Murraymountain's Lawn Tractor Repairs

Aha! Yeah I saw that there. I'll probably go for the 20W-50 syn. oil from Walmart though.

Alright, so I got the oil... 20W-50 conventional. Put 2 and a half quarts in.



Anyway, after I filled it up, I pushed it outside and purged it according to the manual. Went to do the second part which is driving it 5 feet forward and backward. Well, nothing happened. After trying a bit with no results, I decided to give it one more go. The thing finally starts to come alive! So I purge it in freewheel mode again, put it back in drive, and we start moving! Anyway, drove it around a bit to break it in. After I broke it in it did pretty good! No leaks! Runs pretty smooth and quiet! Was even able to tow with it! Sooooo, the final verdict is, these hydros CAN be rebuilt in your garage without special tools...




So now that that shenanigan is over, the next part is getting the deck on and mowing, and putting a fuel pump on it.

Nice work. A lot of seemingly difficult stuff can be done in the garage with basic tools if you just take your time and go easy.

I had the hydraulic drive motor for my Case completey tore apart at my house for inspection when I had it out to replace the output seal and bushing. Basically I just had to really pay attention to how everything went in, which way it faced, etc. Oh, and make sure everything was SUPER clean before it went back in the housing. I wouldn't say I actually "rebuilt" it though, as I didn't really replace any major components. But either way, same deal.

I just kinda went for it and hoped for the best LOL. Probably could've done a little bit better keeping everything clean, but it just came down to getting it put together or keeping it clean. Figured it'd be better to have it in one piece than clean. It works though, so..

Anyway, I ordered a fuel pump and deck belt for it. Still need to pick up some extra fuel line so I can make the fuel pump work. Gotta sharpen the blades, and then I think it'll be mowing!

Alright, got 5 feet of fuel line and the tracking number says the fuel pump and belt will be here tomorrow... Awesome, I'll have 'er mowing before we head up to MA. I also sharpened the blades and installed them. Oh, and I put a valve stem in one of the MM's old wheels and it holds nicely... So after I get my parts on it needs: one front wheel, Headlights and harness, a key, and a decent clean up, and I can park it and sell at the beginning of mowing season.



Also decided to get the Husqvarna back up and ready for next year. Made some good progress too. Got the steering fixed. Had to drill a hole in both ends of the right tie rod and replace the ball joints with nuts and bolts. Then I had to take out the left spindle to drill the hole further up so the steering would be aligned properly. After that, I glued the parking brake handle back on, and then tried to drive it around... It actually ran perfect. Idled great. Then I found out that there was no OHV gaskets on it whatsoever. So I drove it back down to the shop and shut it off. Then I brought the deck up, scraped the top and bottom, and painted it, sharpened the blades, and removed the guts off one of the spindles. Turns out it had a bad ball bearing. I Also tracked down a wire going from the PTO switch straight to the kill on the ignition. So, assuming if the PTO had nothing to do with the kill it wouldn't shut it off, I just cut it. And there ya go, fixed. I also ordered a full gasket set for it. SO, now it needs: a PTO, a gasket job, a new deck spindle (except housing) the upper deck belt, and a headlight bulb. Not bad I'd say.

Okay, so the belt came in and actually fits. Put the deck on, leveled it, threw some gas and a battery in and it mows. It is very quiet too. Anyway, after I put the fuel pump on, it needs light bulbs and a front wheel. ....... I'm gonna wash all the mowers before they go up for sale next year.

So, I got the lights done, stole the Husqvarna's front wheels, and got the fuel pump on, BUT..... IT STILL STARVES!!!!!!!

AND, if that's not enough, the fuel tank leaks and now it has an oil leak coming from the governor.




So, the whole reason I put a fuel pump on it is to make sure it does NOT starve. So, my question is, how, with such a strong pulse, how can it possibly not get enough fuel? HOW?

And the oil leak (Watch the videos to see the leak and fuel pump). Is there any way to do something about it and not take the engine off?

The fuel tank, well, I'm gonna take it off and (hopefully) melt it (and not burn it down) back together and if that doesn't work I'll JB Weld it.




