Oneaxepony
Bronze Member
I've got a "project" L sitting in the barn, that I want to repower eventually, so follow these repower threads with interest....
Any thoughts on if this would work?
I repowered a C8 with a 13HP Honda clone. I dont find the engine speed to be an issue as it has plenty of torque at lower rpm. That said, I've often thought about how to use gearing or chain and sprockets to allow the engine to run at 3200+ rpm while keeping the input to the drive pinion at 2600 rpm. To me, gearing would be more difficult than chain and sprockets. I used the front half of the Gravely crankcase (2 1/4 inches deep) with an adapter plate behind it on my repower. To use chain you would have to put a sprocket on the drive pinion in the front half of the crankcase. The engine would have to mount on the adapter plate such that the crank is above the drive pinion sprocket. Speed reduction would be determined by the ratio of sprocket sizes on the crank and drive pinion. The lower sprocket and chain would bathed by oil in the front half of the crankcase. The engine crank and sprocket would have to be enclosed to keep oil from flying everywhere. The engine would mount higher than normal so there would probably be interference from the handle bars requiring modification. The higher engine would have better ground clearance (a plus) but the tractor would have a higher center of gravity (a minus).
Because there are so many issues to work out and the fact that I already have a working tractor, I have not tried this. However I would never discourage someone from trying it as you may end up with something that works well and that the rest of us can learn from. Good luck with you project.
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