782/KT17 Series I oil leak
 

This is my first post on the forum. Last year about this time I was lucky enough to be given a 1980 vintage 782 in good condition. It has the original engine and a 50C mower deck. It had been stored and mostly neglected for the last 5-10 years. I managed to bring it back to life without too much work -- fuel system, electrical, fluids, belts, etc. No major repairs needed. I have been mowing 1-1.5 acres weekly since spring and it starts and runs like a champ.

In the past month though it has suddenly developed what seems to be a pretty big oil leak. It went from not losing a drop of oil to needing a ~1/2 quart a week. There is oil everywhere. Searching and reading back through the forum it looks like my likely culprit is the front crank seal behind the flywheel. The oils is all over inside the cooling shrouds around the heads and coming out of all the seams. I would guess this is from the flywheel and fan slinging the oil when it is running.

I have not attempted this level of disassembly and repair before and am worried about what I am getting into. Is there anything else I should be looking at? Is this common for this kind of leak to develop this rapidly? Is there anything else I should be looking to repair/replace/maintain once I have the engine out of the tractor?

Thanks for the help, Mike

That repair isn't too bad. You have to pull the motor out of the tractor. Remove the shouds, and remove the flywheel. to remove the flywheel, use a harmonic balance puller. tighten up the puller as tight as you can get it and whack the puller pretty hard with a hammer and the flywheel should just pop off. To remove the seal, just screw a drywall screw into it and pull it out with some pliers. It shouldn't take more than 1.5 hours to do the entire job.

AJ

I replaced the front seal on my KT series ll.....it leaked when i bought it...previous owner said he replaced the seal several times and couldn't get the leak stopped...

after 5 minutes run time
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7.../cub682012.jpg

This is where the most oil collected
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7.../cub682010.jpg


This is where the seal was once i got to it
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7.../cub682002.jpg

Had an excellent parts guy....told me the seal i brought in was for a series l.......the series ll was slightly different (a smaller inner diameter)....hard to tell with the naked eye....although you had to specifically ask for a series ll seal because the book listed the series l as a fit.

all cleaned up and ready to go back in
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...82cub010-3.jpg

The previous owner kept replacing the same wrong seal three times, got disgusted and sold me the machine....
Its not a hard job...pretty straight forward....but if you can't tell where its leaking...best to pull it and investigate.
Not saying yours is a bad seal....but you'll know right away once you get the motor out....put a summers worth of mowing on my 682....so far i haven't had to add any oil. Excellent time to pull the heads/de-carbonize/ and install new head gaskets....seal wise...do it with genuine OEM kohler....i use alot of aftermarket parts....but seals are always OEM...

Good luck

metalrain

Great pics! Now that's a oil leak! Great post!

metalrain, Great post. Thanks for the information.

In this picture, were you able to remove that shroud without pulling the motor? The one that you have removed here that covers the cylinder head. I got that far last weekend and decided I would have to pull the motor to get the bolts out of the sheet metal on the bottom. I have oil seeping out of the seam between those covers which led me to think that seal might be my problem. Mine is not quite this bad but it looks similar. Mike

yes, you can remove that cover with the motor still installed.
Its kind of a pain, i remember theres a bolt at the bottom front, but you can still get to it with alittle effort. I removed it, then fired it up...you could see and feel the oil coming off the flywheel....i'd check everything i could before i pulled the motor...If you pull the front nose casting off, things are easier to get to....

I went ahead and re-did everything while i had the motor out...ofcourse i had to paint it (basecoat/clearcoat)...the last pic i took was before i put the body parts on....go figure.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7.../682cub006.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...82cub003-1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7.../682cub010.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7.../682cub038.jpg


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...82cub002-1.jpg

metalrain

You really should just pull the motor so you can clean the oil out of everything. Everywhere you have oily residue, you have a place for grass and debris to collect and possibly restrict airflow in the engine compartment or start a fire. While you have the engine out, I would consider going through the starter as well, as it's a pain to get to with the engine in. Check on the spherical ball bushing in the engine-to-driveshaft coupler, as that's a common wear item that may need to be replaced.

I doubt you could even get to the seal without pulling the motor. As I said before, it's no where near the daunting task that you think it is. If you try to do it with the engine in place, you're going to make a WHOLE LOT more work for yourself. I know I can have a x82 engine out in less than 20 minutes. Most of that time is spent removing the bolts in the rag joint. Kind of a pain to get to. Everything else i can do in less than 10 minutes.

AJ

What usually causes the front or rear oil seal to leak is a bad breather valve. The breather valve is located on the right hand cylinder in the valve train.
A new breather valve will cost you about $12.
I have 12 782s and 682s and I have replaced about half of them and The valve will stop your engine from blowing oil seals.

That's a good point. I had replaced mine, but still had to replace the seal. I too have had the same problem with the seal not wanting to work, and will be relplacing mine a 2nd time, as the new one was still leaking, though slowly. I bought the identical seal that was in the tractor. The previous owner was the 2nd owner, and the tractor only had 400 or so hours when I bought it.

Anyone thought of using 2 seals for this type of problem? There is room in there for 2.