Craftsman Mower project

[Youngtractorman]

Put a larger pully on the engine, smaller on the trans. Like people have said. Don't mess with the governer. I have heard of putting a LITTLE bit of nitro in the fuel will give you a nice ride. Remember that these mowers arn't ment to go flying. The transmissions just can't take it. They are built as cheap as possible.

The trans is geared, right? I think too much power could to something to the hydrostatic pump. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[frank_f15]

i don;t understand the need for speed on a lawn tractor, is this an extremly slow machine? sometimes the faster you go the worse the cut.

 

[Mith]

Frank, getting the feeling it isnt for mowing.
Try google for gerbox prices, probably quite expensive because they probably dont sell too many. have you ever pulled the gearbox apart before? If you take a look inside sometimes you can see how to make it spin faster. The problem with the normal gearboxes is they are not hardened gears. Ive ruined a few gearboxes in this kinda thing in my time, this is why you may have troubles if you speed up the input too much. But you only live once so try changing the pulleys to get more speed.
So are we gunna get some pics of this machine, what have ye done so far? is it an integrated g/box or is it a seperate unit just bolted underneath?

 

[lawnduster]

Just truesday 7/05/05. I finally got thhis rig all ready to go for the first ride. I took mthe first ride it ran very strong, and wnent pretty fast. I had the throttle a wider open than it was amde to go (i kinda too the governer out of play)Every day I rode it and it ran very good. But I have no real way of controlling the throttle so it revvs when I put it in Neutral and when I activate the clutch. Up untilk sunday I had ran it in third since it is only a Four speed. 3 forward one backward. Sunday, I went for a ride down my street in second gear. ABOUT 100 yards from my driveway I noticed it started to revv kinda high. I t continued a little bit more and shut down. Noiw I cant even get a putt putt out of it even with starting fluid. On sunday I also changed the oil earlier in the day and put new spark plug in. I may have filled the oil tooo much could this be part of the problem. does anyone know what the problem may be.

 

[lawnduster]

mith could my engine have blown, what did your engine do when it blew

 

[Mith]

Doesnt sound like it. Usually with a blown engine there is lots of oil smoke and generally bits from inside the engine end up outside.
Try turning the engine over by hand. Is it easy to turn over, does it go Sccchhhuccck Phhuut when turning it over? If it is hard to turn over and you can hear the air movement you have compression.
Are you sure its getting fuel, take the bowl off the bottom of the carb and see if there is fuel in there. if not you either have a block up the fuel line or tanks empty.
Are you getting a spark, take the spark pug out put it back in its cap, hold the threads against the side of the block and turn the engine over, can you see a nice strong blue spark?
One last thing, take the spark plug out, put a pencil down the spark plug hole so it rests ontop of the cylinder, turn the engine over by hand, does the pencil go up and down, If not your con-rod is broken.

Hope these checks help, but I dont think your engine has blown.

 

[lawnduster]

It does have spark, fuel, compression, and i even took the head off to check if there was sludge in the cylinder. i clean ed the head and top of the piston. Put it all back together and it still didnt run but i got more pops out of it. What could it be?

 

[Mith]

does this mean that as you spin it over it goes pop pop pop but doesnt start and run by itself?
Try taking the flywhhel cover off and the flywheel and see if the key is still good. it amy have shifted giving bad timing

 

[Chadtoolio]

How bout the valves? With the head off, and turning the motor over by hand, do you see the valves going up and down? If not, possible broken camshaft.

You said compression, how much do you have?

Another side note from the safety side of things. Rotating masses, meaning the crank, rods and piston along with the flywheel, were only intended to spin so fast. There are very real dangers with overreving an enginge not desiqned for this, such as parts of rods coming out of the block at very high speeds at you. Or a flywheel coming apart at 6000 rpm has the potential to kill you. If you are intending to do this with a stock motor not modified to turn this fast, I think I would be a wise idea to put some kind of a shield around the engine to keep from hurting yourself. JM2cents!



Chad

 

[lawnduster]

Found the problem. One of the valve keepers broke so i had some compression at certain times when i turned it over by hand. So i put in a replacement valve keeper and it runs now. I plan to make a smoke stack for it. So i went to the hardware store bought some piping and elbows that thread into the exhaust, then i going to bolt a 2 foot long piece of tubing to it, gfoing straight up. It wis awesome the engine sounds like a harley now. If I pant the tube orange will the paint burn or melt off?