Listen to this noise the fuel pump is making. Sounds like it could be getting too much pulse and could be burning it up? Maybe it has to be level?

Trying to start it...

My gosh! The dang JB Weld doesn't seem to even work. When the 25 minute set time was up, it was rock hard. Said it's perfect for gas tanks on the package but I couldn't even get it to stick! And now the oil leak has gotten significantly worse. Bad enough that the engine has to come off. So I'm just gonna do a mild rebuild on the engine and get top dollar for it since after the engine just about everything has been rebuilt. So now it needs a front wheel, possibly a new gas tank, fix the fuel starvation issue, and rebuild the engine.... At least mowing season is a few months away.

The Husqvarna on the other hand.... Still needs everything I last said except the light bulb. We got the gasket kit in and went straight to work only to find out the rings are probably the issue. The head gaskets were pretty decent, but it has a fair amount of piston slap. Can't hear it, but you can definitely see it. I am not going to even attempt to fix it... I believe you have to get a new block or something, so we're just gonna run it 'til we find out which way the piston ejects itself  . But seriously, it runs really good, just has piston slap. It'll be fine...

If it's not knocking, there's no piston slap yet.

Is it burning oil or something? I'd check the PCV assembly first if so, and if not then the piston rings would be suspected. Also for future reference, piston slap won't neccessarily cause an engine to blow up either, and it can be cured with a bore and over-sized piston. That can be quite costly though unfortunately.

Any ethanol in the gas will dissolve the JBWeld I believe.  I've not got it to work on a gas tank to date.

AllisKidD21 wrote:

If it's not knocking, there's no piston slap yet.

Is it burning oil or something?  I'd check the PCV assembly first if so, and if not then the piston rings would be suspected. Also for future reference, piston slap won't neccessarily cause an engine to blow up either, and it can be cured with a bore and over-sized piston. That can be quite costly though unfortunately.

Well, if it's not piston slap, what is the rocking?

Yes. It's been burning it. I suspected the head gaskets since some smoke would come out of the oil fill tube after running it. The new head gaskets seem to help, but not all the way. I know it won't "blow up", but I would think it could crack the piston severely with time. What I was saying was that I'm not gonna put the kind of money it would take to fix it into it. It runs pretty strong right now though, so it'll be fine for a while.

MightyRaze wrote:

Any ethanol in the gas will dissolve the JBWeld I believe.  I've not got it to work on a gas tank to date.

It said, "perfect for fuel tanks", but I'm assuming it meant metal fuel tanks and not plastic.

Murraymountain wrote:

Well, if it's not piston slap, what is the rocking?

If it's very minor it's probably just because it was cold, once it warms up there might be perfect clearances. But I suppose, being that it's burning oil, there's a chance it is in fact a worn cylinder. AlI think a leak down test would tell you a lot and doesn't involve any dissassembly.

I don't know how tight the factory piston to cylinder clearances are on this particular engine of yours, but I know that with some older engines they're not as tight as you would think.

why do you have a fuel pump on that?

AllisKidD21 wrote:

Murraymountain wrote:

Well, if it's not piston slap, what is the rocking?

If it's very minor it's probably just because it was cold, once it warms up there might be perfect clearances. But I suppose, being that it's burning oil, there's a chance it is in fact a worn cylinder. AlI think a leak down test would tell you a lot and doesn't involve any dissassembly.

It's not very minor. It has a pretty good amount. We have a Tecumseh with a tiny bit of piston slap, just enough so you can hear it when it has a decent muffler on it.... Anyway, this has more, but you can't hear it. Maybe it is knocking, but the rattling muffler is drowning it out. I guess we could try a leak down test. Won't have the gauges or anything but I just watched a way to bypass those, so.

mrshaft696 wrote:

why do you have a fuel pump on that?

I purposely put it on to stop it from starving on any sort of hill. It won't run on ground that is not level. You can see that I raised the gas tank in that pic (fixed the last one that way) but it made absolutely no difference. I just didn't feel like running the rats race I ran with the last machine, so I "bypassed" it. It still didn't help. I can't understand how it didn't. The fuel pump is working fine. All it did is start sucking more gas. I'm assuming that it must be either a clogged jet, or the cracked tank. I just don't understand how the pump didn't fix it.

