1711 Heart Transplant
 

Well, long story short the KT17 Series II in my 1711 went from a beautiful runner to...ventilated on the right side of the block. Well maintained, lasted 850 hours. Reluctant to put in another Kohler, nonetheless I have settled on a CH18S with 250 hours as a donor. Looking for 16-18 horse Briggs for a week or so on Craigslist and Marketplace largely brought up Vanguards for (new) short block prices or I/C units without enough capacity for an electric PTO.
I was most surprised how few horizontal shafts are on the market compared to vertical. Tangent aside, it looks like it should fit readily; I pulled out the KT17 Series II today, will get everything cleaned up in the next week or two and go from there.

Looks like my biggest challenge will be thinning down the electrical to keep with the same controls: for example the "new" mower's PTO switch has 6 wires coming out of it. :BlahBlah:

What is your donor engine from? My KT PTO fit my Command without issue, but it was a Cub spec engine (2185 I think) to start with, and I don't recall any wiring changes regarding the PTO itself.

Quick edit: I did a Command swap on my red 782 2 years ago-

One major wiring difference will be the addition of a kill circuit for your magneto fired CH-18 versus the points/coil KT-17. You will need a different ignition switch from a 1811 model tractor.

I have become very good at pulling Kohlers from these to fix or replace different issues. I found an excellent replacement M-18 engine to replace my governor-less M-18, my second tractor lost all of its flywheel magnets, so I replaced the flywheel, and my third tractor needed a new crank pilot bushing and magneto, so it too had to be pulled.

Cub Cadet 2186

Yeah, you're right. Hoping to clean it up and mock up Wednesday when I'm off work...I was originally hoping to keep all the 1711 controls, but the ignition switch was shot anyhow and it's looking like a better option to keep the factory CH18 harness and maybe change switches to legacy sort after the fact. :bigthink:

I went with an 1811 ignition switch and modified the wiring instead of the harness swap, but 1711 harness I'm sure will be different than my older 782 harness.

Roland was able to help me with a wiring diagram after providing him the serial of my tractor and the engine.

On the CH18, there will be a wire for the carb solenoid, an oil pressure wire, and the kill circuit for the magneto. The 1711 never had an oil pressure warning lamp, or carb solenoid.

I'll have to keep an eye on this topic. I've got a CH18 from an 1864 waiting to go in my 682. I would like to use an 1810/1811 ignition switch as well.

Yes, I was planning on keeping several of the warning lights (e.g. low oil presure) and either hiding them below the dash or even under the hood. Don't really need the disengage pto or press brake or whatever else they have (IIRC there are 4 lights) but oil pressure might be nice.

I'd assume the "oil sentry" would kill if it loses pressure anyhow?

The 1711 harness is there but not in the best of shape; I'm kinda thinking of jettisoning and keeping the excellent condition new one. Pretty much identical (2 lights, pto, etc) minus power to the rear lights (easy add-on).