Engine ideas

[2manyrocks]

I wish I could remember, but there used to a Gravely website where I think they had put like a 20 hp Briggs vanguard on a Gravely. If you compare the weight of the Lifan engines and so forth with the cast iron Kohlers they used to put on the Gravelys in the 1980's, I don't think weight is the issue. Available space may be an issue in terms of having the engine fit beneath the handles.

I think Gravelymay is on the right track of building the components so these newer engines can be retrofitted.

 

[Oneaxepony]

I wish I could remember, but there used to a Gravely website where I think they had put like a 20 hp Briggs vanguard on a Gravely. If you compare the weight of the Lifan engines and so forth with the cast iron Kohlers they used to put on the Gravelys in the 1980's, I don't think weight is the issue. Available space may be an issue in terms of having the engine fit beneath the handles.

I think Gravelymay is on the right track of building the components so these newer engines can be retrofitted.

Agree 100% about Gravelymay's work.

As far as engine weight goes, you have to consider both weight and distance. Think of a kids see-saw. The formula for balance is W1 x L1 = W2 x L2 where W is the weight of person 1 or person 2 and L is their distance from the center point. If person 2 weighs twice as much as person 1 but person 1 sits at twice the distance of person 2, the system is in balance. What does this have to do with the Gravely repower? The comm 8 which used an 8 HP Kohler sat very close to the tranny - the adapter plate is only 1/2" thick. On some of the repowers, the use of additional spacers pushes the distance back further. In the extreme case of using the Gravely crankcase as an adapter you are adding 5" of distance. So even if a replacement engine is lighter than a cast iron Kohler, the increased distance affects the balance and makes it behave as if the engine were heavier than it is. I'm not saying this to criticize anyone's work. I'm just pointing out the issue of tractor balance is a complicated one.

 

[db556]

Though If do use the kohler 25 its getting a......sidecar...er....sidekick.....you know that thing with wheels that you sit on.

I wouldn't want to take the kick of it hitting a big rock or something. I have a couple huge coasters that I and weld up to frame and install some kind of steering wheel.

As for the gravely with the vanguard 23 it was on gravelyinfo you can still see most of it on the wayback machine

C10A to Vanguard 23 | GravelyInfo.com

 

[2manyrocks]

That is the exact machine I was thinking about.

 

[db556]

I went into work today and found nobody was there (check your email before leaving for work!) So I got some measurements from the shaft I can turn down the shaft to 1" OD 1.5" from the engine and can make it anywhere from 1.75" to 4" long. So gravelymay's sprocket might work so I can reduce the length.

 

[Oneaxepony]

I went into work today and found nobody was there (check your email before leaving for work!) So I got some measurements from the shaft I can turn down the shaft to 1" OD 1.5" from the engine and can make it anywhere from 1.75" to 4" long. So gravelymay's sprocket might work so I can reduce the length.

I'm not a machinist so I'm just trying to understand this a little better. Are you going to turn the shaft down with it still in the engine? If so, how would you do that?

 

[db556]

I'm not a machinist so I'm just trying to understand this a little better. Are you going to turn the shaft down with it still in the engine? If so, how would you do that?

Oh the shaft on the engine is a small tapered stub(1.125" to .875").
What I can turn down is the old shaft from the generator, it was pressed onto the taper of the engine and is 1.75" OD but I can turn it down to 1" OD, 1.5" from the engine when the taper pocket in the rotor shaft ends.

 

[gravelymay]

I went into work today and found nobody was there (check your email before leaving for work!) So I got some measurements from the shaft I can turn down the shaft to 1" OD 1.5" from the engine and can make it anywhere from 1.75" to 4" long. So gravelymay's sprocket might work so I can reduce the length.

If you use the gear GR 045 It is 2 7/8 of 1 dia shaft inside the gear.
so the distance then would be from the face of the trans to the face of the engine.
You could turn some more off the back of the gear and it would still work.
If you get the crank too short then you don't have room too bolt it all together.
Because the engine would be in the way

Here is a picture of a C10 with the GR 045

 

[gravelymay]

Oh the shaft on the engine is a small tapered stub(1.125" to .875").
What I can turn down is the old shaft from the generator, it was pressed onto the taper of the engine and is 1.75" OD but I can turn it down to 1" OD, 1.5" from the engine when the taper pocket in the rotor shaft ends.

Did you get your shaft done? :thumbsup:

 

[db556]

Not yet, waiting for the carb first. Was bidding on two acutions lost the first auction, but won the second one, it should be here in a couple of days and I'll bring it all back into work to get it turned down and running. Probably do the build in the spring, give me a chance to find a gravely with a already dead engine, or give me a chance to blow this one up brush hogging 15 acres