gravely L8 rebuild or repower

[WH401]

I took the magneto apart and got it working. I installed it on the motor and it fired right up! :thumbsup:
I still want to repower it. Just wanted to know that it ran before taking it apart. I was wondering what the value of the motor is? Is it worth trying to sell or should I scrap it? The carb may need adjusting, but it had good oil pressure and sounded good. Hopping to off set some of the repower cost.



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The engine and such is worth something to the right person so definitely don't scrap it. But if the engine is running nicely with no smoke or such, I would just run it until it goes. One major benefit of the Gravely engine is that it's pressure lubed, so they're excellent for work on inclines. If you re-power you'd have to go all the way up to about a 16hp twin model, like the Briggs Vanguard 16 hp motor, to get a pressure lube engine. Everything below that is mostly splashed lubed and to just touch the Vanguard new you'd be looking at over $1k just for the engine. IMO, run the Gravely engine until it dies as they're very robust engines and it will serve you just fine.

 

[nate in pa]

I was using the gravely today and the starter toe switch went bad then the carb started dumping fuel
I was wondering if anybody was familiar with the different types of snow blower attachments (dog eater , snow cannon) What are the differences pros / cons. I have the dog eater style and did not know if it was worth getting the newer style?

 

[js5020]

Those who have the newer MA "snow cannons" seem to have nothing but praise for them. I also have a "dog eater",, it works and I have plenty of spare parts for it so I haven't upgraded. The biggest improvement I would see is being able to change chute direction from the handlebars with the crank rather than having to stop and go to the front and manually adjust. The auger speed is slower on a cannon compared to the dog eater and many like that. I think the cannon also has a better fitting impeller/housing to launch the snow further. I have been wanting to change my dog eaters' impeller housing to a fixed style with a rotating (modern) chute and fab a tighter fitting impeller just haven't done it yet.

 

[TheCaffeinatedOne]

One thing to keep in mind is that the old engines operated in the 2600 - 2800 RPM range; newer motors tend to run faster - like around 3600 RPM. Older implements were designed for the low -rpm powerplants, so you need to be aware of that when finding the sweet spot in running an implement with a repowered unit. There's nothing wrong with popping a Briggs Vanguard on an L-8, but remember that you're powering a fifty year old unit. Keep the revs down - might even be worth having a small tach so you can know you're in the best rpm range.