John Deere 110 Project

So as most of you know we have a John Deere 110 basic off-roader set up for my cousin to use.



Since this ones actually in such good shape, the plan was to get a different one that was in much rougher shape and get it running and driving instead. He's gonna use the nice one until the other one is all ready and then it will most likely be sold with the deck, blower, etc. Basically it's gonna be mostly my job to get it functioning good enough to use for an off-road rig.

So anyways, here's the project unit:





Fairly rough but not too bad. When we got it there were no spindles but I had a set that we modified to work, as you can see they need to be bent a bit to get rid of that negative camber, hahaha.  

It has a K241 Kohler 10hp engine that I started tearing into today. I got the carb off, dissassembled it, then cleaned/inspected it. It wasn't too bad but it needs a new float.
The next problem was the engine seemed to spin with no compression, but I could hear the intake breathing so I knew the rod and piston were intact.

Traced it down to simply a stuck exaust valve:



Got the cylinder head off and got it freed up, but still not %100, so it's soaking in some stuff overnight.




While the head was off I got all the carbon and junk cleaned off with a wire wheel:





Cleaned up real nice! No slop in the piston, cylinder wall looks good, valves seating nice, etc. I definitely think it'll be easy to get 'er running.

This is gonna be a real basic project, not quite as much modding or anything, just something for my little cousin to have fun with. Either way I thought I'd document it and show it to you fellas, haha. More to come soon hopefully!

Sweet project!

I'd lap the valves and sand the cylinder head flat on a piece of glass.  This thing should be a good runner.

Nice project.  Want to enter it in the build-off?

Thanks Carl! Yeah the plan was to maybe get a valve spring compresser and get them out. It sat for a really long time by the looks of things, but everything is cleaning up great so far! Haha.

MightyRaze wrote:

Nice project.  Want to enter it in the build-off?

Haha thanks Mighty, I thought about it but I most likely won't bother.

Nice project! That is some kewl negative camber there. I'm glad you're keeping the old Kohler

Hey, looks a lot better than mine!  I'd keep the camber, looks cool and would make it harder to roll.

MatthewD wrote:

Nice project! That is some kewl negative camber there. I'm glad you're keeping the old Kohler

Thanks Matt, haha. Yeah the ol' K Series is definitely staying. Luckily it's not siezed up from sitting or anything.

Double W Cross Ranch wrote:

Hey, looks a lot better than mine!  I'd keep the camber, looks cool and would make it harder to roll.

Definitely not planning on keeping the negative camber. It'll wear the tires funny, steer stiff, handle poorly, etc. Plus it just kinda looks dumb, hahaha.

AllisKidD21 wrote:

MightyRaze wrote:

Nice project.  Want to enter it in the build-off?

Haha thanks Mighty, I thought about it but I most likely won't bother.

I understand man... my next build may not be in the 2019.

MightyRaze wrote:

AllisKidD21 wrote:

MightyRaze wrote:

Nice project.  Want to enter it in the build-off?

Haha thanks Mighty, I thought about it but I most likely won't bother.

I understand man... my next build may not be in the 2019.

Yeah, maybe I'll find another project to enter sometime. Haha.

Well I got the ol' 110 uncovered and did a bit more work on it today.



Happy to say the exhaust valve now moves up and down freely as it it should! Turned it over a bunch with a speed handle to make sure it wasn't gonna stick again and all is definitely well.

After that I figured I should set the valve lash while I had the cover off:



All set! Then I did a quit compression test. I was not turning the engine backwards so the automatic compression release gave me only about half if what the engine actually has.



So 50lbs with the compression release working seems okay to me, it's most likely actually around 100lbs or so hopefully. I got my parts carb today too so I'm gonna see about getting the good float in the other carb and get it back together soon!

Looking good man. Seems you have a healthy Kohler there. Should be a fun rig

Thanks CQ! Yeah it should be pretty easy to get 'er running, I'm pretty excited, haha.

Hope that Kohler starts up for ya. I'm not sure what compression these engines should have but 100lbs seems good. Are you going to put the bumper from the 'good' 110 onto the other one?

Thanks Matt! Yeah aboht 110 psi is a good number, so I think this one will be good as well. Also I'm not sure what the plan is with the bumper on the other one, but I think it'd look pretty cool on here, haha.

Nice little deere! What kind of suspension is this going to get lol

Haha thanks Bigg. Believe me, if I had my way she'd get a custom front axle and suspension setup to match the heavy duty steering systen.

you could swap the rear tires out the opposite way and get a wider width, my old scrapped toro had the same rear rim style and just used that to make the rear width match the front.

Well these aren't the orginal wheels so the offset is way different unfortunately. When we tried putting the wheels on the other way they suck out way past the fenders, hahaha.

More stuff with the ol' K241 today.

Got the carb all back together and ready to go.



I like to write down the number of turns the mixture needles where turned out, so the mixture isn't too outta whack when the engine's running again.

Got a gasket set for the engine today as well, pretty much only gonna use the head gasket, intake gasket, PCV gaskets, etc.



PCV assembly installed with all the new gaskets.



Carb installed with new intake gasket.



Finally the air cleaner base bolted up with a new gasket between it and the carb.



Gonna maybe do the head gasket tomorrow and then hopefully be done with that kinda stuff. Getting closer to the first fire up! Haha.

Good progress! What's up with the exhaust? Seems like the muffler is cut off or something.

Thanks Matt! Yeah that fitting peice is threaded into the block and the muffler inlet is just clamped on to that.

Haha that pcv. Just dumps right out eh?

Hahaha, yessir! Zero emissions control on these ol' engines.

Interesting how John Deere and Wheel both used the pipe nipple in the block with the muffler clamped onto it.  I wonder if the mufflers are the same?

What did the gasket set run you?  Where did you get it?