Alright, we finished the oppy swap. Now it needs a starter, coil, side tins, and flywheel (the ones on it came off another motor for testing purposes...).




Also, the JB Weld was a fail. Went ahead and torched the tank real good... Hope it works. But now...




I'm doing a "mild" rebuild on the engine now. It leaks and burns oil, lags when you throttle it up, and starves really bad for fuel after about 5 minutes. Guess the next step is to tear it down.



At least this is pretty much the last piece to the puzzle.

Alright. Got into the engine. Got the main external parts plus the head off. 5 of the stupid sump bolts are rounded now. Also, 5 10mm bits are busted, bent, and stripped because of them. SUPER frustrating. Anyway, here's the parts pile right now...



Getting the pulley off was a pain. The key had sheared, so I had to knock it back in place and then hammer it off. The key was pretty far off center...



The sockets...





The "highly questionable" parts...



And the engine itself...



Anyway, There's a lot I need to go through on this. Getting those bolts out are gonna be one big problem.


Also, I'm gonna be preeeeeeeety busy these next few months. So I probably won't be back on the forum for a little while... Just a heads up.

Alright, so, within the past month, a lot has happened. Lets start where we left off...

I do believe the next step was to get the sump off. Well, just beat on some 3/8 sockets till they go on and you get no slip at all.

After cleaning out most of the sludge...


The internals...


So all in all, I got a new oil filter, head gasket, and gov. cross shaft seal, and after fiddling around with carbs, I managed to get one without flaw. So, after putting everything back together and getting it back on the tractor, I fired it up, and of course, it goes wide open. After trying a couple things to fix it, I conclude that it's the gov.



Sure enough, when I opened it back up, the gov. was stuck all the way open. Pushed it back in place, RTV'ed the sump again, put it back together and on the mower again, and it finally runs right. So I made a couple adjustments and got everything working correctly, including a good full throttle RPM. And last but not least, a WORKING FUEL PUMP!!! Yes, the fuel pump was a success!




So after about 45min of testing, it worked perfect. The engine and hydro are quite and smooth running, and the deck is well oiled making it fairly quite. When it was on the Craps-man sometimes I didn't realize it was even on... Anyway, since it'll go on the market in March, I'm posting it for $400. It's worth every penny now that literally almost everything has been rebuilt.



Husky's almost done too. I'm in RI right now, so when I get home, it's just a matter of finding a belt.

Alright. The Husky is done. Ended up pulling a spindle out of an MTD deck and it just happened to fit. Same with one of our belts. Like I said before, this thing is a BEAST! We can't get it to bog.

So, now that the Husky is done, the JD is up next...





I "cleaned"(inspected) the carb, and of course it's perfectly fine. So then I dropped the deck. It's definitely got cancer...



So we need to get that welded up. This too...



Then the balding wheel...



And, since it's kinda wore out and making a lot of noise, I don't see any reason why we shouldn't get this welded on...



So, it needs some love. The spindles are shot, so I gotta order a set of those. Pulleys are shot too. So, I'm goin' full rebuild on this deck.

Well, did a gasket job on 'er!



New head, OHV, carb, and exhaust gaskets. Has better compression, surging seems to have stopped, but the valves are ticking hard... Guess I need to run it. Now we need to do a typical tune up.... Plugs, air oil and fuel filter, oil change, gas lines, etc. Also, soon as we pick up a 5 quart jug of hydro oil, we're gonna change the hydro fluid.

Okay, so I got the hydro fluid changed... Had to drop the trans twice of course. First time it was low, so I changed it and filled it to the full line. It preformed worse than ever before. Anyway, after about a week of thinking, I decided that I better drop it again because everything that could possibly fix it requires dropping it. So I did, and decided to check the fluid while I was there. It didn't make sense how someone else used 20W-50 Hydraulic fluid and had great luck whereas I used 20W-50 Motor oil and it was a complete fail. When I popped the cap, I couldn't even see the fluid. I under-filled it by far. Anyway, it purrs like a kitten now. Some pics from the first time I dropped it...



