Hello from Florida

I flipped your picture right side up for ya. Nice job on the fix!

Looks good! I really wanna do a motorbike carb on my craftsman someday. I'm sure I'd blow up my semi-rare pressure lube oppy with one

I think Maine Mud Mower warmed against doing that if you’re going to see some serious deep water because the fan on the flywheel will pump water into your air cleaner. That’s no good but maybe that would be good in your application. The Kohler on my green machine is factory set up like that. Makes me think I kinda have a very low boost centrifugal blower lol.

JB weld repair looks like it will hold, maybe make a brace from the carb to the engine/frame to relieve stress from the intake.

@AllisKidD21 hey man , good looking out! had no clue how to flip it. I appreciate it. And thank you as well. Now it runs like a bat outta hell. For testing Im just using golf cart tires on 8 inch mower rims . It probably goes a good 15 to 20 if I would guess a speed. Now is that technically more than enough for mudding? And also that totally went over my head when I thought up the forced induction idea. Oh well, maybe use the idea on my craftsman when I get it finished it'll be a tow mower 4x6 with flatbed possibly .

FYI:

GasketCase wrote:

@AllisKidD21 hey man , good looking out! had no clue how to flip it. I appreciate it. And thank you as well.

No problemo! Just doing my job, haha. Also 15 to 20 would definitely be good enough speed for bombing some mud I would think.

Looking good.  I'm with Matthew, maybe some kind of brace to increase the longevity of the fix.

@Crazy_Carl too bad mine is a keihin but I do see where your coming from. But I havent had any of the issues he stated. And I run the hell out of this thing too . I just got back at 8pm tonight from some trail riding and went out to a open field to do some dougnuts. The rear tires let lose and man, I had to have been in that field for 15 to 20 minutes do non stop burnouts and the engine didn't miss a single beat , not even after letting the engine return to idle. Everything to the motor is stock except of course carb and pulley change on motor since I reduced the Trans to a 4 1/2 . Engine pulley just a tad under 4 inches.so it's almost a 1:1 ratio.

Sounds like a good romp. Should get some video, eh? And the support does sound like a good idea.

[quote="Crazy_Carl"]FYI:

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Well , you jinxed me. Haha  . A few days ago , I was just riding down some trails and found a dirt bike trail that was wide enough for my mower to fit. It was parallel to the trail I was on. I just had one obstacle between them of about 4 feet maybe 5 feet .....thick brush . So I put my cold one in the cup holder (no doubt , best modification) and I dropped into 3rd or 4th gear, increased my rpm decently for power and dropped the clutch . Pulled the front wheels up off the ground and when my front end came down , MIRACULOUSLY a stick got lodged between the frame and throttle on carb. She went WOT before I could react , once I realized in the matter of a couple seconds. I shut the engine down. Removed stick and started her back up but could hear a distinctive knock. Had a screwdriver on me and did the old trick with it and listened. There it was knocking from the lower end. So I limped her home and she took her last gulp of gasoline about a block from my house just before the balancer weight came out to say hello. RIP 17.5 B&S Lol  

Found out after disassembly, the balancer assembly bearing surfaces were scored most likely from WOT and exploded due to flimsy aluminum . Bent the camshaft and cracked the engine block. Crankshaft , piston head, conrods, wrist pin, and valvetrain including cylinder head were all salvagable due to no damage luckily.


So now I threw a 12.5 hp B&S 28 series flathead and I may have not learned my lesson yet, I have a even bigger carb on the 12.5 hp . It's a keihin VB42 carb  found on early and late 80s motorcycles . They're originally 4 of them all next to each other on a fixture but I unbolted them all singly and built one good carb from 4 .and still plenty of spare parts. I tell you what , I feel this 12.5 has more power than the 17.5 ohv.

Get a 14 hp ohv kohler command 14cs, they run supper well on high rpms. ive had 3 and the 14c model has a plastic timing gear but the 14cs has a metal one, they also have a balancer rod instead of all the junk b and s has.

To be fair the carbs aren't really the issue. The issue comes from bypassing the governor and not respecting a reasonable rpm limit. I don't think those ohv singles
with the internal balance shaft take much over-reving before they start to let go. Most of these mower engines are governed at 3600rpm max stock.

