Digging back into my John Deere garden tractor

[fantastic]

I've put 14 hours since re-gasketed it & put new rings in it. Gave it a light deglaze. Had to rewire this mower & went through basically everything minus the transmission at this point. Thankfully the transaxle seems to be just fine. I didn't ever hear or know the history of this motor so took a gamble on it but it's always had a bad knock since I put it back together LOL.

It didn't take long before the knock was quite loud so I had to see what the heck was going on. Thought I went through everything but I think I shrugged off a few worn items since I didn't know their significance. Since it's a single cylinder it has a counterbalance weight inside. There's a plain bushing & a shaft. Tearing it apart today I could make the knocking noise by pressing on both sides of that counter weight. Further investigation was that weight was hitting the back of the engine housing & left some large deep scratches. Going to place an order for some parts to John Deere in the morning.

Maximum ID is 1.027 (Should be that measurement or higher)

Balancer shaft that goes into plain bearing above.
Minimum Shaft OD 1.021 -
When I total up the wear "Out of range" with both plain bearing & this shaft it's 0.068" out of spec. It's plain worn out!

Balancer weight was hitting the crankcase on the top left side. Their are some deep scratches.

The way it sits. Think I'm going to pull the head off tomorrow to re-measure the crankshaft, piston, & connecting rod since I'm already this far.

 

[CarbonToast]

Props for fixing it instead of repowering. Cool project!

 

[Cruisin'n5thgear]

Nice work! I know in the horizontal Kohler world, deleting balance gears is a popular thing to do during engine rebuilds. Good luck on your rework of the engine, it'll be worth it! They don't make em like they used to ... at the same price point, that is.

 

[fantastic]

When I first bought it for $175

Here's the 17 HP Kawasaki when I got it.

They installed a Kohler 15.5hp. Looks at the fuel tank they installed from the Craftsman. Deck didn't work, golf cart tires didn't turn w/o rubbing, original electrical wiring was removed & everything was pretty well worn but it had good bones. These are not popular "318's" & I thought that is what I like about redoing something that didn't get the star ratings ha ha.

From this...

To this

 

[fantastic]

Trying to buff out the hood that had a white layer of oxidation/dirt. Had to paint clear coat it in the end since the clear coat was real thin from age I was getting green paint on my towels when cleaning it. I won't share the details of the paint job....I'm not a painter lol

 

[fantastic]

Props for fixing it instead of repowering. Cool project!

4 years into it, when I can, so far and not many mowing hours ha ha but hopefully I'll get it fixed soon enough to start working for the long haul.

Nice work! I know in the horizontal Kohler world, deleting balance gears is a popular thing to do during engine rebuilds. Good luck on your rework of the engine, it'll be worth it! They don't make em like they used to ... at the same price point, that is.

Yes, I've seen that as well. I gave it a thought LOL but I have a theory that it may put extra wear on the plain bearings in the housings. Don't know if its true or not but I guess there's a reason it's there. Without it would possibly be more vibration=wear. I will say If new parts are NLA or used parts are all used up & none good left I would definitely throw all those balancer components in the trash.

 

[fantastic]

Here's the spot at TDC it was making even w/o running the engine.

 

[locomaster1969]

I have a good engine if you need it.

 

[fantastic]

I have a good engine if you need it.

Hmmm, How much?

 

[jeepman3071]

This was at the tip of John Deere garden tractor quality before they went downhill IMO. Still fairly simple, and nice to use. The plastic hoods were always fragile, but the rest of the machines were solid. Definitely looks good with the new paint.

 

[fantastic]

This was at the tip of John Deere garden tractor quality before they went downhill IMO. Still fairly simple, and nice to use. The plastic hoods were always fragile, but the rest of the machines were solid. Definitely looks good with the new paint.

For obvious reasons... I agree
Remember when they thought plastic camshaft gears were a good idea? ha!
As you probably already know the transaxle on this is a Kanzaki by Tuff Torq & it seems to be a decent size w/true GT axles. The engine is a weekly mow only IMO can't mow every two weeks like my 24 HP Craftsman but I'm quite thrilled w/the opportunity to fix this tractor the right way after it was Frankenstein'd together previously. Thanks for the comment. These hoods seemed to really be fragile after some age. JD advertised them as allowing minor bumps to happen w/o causing a dent like metal would. Not sure if that was somewhat justifying their move to plastic but probably was. LOL

 

[Cruisin'n5thgear]

What model/year is your machine? I have a 318 and 140H3 in the fleet, looking at selling the 140 as I don't need two machines.

 

[fantastic]

What model/year is your machine? I have a 318 and 140H3 in the fleet, looking at selling the 140 as I don't need two machines.

1991

 

[locomaster1969]

Hmmm, How much?

Message me and we will figure it out

 

[fantastic]

Message me and we will figure it out

PM sent

 

[Lawnman23]

What was wrong with the Kohler Command that was on it when you bought it?

 

[fantastic]

What was wrong with the Kohler Command that was on it when you bought it?

Other than me needing to put on another carburetor nothing was wrong with it. The wiring kit was a basic hacked version that was taken off of the Craftsman (Hack job puts it mildly). Also, the mowing deck did not work with the welded pulley set-up they did to it. I recently gave that Command engine away to another fella that came to buy an LT155 I had.

 

[fantastic]

Cleaned up some gasket surfaces with a Dremel small "broom" wire attachment. Not strong enough to cause any damage if your keeping it steady. The Amazon carburator fuel shut off has recently been not working. I remembered that I needed to make up a ground wire for the carb. Maybe that's what that's for? I know that fuel solenoid needs a good ground. Replaced an old crank case vacuum fuel line for the fuel pump.

Removed the worn bushing out w/socket but I'll have to pay someone to press in the new one.

Because the outer edges were beating on the crankcase, due to the worn bushing & shaft, I thought I'd better grind them down while I could.

Now I know how to fix the loose steering when I put this tractor in 6th gear. I could move the 1 1/2" bolt back & forth by hand. Removed cotter pin and turned it w/impact just a smidge. Took out all of the back and forth but still allows up and down movement of the front axle.

After 14.5 hours I pulled off the Purolator One oil filter. Drying it out as I type this so more to come.
https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/threads/purolator-one-pl14476-14-8-hours.385602/#post-6962527

 

[jhellwig]

Might be bushings in the front axle pivot.

 

[fantastic]

Might be bushings in the front axle pivot.

Definitely, this thing was ragged out. I'll keep an eye on the steering & if it keeps coming loose in short time I'll replace it if I can.

Here's how the knock happened from looking inside the engine. Turn your volume down. lol