Brand new Craftsman tractor leaking oil

frank29 · May 14, 2008

I just bought my first ever riding mower. It is a 46" cut Craftsman lawn tractor with a vertical shaft, 2 cylinder 24 H.P. Crafstman INTEC engine.

I have less than 3 hours on it and it is leaking oil. Not a lot of oil; but, enough to leave a steadily growing oil stain on a concrete floor. When I put a piece of wax paper under the leak, it leaks maybe a teaspoon of oil over two days. Not a lot....but this is brand new!

The vertical shaft extends down from the engine. There are two pulleys on the shaft extension, one for drive & one for the blades. At the bottom of this shaft extension is the leak. The shaft must be hollow (?) because the belts and grooved part of pulleys are not oily.....the oil only appears to leak from the very bottom of the shaft.

The engine came prefilled with oil. The oil level is correct (not over or underfilled)

Before I call Sears I was hoping to get some advice from you guys. By this I mean, do all of these brand new engines leak oil and the seal will seat over time. Or, will it get worse and worse and my best hope for a fix is to call Sears now?

Thanks
Frank

elad · May 14, 2008

Call Sears right away. Chances of it curing itself is pretty slim.
It should not leak oil------PERIOD. elad

Fordlords · May 14, 2008

It most likely has a defective lower crankshaft seal or possibly the crankshaft itself is bad (Pulley threads extended in to oil channel.) There should be no leaks whatsoever on the new engine.

-Fordlords-

eightpilot · May 15, 2008

Friend of mine had the same thing happen to his Craftsman. Sounds like a quality control issue. 8

frank29 · May 15, 2008

Guys, thanks for the advice. I called Sears and scheduled a service call.

Eightpilot, what was the outcome of your friend's problem?

Axeman · Jun 26, 2008

Get it fixed as quickly as possilbe. I had an oil leak on my old Craftsman GT and the tractor caught fire and burned to the ground. I'm not saying the oil leak had anything to do with the fact that it caught fire....probably didn't help once it started burning though but then again I have no idea why the thing cuaght fire. Anyway, a new tractor shouldn't be leaking anything. They should fix it under warranty I would think.