This was the fluid level before I changed it... It should be up to that lip...



Now, after the gasket kit was done, the valves tick now. Do you think that will hurt anything?


Also did a redneck hood fix.  ZIP TIES!



Way better.



Also did a little hood "pin". Just screws in...



The hood would always fly open on big downhills. Not no more.

So, now we got to take the deck to the fab shop and get the cracks and stuff fixed, order new spindles, pulleys, and blades, put 'em on and get a fuel filter. Then she'll be ready for the new year! BUT, we need ALL our tractors done by mid-March.... So we gotta get a "get 'n go" as the hillbillies would say.




Little update on the Craftsman and YM... YM got a tube put in one of the tires and the Craftsman got it's front rims painted. Other than that they're still sittin' in the portico waiting for mid-March so we can do a final test, pressure wash and wax them, and get 'em sold!

This is my brother's Yard Machine....



We've put a 19HP oppy on it with a brand new starter, coil, and gaskets. We replaced the throttle body, flywheel, alternator, and manifold, just lapped and adjusted the valves and cleaned ALL carbon from the heads and ports, and it has new plugs. AND IT KEEPS RUNNING WORSE!!! I can't understand it. We've replaced all the external parts AND done it's first valve job ever and it still runs like crap. It's very unresponsive, and lags very bad. It can't handle a load. Listen in this video. 20 seconds in is FULL throttle and it's only at like 2250 RPM. Notice how loud it is even with a known good muffler on it. And try to see the white (gas) spraying out the carb. We did a valve job because it would run fine, and then flood and sit and sputter for about 20 seconds, then it would go back to running good again and then repeat. The valves were also leaking. My brother is gonna try some known good carbs tomorrow. Does anyone know how to fix whatever is going on here? If no one does, the motor's gonna have to go back to the junkyard, and I really don't want to see that happen because of all the work we've done to it. Especially the valve job... I don't want to lose that. Can anyone help me here?

Did you ever give the carburetor a good cleaning?

did you static adjust the governor ?

My first instinct is carb, the intake manifold is got a good seal on the carb and block?  The plastic riser isn't cracked between the carb and intake manifold?  When you did valve adjustment, what's your clearances you used?  That is a lot of backflow almost like one of the intake valves isn't shutting all the way.

If you have the tools, a leakdown test would be good.

AllisKidD21 wrote:

Did you ever give the carburetor a good cleaning?

Well, he's got 4 half good carbs, 2 brand new ones that still didn't work, so he's been taking them apart 4 at a time to try and make one good one. He tries them out on his straight piped 16HP oppy and they work great, but not on the 19.

mrshaft696 wrote:

did you static adjust the governor ?

No way. We really don't want to mess with it but it's heading that way.

MightyRaze wrote:

My first instinct is carb, the intake manifold is got a good seal on the carb and block?  The plastic riser isn't cracked between the carb and intake manifold?  When you did valve adjustment, what's your clearances you used?  That is a lot of backflow almost like one of the intake valves isn't shutting all the way.

If you have the tools, a leakdown test would be good.

He's supposed to be going carb crazy with it right now, so we'll see. I'm pretty sure it sealing against the block good... Not sure about the carb. Yes the spacer is cracked. Actually split. He scotch taped it since both of our spacers shattered. It works on his 16 horse, so we thought it be okay for testing it.

I think he did 0.003 on exhaust, and 0.006 on intake. Not exactly sure. I do know he based it off of his 16 HP and not the specs because he couldn't find them. The 16 HP has never had a valve job done on it, so I personally wouldn't trust that motor for the right specs.

Hmm.... questionable on that cracked spacer.  Exhaust is off.

Here is a good PDF for you the print out for Briggs engines:

https://www.pdffiller.com/jsfiller-desk17/?projectId=407933949#4d1e1758260db9eb3c1cd3670bc55c61

I was wrong on those. Exhaust is 0.006 and intake is 0.003. He put a different carb on it and it helped, but still not good.


We also put an aluminum manifold on it. It was getting very hot. We switched it back to a cast iron one and it's not AS hot.

We then put the aluminum one on the 16HP and it ran like crap. Acted like it needed a new camshaft.