side to battery?

  4. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Toby says:

    I say it again: This goes out to the Area 51 commanding officers: Ditch the scientists trying to reengineer that UFO and just call Mustie1. Not only would he get the craft back to running mode in no time, he could also tell the aliens why that thing crashed in the first place!

  5. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Vicki Lund says:

    I knew it was junk when they open the hood. Those Kohler Courage Motors are made in China and usually the counterweight comes off and kills the motor

  6. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Randall Carney says:

    The best thing for a failed courage engine ,is the srap pile! I collect,restore and replace with briggs opposed flathead twin engines ,one of the best briggs ever produced.

  7. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars missey316 says:

    Looks like a Koehler Courage motor.
    They were junk . Koehler should have stuck with their command engine. They had 4 or 5 different courage updated versions to try to get it past the warranty but never could overcome the problems the motor had so they discontinued it

  8. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars begal brew says:

    I worked at a Toro dealer when they first contracted mtd to make these. We thought it was a joke at first. And the first couple years of Kohler courage… sheared off cam gears, crushed head gaskets from over torqued head bolts, rockers so loose the compression release wouldn't work, and of course exploded gov's.

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