My 1450 project officially started today

[ajgross]

Originally Posted by CC1450

I'm currently poking around online looking at repower options, looking at classified ads and trying to decide what direction I want to take with these cubs, or one of them. What is a 14 horse kohler that needs rebuilt worth? Like 40-60 dollars from what I am seeing. Even a basic rebuild is going to run 5 times what the engine is currently worth, doesn't make sense to me to throw good money after bad. I'd rather buy a known good powerplant, fit it and move onto the other issues the thing has.

I don't really understand what you mean.In my opinion, not rebuild your current engine and buy another engine is throwing money away. The problem with buying another engine is the fact that you don't know what condition the engine is in or what has been done to it. What one person calls "Rebuilt" or "Runs Good" might be totally different than what you think. If you want to try to get away cheap right now, then just tear it down and hone and rering it until you can do a proper rebuild. It might cost you a couple of hundred dollars rebuilding it, but at least you know for sure that it was done right. you see too many times on these forums where someone bought a tractor that "Runs great with no smoke or noises" and come to find out afterwards, the engine was a turd.

AJ

[CC1450]

Thanks AJ you definitely have a good point in that the same risk is there with whatever I buy used. Even if I hear it run who knows what could happen in a weeks worth of use.

The engine from the '76 was harder to turn by hand so I kind of assumed it is about locked up. The seller said it had a rod knock, but maybe it was something else like a bad PTO or drive shaft. That tractor only had 3 bolts out of four holding the engine in, and the cradle rails were welded indicating to me that maybe the knock was just the engine bucking around....

I never did anything with it beyond pulling it and putting it in the garage though. Tomorrow I will look at that one a little better and see if it might be in better shape than I thought. If either of them get a rebuild, it will be that one so I can keep mowing in the mean time. Tomorrow is a new day.

[ajgross]

To help cut cost a little more on the rebuild, it seems a more and more people are starting to use a aftermarket piston with a kohler rod in their rebuilds. I've seen some people posting about problems with the stens rods, but I've never read about a stens piston failure. That would save you $100 on the rebuild. For some reason, kohler seems to be making their pistons out of exotic metals or something. Or at least I have to assume that with the prices they charge for new pistons these days.

AJ

[CC1450]

Been sidetracked from the cub with other less fun things in life but I got out in the garage after work today. I straightened up a bit and pulled the 14 horse kohler out from under the work bench to have another look at it.

I'm beginning to become more confident the "rod knock" the seller was speaking of was an external noise. Reason being the repaired mount rails pictured earlier in the thread, and my latest discovery. The driveshaft coupler at the engine is so worn it is egg shaped and no longer round. I'll bet that was making a pretty nasty noise and the guy just assumed it was internal.

From the oil residue I would say pretty confidently it needs a new front seal as well. I put a socket on the crank and noticed something too, it's nice and easy to turn by hand. I think the hydro pump in the '76 was providing a lot of resistance for some reason, it had to have been as hard as it was to turn when it was connected. I spun the engine over several times by hand with the ratchet and I don't think there is anything wrong with this one internally at all. No noises that I did not feel were perfectly normal. It seems to even release compression like it should, I hear the exhaust valve opening and can feel it get easier to turn. Up to that point, it seems to have great compression. I'm thinking this engine runs too. So now I have to decide what I want to do. I'm leaning towards just running the '78 as is for the time being and keeping an eye on oil level, while doing a quick refresh of the '76 engine with a new seal and gaskets.

I guess the next step is a bench test of the '76 but I am missing some ignition parts at the moment. What are the minimal electric requirements for this to run on a bench test basis? Coil, points, plug and wire? Its missing the coil, voltage regulator and plug wire at the moment. Not that I couldn't use the ones off the '78 for testing real quick.

Not much of a progress update but it's something. Oh, I also ordered the steering upgrade kit from Mr. Mark Hellrung today, finally got a few extra bucks in my paypal account to get that taken care of. Looking forward to that addition to the '78 quite a bit.

[CC1450]

here is the driveshaft coupler thing I was talking about, notice how badly wallowed out it is on the left.



I got bored last night. Rolled the '78 out and the '76 chassis into the garage. I was tired of looking at the rusty old '76 out in the driveway doing nothing but being ugly so I stripped it down to just about a bare frame.

Pulled the levers, steering and dash as one unit for now to avoid fighting with the steering wheel.


