Tractors, Mowers, Chippers, Trailers, Chainsaws, Generators, Driveway Erosion Control, ETC.

Never been a fan of Tecumseh, a friend of mine who works on welders and small engines told me that little red indian is the devil. He also told me “ta come see me” when it wouldn’t crank

 

Honestly I've never really had an issue with them until this one. The cam is slowly eating itself, which is a pretty bizarre defect.

 

Had one on a go cart when we were kids, dad worked on it more than my brother and I rode it.

 

Now recently for some reason I won't go with a Briggs engine mower or equipment. Right now I'm down to a Kohler V-Twin and a Honda (minus the Tecumseh in the snow blower) for my lawns. That 22hp twin I got on the Cub is a gem. Haven't bogged it down yet and I mow some pretty thick stuff!

 

Had a Bobcat zero turn with a Briggs on it, wasn’t a fan of it. I do like the older Briggs though. My welder and Hustler zero turn both have Kohler twins, I like them

 

We have a generator/welder at work with a 16hp(I think) Kohler twin, old style. Love the way it sounds. I volunteered myself to do a tuneup on it and put a battery maintainer on it. Valves were surprisingly in spec for how old it is. My friend has an old CH20 Kohler twin in a Terrimite backhoe. It's a little worn though and could use a rebuild. We're gonna do a quick tuneup and a good oil change to see where it stands. Think I seen a jug of 5w20 that might have gone in it, would explain the smoking...

 

Not a fan of single cylinder kohlers, twin cylinder OK… tecumseh I like as with the Briggs. I picked up a free mtd snowblower 8/26 … boy is it used and abused. Runs on full choke. No big deal, the snow scoop is bent, worn and rusted. I’m not so sure I wanna put money It… time will tell

 

My Troy-Bilt doesn't have any of those issues. Throws wet, dry, grainy snow no problems. The power steering and hand warmers are nice features. Chute doesn't freeze. It doesn't position precisely though, which is a bit of a pain. The Honda clone Powermore engine has been reliable so far. Pull starts easily down to -32C. Maybe colder, but that's as cold as I've started it. It's not really a Troy-Bilt though. I believe MTD builds it, and brands versions for them, themselves, Cub Cadet, Yardworks, Yard Machines, Craftsman, and likely others that I haven't listed.

Anyways, I'm happy with it, and will likely keep it forever because it was handed down from my dad. Might retire it to occasional use however. Get rid of the '89 Toro 11/32 as well. Got it in trade. It's a bear to operate, if you can get it running at all in the cold. Not a great feature for a snowblower not to start in the cold. Seems to be fairly common with the people I know who have had Toro blowers, which is maybe why they are not a popular brand around here in Northwestern Ontario. I'd like to pick up a Honda, Yamaha, or Ariens at some point. One of the older Ariens. They were better built machines than the new ones.

 

I bought a laminator at a yard sale for $5. I make copies from the manual, laminate them and use them in the garage, keeps my books clean.

 

Every recoil start Briggs I have had has been a bear to restart when hot.

1 - 3 pulls
3 - 6 pulls
6 + pulls

There is something about pulling that rope that makes you madder and madder with every pull.

 

When I bought my gas powered welder I had a choice of a 16hp Onan or a 20hp Kohler, glad I chose the Kohler. They were the same price. It’s a Miller Bobcat with 8,500 watt generator. Shortly after I bought it they came out with the closed in case and went to 10,000 watt.

 

My 3205 pivot bar has the PTO bearing housing inside it. It wouldn't take grease. People forget about it as it's under the axle. I decided to take it apart and clean out the caked grease after spending an afternoon with a grease hammer and no luck.

It was a throwdown and I ended up getting out my $1500 USATCO monster .498 shank air rivet hammer and driving the stuck PTO out with a special driver that had a square drive for a socket on it. I put a 1 1/8" impact socket on it and drove it out with the rivet hammer. It did smear the inside of the bearing housing inward so getting that bearing out the rear would be a pain. I have no intention of taking it apart though as I was able to get the PTO to take grease and squirt it out both ends with a grease needle. Spins freely.

The axle had dry carbon-like remnants of what grease used to be in it and I dug that out and wire brushed the bore. I'm dead beat and I cleaned up. I am getting to hate this type of work. I enjoyed fab more than greasy mechanic work when I worked for truck and trailer shops. I have to get tie rod ends.

 

Me thinks you complain too much.

I ain't buying what you is selling.

We know you enjoyed every minute of that challenge.

 

You the man! I’d probably would of said F-it then It would of bugged the shit out of me until I ended up getting grease into the fitting…

 

Got a free snowblower MTD 8.5hp/26 (black) probably mid 90’s machine or so. Needs a bunch of work though. Carb, front snow bucket junk, belts, drive wheel pulley, and then who knows…. So I’m gonna probably scrap this. Does run and drive and auger turns. Then I went and found another MTD 8hp24 smaller brother. Identical (black) machine. This one starts one pull, drives and runs good. Had the smaller wheels/tires. I’m almost deciding to swap out the taller skinnier ones from the bigger machine…. We’ll see what happens. Told Christian to run it tomorrow and do an oil change on it. Got it for 240.00 Rather than the asking price of 300.00

 

IDK. 51 year old body with 20yrs of heavy eqpt repair mileage on it don't like crawling around on the floor much anymore.

Man I gave this sucker a full day of messing with it before this. I built a grease hammer to run off an air hammer. A piston in a bore. Heated the axle with a torch, hooked the hammer to it which was full of 5W oil and tried to hammer it thru that zerk. Probably 1500psi of pressure with zero effect.

The grease remnants were like carbon you hammered into the holes. Completely dry. Nothing was getting thru.

 

Sometimes just biting the bullet pays off one less thing to worry about and hopefully it did some good

 

I've been putting this off knowing it needed to be done. I was getting ready to swap out the spindles for ones I modded to take 4 lug boat hubs and wasn't gonna tear it apart without fixing this. I'm getting close on paint and decals and want this to come together.

 

you know that things gonna be too pretty to use once you're done right?

 

I know, I know. This GT pulls my brush hog thru tall field grass, sumac, and under tree limbs all the time. Gonna cry when I scratch it up. Maybe I just leave it nekkid and dress it up for pics.