25HP Robin blew up today

[bol4fun]

We've had somewhat of a drought in Central Iowa this summer and my 1/3 acre front yard of my new house has been like a dust bowl. Long story short, haven't been cleaning the air cleaner enough and at 55 hours in on next oil and hydrualic fluid filter change (was going to change today), it made a **** of a racket yesterday and then seized up. My mechanical son happened to be there and said he could rebuild it for me. Can we lift it out?
Question 1- Any tips in removing the engine or rebuilding would be appreciated.
Question 2- We need to tow it to the garage 100 ft away. I read a post about this on here somewhere but none of the pictures were like my 425 so it was very confusing. I picked mine up in July of 2017. Any tips here.

 

[MossRoad]

Sorry to hear that.

I think your model year has a tow port or valve or something that you have to open to tow it. My much older 2001 model year has two ports you connect together with a hose.

You may want to call Terry at PowerTrac to ask about your specific model pump.

As to removing the engine, hopefully you won't have to remove any hydraulic hoses. If you do, cleanliness is a must. Clean it twice. Plug any hoses you remove and bag them to keep them clean while working. Hydraulics hate dirt.

Any pictures of your engine bay?

 

[agjones]

Two can lift it out but a chain lift or engine lift is way easier. Buy one if you don't have one bc if you keep the Subaru, you're likely to need it. I own my anti robin-Subaru bias.


Iirc, you can undo the engine mount bolts, then
You should have enough space/wiggle to separate the lovejoy coupler, go ahead and replace the spider /rubber center in the process. Cheap and likely to be damaged by the wiggling and prying required to get the engine out anyway.

I can't remember if you have to get any hydraulic lines out of the way but like MR said keep them high, covered and clean. You can order or pu plugs for the hyd line ends the ones you would most likely need are jic 8 male and jic 4 male. That will ensure they stay clean and don't leak.

Northern tool usually has those sizes. Or discount hydraulic hose online and site sponsor surpluscenter.

It's worth a call to Terry for sure... There may be a conversion path to a repower that gets you a better engine and better cold starting.

Good luck.

 

[bol4fun]

thanks for the feedback MossRoad and Agjones.... looking at my options now. My son plans to take it out this weekend. Switching over to a Kohler sounds a little involved swapping out 3 or 4 specialty fittings that I would have to buy from Power Trac. A may just bite the bullet and try to get it on a trailer and haul it down to Tazewell and have them make the swap. Terry has the same engine he could put in a few hours he said for $2500. Would certainly like the Kohler but if I can get the Robin and have the old one rebuilt, I will always have a spare for the future. That would give me some piece of mind also. I now have to figure out how to get the bucket off the front with no motor to disengage the quick release. Any advice here?

 

[MossRoad]

thanks for the feedback MossRoad and Agjones.... looking at my options now. My son plans to take it out this weekend. Switching over to a Kohler sounds a little involved swapping out 3 or 4 specialty fittings that I would have to buy from Power Trac. A may just bite the bullet and try to get it on a trailer and haul it down to Tazewell and have them make the swap. Terry has the same engine he could put in a few hours he said for $2500. Would certainly like the Kohler but if I can get the Robin and have the old one rebuilt, I will always have a spare for the future. That would give me some piece of mind also. I now have to figure out how to get the bucket off the front with no motor to disengage the quick release. Any advice here?

Why do you need to get the bucket off? When mine died in the yard, I used a ratcheting strap, hooked it under and around the bucket, and hooked the other end to the ROPS and ratcheted the bucket off the ground a few inches. You have to put the joystick in float, though, or the FEL arms won't move.

Another way would be to disconnect the quick attach hoses from the AUX PTO hoses on the FEL arm. Those are the smaller hoses and quick connects. Once you have both of them off, you can use two wrenches and take the quick connect fittings off of the hoses (have a drain pan handy) and that will alleviate the pressure on the hydraulic cylinder. Drain them out and you should then be able to shorten the quick attach cylinder by hand to move the locking tabs out of the slots on the bucket. Put the FEL joystick in float and you should be able to drag the bucket off the quick attach plate with two people. I can do it myself, but I'm too stupid to know that's a good way to wrench your back. :laughing:

 

[agjones]

Back out the bolts that hold the cylinder to the qa plate. The keeper lugs will lift out.

 

[MossRoad]

Back out the bolts that hold the cylinder to the qa plate. The keeper lugs will lift out.

If you can get to them. Sometimes when I'm curled back all the way, there's no room in there. But if they are accessible, that would be easy.

 

[MuncyBob]

I lifted my engine out by using a block & tackle, chains and the garage rafters. Not hard, just take your time. I think I had to disconnect a hose or 2 but as said, keep things clean. I'm no mechanic so I'm sure your son will figure it out easily.

 

[m5040]

Take pictures for future reference, like when you are putting it back together. And keep all the removed parts/bolts in a safe place where you can find them.

 

[dcdtn]

I had an early mechanical failure on my 2016 PT-425 with Robin 25 hp engine. Fortunately it was not catastrophic, ended up being a broken rocker arm I think. It made a lot of noise initially, but then would not run very good. It happened immediately after my first hydraulic filter change and I initially thought I had messed up bleeding process somehow or perhaps was related to the damage I did to spark plug boot trying to disconnect for bleeding. Turns out it was all coincidence.