Some moron PO made a huge hole in the cowl/dash of my '76, presumably to reach into it with a tool rather than taking 10 minutes to unbolt something.


As I was tearing it down, it reared up on it's hind legs and wanted to fight.


I threw a mean right hook and knocked the fenders clean off it!


Really what happened was I had to lift it up to get one of the bolts out that held the foot rests and fenders on. Got 7 of the 8 out, and the last one stripped the phillips head on me. It's always that last fastener when I work on something. Taped off the open lines to the hydro unit. I don't know what was fighting me so much but the hydro spins easily by hand. Tooted some PB blast on the manual release valves to see about getting those free again.


Front axle went bye bye.


There was just a bolt shoved through the pivot point with no nut, and the holes had been repaired before with some welds. Looked pretty shoddy to me. Will have to see what that is supposed to look like and see about some more suitable fix.

Frame is a little banged up, rigged up and filthy from over 30 years of abuse. Nothing that cannot be put right though.



That is where I left off. Took me about 2.5 hours to dismantle it, including packing the parts in a bin neatly and putting the nuts and bolts in a divided container. I don't need to label anything, I have a photographic memory. I've also got a just about identical tractor to compare to if need be.

The hydro fluid in the '76 looked rough compared to the '78.

What am I gonna do with the '76? Stay tuned!

[ajgross]

The drive coupling you pictured needs replaced. There is a ball type bushing called a "Self-Aligning Bushing" that goes in the center. The part number you need is 903-0204. They cost around $25. I wouldn't try to use it until you get that replaced. That bushing keeps the driveshaft in line.

AJ

[CC1450]

thanks AJ! We are definitely on the same page there, it looks like if it were to get any worse it could have come apart. I don't want that happening when the shaft is spinning 3K RPM between my legs! I still need to bench test this engine yet anyway so time will tell what happens with it. I have no reason to believe it won't run, just curious what may be wrong with it, if anything.

[MrGitrdone41]

Originally Posted by CC1450

thanks AJ! We are definitely on the same page there, it looks like if it were to get any worse it could have come apart. I don't want that happening when the shaft is spinning 3K RPM between my legs! I still need to bench test this engine yet anyway so time will tell what happens with it. I have no reason to believe it won't run, just curious what may be wrong with it, if anything.

What could do is you could pull the engine out of the 78' Then put the other engine in to test. It might run better then the 78's engine then just leave it in then get the other one rebuilt.

[CC1450]

Originally Posted by MrGitrdone41

What could do is you could pull the engine out of the 78' Then put the other engine in to test. It might run better then the 78's engine then just leave it in then get the other one rebuilt.

I had thought about doing just that and have had to tell myself to wait a couple times now. Plan is to bench test over the weekend and if it does not smoke throw some crank seals at it real quick, then install to the '78.

I want to cut the grass one more time with the '78 as it sits just to make sure it gets done before I borrow some ignition parts from it's engine to test the '76 mill.

People are already tugging at my strings for weekend plans though so we will see what happens. I am hoping to sell the 12.5 briggs engine out of my old MTD this weekend to free up some cub funds too. Finally had a guy contact me interested in it. He said he would call me tomorrow night on it, that would be nice. Tired of looking at it.

[CC1450]

Cut the grass with the '78 this afternoon and it did a nice job. I did notice that the longer I ran it, the more it seemed to lose it's "oomph" though. This engine is tired, and leaky. It consumed about a half quart of oil or so just to cut my little patch of a yard. It's not burning much, it's puking it out the front seal.

I'm up right now looking at diagrams and on the thought of picking up some crank seals to put in the '76 engine. I need to get the ball rolling on that mill and get it into the '78 sooner than later is what I am thinking. All it is going to take is one time of me forgetting to add some oil and the 78 engine will be toast. I don't want to see it go out like that. I also don't want to keep dumping oil in it, that is not how I like to do things.

Quick question for any cub guys who may still be awake tonight and in the know. Is it safe to assume Chris Westfall (the vendor above)carries original Kohler parts for these crank seals? I see he has very reasonable pricing on them but I do not want to skimp here and end up with aftermarket stuff that may result in me having to change them more than once. I just see his pricing differs from sites like parts tree. I'd like to give him the sale but bottom line with me is I want good parts for the money, I hate doing things twice.

for the record I am after
KH-47-032-07
KH-47-032-06


thanks in advance, you guys have been great help thus far!