[/quote]

Wow I kinda called it lol.  Biggasmowers is right.  It's not the carb, it the over revving, which was unfortunately caused by a stick from nature in this case, not the operator.  Interesting story though and thanks for sharing it along with pictures of the carnage.

I have a Kohler cv15 In a hydro craftsman. Would it have the same advantages as the 14cs? Also I just picked up a 18.5 b&s single cylinder avs 310000 series and also the same series that the 17.5 hp ohv avs. what's the differences?

Also the giant carb I put on the 12.5 is not doing so well. I mean it works but once I get to 5th or 6th it starts losing power somewhat. Im guessing the position of the carb and speed is forcing more air into the motor and causng a lean condition with popping sound from exhaust. I'm thinking of maybe drilling the jet.

Maybe too much carb for the flattie. Too much gas going in the motor. Popping in the exhaust side means too much gas. Popping in the intake is a lean mixture. Look at the spark plug first to see how the mixture is burning. Any black on it is too rich. Clean is good mixture. And white on it is too lean. Black smoke coming out exhaust is too rick of a mixture too. Grey smoke is oil burning, don't mix the 2 colors but is usually obvious to see. Too big of a carb can still be adjusted to work so no worries.

Welcome to the forum.

It was a hassle to mount and work with my linkages so I just took it off and you are right on the spark plug. I use that method when im turning wrenches at my job at chevy . . I'm deciding to either put the keihin from the 17.5 hp that $h!t the bed or try porting a normal b&s carb . I have a ton to practice on. Also have a 18 hp twin opposed in my mtd lawn machine that I recently aquire but I like that box style hood and hard corner body lines, so I'm deciding if I should take it off and use 18 hp opposed instead of the flattie or keep 18hp on mtd cause it is a bigger style tractor and use the 15 hp Kohler I have on my craftsman that's in the middle of being a 6 wheel mower. So If I usee the 18 hp the mtd will get the 15 hp . I just don't know what to do right now. I've got the next 3 days off so I sorta want to come up with an idea for the morning g

I would use the opposed. Those really popular engines for mower modding.

@Crazy_Carl OK by the way thank you for replying . Now the MTD is bigger than Normal mowers . It has the 12 inch rim in the rear , and it has the 1 inch rear axle hi low 619-0013 which I found out its 918-1056 I believe. It's just a heavy duty 1spd but with hi low. My question is would the Kohler be able to turn the 1spd or should I completely scrap this project and start modding the mtd yard machine square body style with opposed? I've already opened the 1spd rear end and found salt water intrusion to grease so I'm cleaning it up and regreasing after breakfast. Here's some pics so you can get a visual.

I think the Kohler would be able to turn the one speed. I don't see why not. I wonder since that MTD is a bigger tractor if it has a better built frame and a nicer steering setup.

Well my orginal build is a mtd varidrive converted to a peerless 930-011a 6 speed and the steering look like its the same as the other. Here, I took some more pictures.








Don't know if you can tell, but from the looks of it , the Frame looks more stout. I had to weld in steel crossmembers to stop the frame from flexing on my mower with the 12.5 flattie.

Looks like you got some cleanup there. Little bit of rust. Looks like you have quite the project there.

Do you plan to keep the vari drive?

I like the idea of starting with the tractor with the heavier frame. The transaxle looks kinda rugged too.

The guy I bought the MTD yard Maching from had a boat slip in his backyard to a lake and he would drop his boats into the lake with it . The transaxle would only do reverse and low gear. But would not go into high gear. Found the detent ball to be rusted up, not allowing it to achieve it. But I think I'm going to go with what you guys are saying. Just moify the MTD with the opposed 18hp 42ci. Sadly it's not pressure lubed. My 15 hp Kohler is the it's not pressure lube I have so far.



So now that I'm on board with you guys opinion , should I keep the varidrive with the heavy duty 3 speed with 7 low and 7 high? Or I have a 930 6speed in my current build and a 930 5 speed in the weed eater that you see in picture . The 6 speedhas already been ran through and filled with gear oil . And installed vent. The 5 speed has not be ran through yet. What's your guys views? Also I've already tore my hair out doin a varidrive swap to 6 speed so swapping the MTD would be a breeze now that I know what I need to do .