Now I have a problem

[Digger 258]

Well, as I was removing the carb, underneath I discovered two things. One, the breather tube that runs up into the air cleaner was taped with rotting electrical tape. When I removed the tape, I see the hose is dry rotted at the base, so I guess I need to find and order another of those. Also I found this electrical connector floating around under the carb on top of the engine all by it's lonesome. No wires disconnected and no clue where it might go, so I assume it was dropped and lost in there at one point. Anyway, I cleaned up the carb (but did not get a carb rebuild kit yet) and put it back together. I have the carb mounted and I am charging the battery right now. Fingers crossed that cleaning the carb did the trick!

 

[Digger 258]

Well, I kinda figured it out. I put the carb back on, cranked her over. Got a sputter and lots of white smoke, but nothing else after a bit of cranking. So I went to take the carb back off, and while pulling the air cleaner base off, I saw that the small breather tube was wet, and the top of the carb was wet. I am not sure why, but I thought to crank it again. What I saw astonished me. Out of that small breather hose came lots of whitish fluid, smelling slightly like gas, and the engine fired right up and kept running. So I presume that stuff out of the breather tube was just pouring into the carb, making sure it didn't run. I ran the engine like that for about 2-3 minutes with the breather spraying over the side of the tub like in the attached pic, but the fluid showed no sign of stopping. Fearing I might start a fire, I shut it down. Where can all of that fluid be coming from? Does this point to a much larger problem? Appreciate your ideas . . . As long as the tube is not pointed down the carb, she runs fine.

 

[ponytug]

um...that's the crankcase breather tube right?

Since you just changed the oil, I suspect that you have had a leaking carb that has dumped a bunch of gasoline into your crankcase. What is the oil level at the moment? Just a thought, but you may want to check the function of that fuel solenoid.

I'd get the breather tube fixed for starters. It will help keep the oil clean and dry, and it should improve the engine function.

All the best,

Peter

 

[ponytug]

On your mystery item, I would be thinking a high temp switch. Is there an electrical circuit through the item?

All the best,

Peter

 

[Digger 258]

Slowly coming to conclusions - I think that when I had the carb off, with the fuel line sitting on top of the engine, my gas tank drained over night, somehow into the engine drip by drip. I just dumped my oil and found it to be full of fuel. I think I ended up with a gas tank instead of an oil reservoir. So I am off to get more oil and a filter. I hope I didn't blow a head gasket or worse - but the good news is she fires right up now - only I fired it up with a gas in the oil which can't be good. Hopefully, I refill with oil and we will be back to normal.

How do I check that fuel solenoid? I cleaned it up good, but don't know how to test it.

Also, the mystery piece has no wires anywhere near it - it was just resting by itself on the top of the engine between the cylinders under the carb. Strange.

 

[Marks481]

The problem is there isn't really a fuel shutoff for this engine. So if the float valve sticks open because of debris, the carburetor bowl fills up, overflows, and then runs down the crankcase ventilation tube and dilutes the oil in the crankcase.

There should be a manual shutoff in the fuel supply tube; I would recommend adding one. This if a frequent issue. And you need to clean your carburetor (stop the valve from sticking open), which will make your engine run better.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/power-trac/149637-422-robin-eng-problems-again.html#35 (see post #35, yes this is for Robin, but Kohler is almost identical and the principle is the same)

I am guessing that electrical thing is the temperature sensor that is used to actuate the cooling fan on the hydraulic cooler. It used to be tie-wrapped (or whatever) to the side of a hydraulic fitting. Most of us have it located on the inlet to the hydraulic cooler (although mine looks much different than that).

 

[Digger 258]

Thanks tmarks. I am guessing you are right - my float stuck open, the fuel filled the oil through the crank case breather, and that was my original problem. Now that I have the carb cleaned and working, it's a matter of changing the oil, which I am about to do. To think that I originally thought my problem was that I overfilled the engine with oil a smidge and when I checked it after it stopped working, it was way overfull - must have been fuel in there. So i've come full circle, but learned a lot along the way, none the least that the carb is really not that scary!

I'll look for where the hydro temp sensor might go and see if this is indeed a part of that. I do know that the hydraulic cooling fan would kick on after a few minutes of using the PT, which I hope is how it's supposed to happen.

 

[Digger 258]

Crisis over. Changed the oil (put in EXACTLY 1.9 qts) of 10w40 synthetic, and changed the filter. Barely cranked her over and she fired right up, ran her all over the yard in the dark. Checked the oil, which was still in the same place on the dipstick. Started her up again and drove some more. No problem so far. I am thinking I learned my first PT lesson (or any small engine lesson for that matter) - the stuck float. I am guessing I should change the engine oil again soon to flush any remaining fuel out, but otherwise I am ready to get some work done this weekend it seems. Thanks for all of your help. It's the second biggest monetary investment I have ever made and I was thinking I needed to see a psychiatrist I was so befuddled.

Regards
Dan

 

[cqaigy2]

Good job getting it going!

 

[MossRoad]

Good job! As others have mentioned, you may want to consider putting a fuel shut off valve in the fuel line between the tank and the fuel filter. Not only will it prevent what happened should the float stick open again, its handy for shutting off the fuel to change the fuel filter, or running the tractor out of gas to do maintenance. I may put one on mine, now that I think about it. :laughing: