Repair-It

kevm14 wrote: ↑Sun Apr 09, 2017 1:14 pm

kevm14 wrote:Badly yellowed fuel gauge (in fuel cap):

Finally got annoyed enough to order a new cap/gauge. I sprung for the OEM replacement part for whatever reason and it looks great.
WP_20170408_17_36_57_Pro.jpg

The float is now sinking so it underreports fuel level or sometimes just shows E. Ordered the cheaper Stens this time. I expected more than 3 years out of what was supposed to be an OEM gauge.

Fixed. Kind of strange. Somehow the plastic float either is hollow and took on gas or it absorbed it.

The Stens seems almost identical to the OEM one I had but it was cheaper. Hopefully it lasts more than 3 years.

Old one (shows E when not empty)
New one (proper reading)

Soldered up the wiring adapter pigtails and mounted the voltage regulator/rectifier.

The yellow dual terminal end plugs into the harness on the tractor and the red plug connects to the regulator output. Simply twist and solder all 3 wires together. I used my fancy high end heat shrink from HF and it worked great and looks really nice.

On the machine, because it was designed originally for the dual circuit charging system, one pin is the AC output for the lights and goes through the switch. The other pin is for the DC output to charge the battery. They were completely independent (hence "dual circuit"). When converting to a fully regulated charging system, the byproduct of soldering these two wires together is that everything is now on the same circuit. It also means the lights will work when the ignition is off. I could install a relay to have the ignition enabling lighting power but I see no need unless it turns out my children end up switching the lights on and killing the battery. It also means the lights will be brighter than before because they should be running at something like 13.5V whereas before I think they were 11 or 12 max. Of course I will likely convert to LED and add some rear lighting at some point.

As for the regulator install, I ended up with this. It's a little sloppy with it sticking out but I couldn't tuck it in or else the bolts would interfere with the air filter.

As far as I know, there are two requirements for the regulator installation:
1) Grounding. I simply removed the paint down to bare metal where the bolts/washers went and gooped on some silicone so it doesn't immediately corrode. Testing with a DVM reveals that my ground should be sufficient. It's under 0.5 ohm. Should be fine for 10A of current.

2) Cooling. I assume the back of the regulator is really also where the heat escapes though I am really not sure how much heat it generates. So at first it's a little concerning that almost half is just exposed to air and not contacting metal. However, because it is on the underside of the air intake housing, there is PLENTY of airflow and cooling there. The flywheel fan actually forces air into the air intake housing through holes so this area will be force cooled to atmospheric and should more than counteract the fact that only half is contacting metal.

Obviously #1 is required for functionality and I think it should work. #2 is required for longevity and if I start losing regulators and I think it's because it runs hot (I can use my temp gun to check heat and stuff) then I will adapt my design and do something else. But I don't think I'll have a problem.

I want to get the engine installed because, well, I want to get the new engine installed and running, and make sure my charging system upgrade works, how much it charges at lower RPM (including idle if possible). Actually I need to make sure the exhaust is going to clear, too...

Now that the STS is back on the road, I can shift my attention to the engine swap on my Deutz. I want to get that 18hp twin on there, make sure everything works, make sure it charges right, etc. So I will pursue that at some point soon hopefully.

Decided to see if the Deutz would fire up. I left the battery connected and also did not charge it. It cranked and once it got fuel, it fired right up and ran well. Remember this is the Group 75 car battery I got with the parts Simplicity and it was totally dead when I got it but it's been performing quite well for small engine duty.

Still considering the engine swap.

I'll do a mental exercise and try to list the steps I think it will take to remove the existing engine from my Deutz in order to prepare for installing the 18 hp one.

- Disconnect fuel line. Probably disconnect the outlet of the filter but I will have to swap over line section that runs from there to the fuel pump. I can do that after I pull the engine, or before. To do that I'll need to pull some of the engine tin apart as the line runs on top of the left cylinder head to get to the carb.
- Disconnect wiring harness, mainly the one from the stator which should be a 2 pin plug. And the lighting harness probably runs along the engine and needs to stay with the machine. Plus if I do the next step I'll need to disconnect something anyway.
- Oh, remove hood. Or at least take a good, hard look at whether there is any reason I WOULDN'T remove it for this job. I have not removed one of these hoods yet but hopefully it's pretty simple.
- Probably should have disconnected the battery already
- Remove cable from starter
- At some point, face reality and get on the ground to work on the crank pulley bolt. If I could get an impact on it I'm sure it would buzz right off. However at this time I was hoping to leave all of the snowblower stuff connected so not sure how well I can get the front end up in the air. I'll try not to fight that if I'm just making my life harder, and remove the blower if really necessary.
- Once the bolt is out, I was kind of hoping I could just slide the crank pulley down, with the belts in place and sort of leave it under the tractor. I have no clue how this is going to go. Maybe I should source a new one just in case I bend the crap out of it. Having the engine out on the bench would likely make this step easier, especially if I owned an air chisel (but I don't anyway). This step is a bit of a wildcard but maybe I'll be able to knock it off. I could also apply heat but I could also cook the crank seal on the old engine. This wouldn't be the end of the world as I would simply need to replace the seal before I put that engine back into service (which would probably be in my Simplicity unless the 18hp engine fails first). I'm sure heat would get it off without much issue but not with the belts wrapped around it and stuff.
- Disconnect throttle and choke cables from carb
- Maybe pull the air cleaner housing off to make the engine more maneuverable if I end up leaving the hood on but given that it can't even open all the way with the blower chute, this is seeming less and less likely as I type this out.
- If I'm not mistaken, the only thing left may just be the 4 bolts holding the block to the frame. I don't know if those are nuts and bolts or if something is threaded. I'll figure it out.
- Basically just lift the engine up off the frame.
- I don't know if the belt guides are part of the chassis or engine. If bolted to engine, remove and swap over to new engine at some point.

I think that gets me to a bare chassis in the engine bay of my Deutz, unless I forgot something.

Compared to working on cars, this is super easy work. An engine swap when you can physically lift the engine can't be that difficult, except for some of the details I mentioned....

Also, installation is really the reverse of removal. The biggest concern there is whether the MTD muffler and exhaust pipe will clear my frame or not. I hope it does because if it doesn't, my options are either to heat up and bend the pipe, cut off the section of pipe that interferes and either try to graft something else on or leave it, OR swap mufflers entirely. I am hoping I don't have to do any of that, because I don't want to, for various reasons.

Once the new engine is on, I will need to adjust some items:
- Throttle and choke
- After getting it running, probably do an oil change
- Make sure it is charging and see what kind of amps it puts out at least into the battery
- Make sure the hydro trans and blower belt tightness is still good. The blower has a bunch of adjustments and some may need tweaking unless everything goes back 100% in the position it was in before. Honestly, it probably should. The only variable SHOULD be how centered the engine is on the frame and that also depends on whether there is even a lot of play in the bolt holes. If not, then it should act exactly like it did before...except with more powah

After I get this far, and I am satisfied with the operation, I think I will continue upgrading the lighting. Maybe swap to LEDs on the built-in lights but maybe also add some external lights to the hood. And maybe get one light for the rear, or just some small red running lights for safety if I decide I don't need illumination back there.

Then after all that, I would assume it would be a wonderful time for the blower belt to break. I could also replace preemptively it but what's the fun in that?

Did a quick preinspection.

The pulley hub, which only includes the top pulley because the bottom one is bolted on, is 1672126SM.

Still available but $160.
https://www.jackssmallengines.com/jacks ... /1672126sm

So...I need to try to not break or bend it. And I'd be better off to do a heat/quench and cook the crank seal on the Deutz, than do aggressive prying cold because the pulleys bend easily.

Already disconnected the headlight harness from the hood and it just looks like 2 bolts (with nuts) to remove the entire hood. Also it looks like the bolts for the engine run up from underneath and the block itself is threaded. I may reuse these bolts unless the ones the guy gave me work and look better or something.

Looking at the pulley hub again, if I unbolted the bottom pulley, there is a decent flange there. All I'd need is to run the crank bolt back in a few threads and use a puller. Well in theory. I don't THINK this is going to be impossible but I guess it could be like totally rusted/seized.

Predicted 4" of snow this Wednesday night, then 8" and now 8-12"....seems unlikely we'd get nothing at this point and the temps look pretty conducive to snow.

Freshened up the Deutz and moved around the Simplicity to switch places under the deck.

Here are some notes of what I did or found on the Deutz:
- Front tires were both still well over 10 psi, shockingly. One was at 15. I aired them to like 23 because it's in the mid 40s. Figure in the 20s it will get close to 20 which is where they are supposed to be with the snow blower attached. Or close enough anyway.
- Rear tires were at like 12? I had them up to 15 last time but I just did 13 this time.
- Greased all the things that accept grease which are: front steering arms, front wheels, snow blower impeller bearings, snow blower driveshaft
- Oiled the things that pivot or slide: Chute (big difference), lift rod (also almost eliminated the squeaking), the PTO rod and a bunch of other things underneath, hitch pins, etc.
- Checked oil. It was like perfect and also looked clean. Really not worth changing at this point.
- Air filter looked very good. I blew some air into the flywheel area and zero garbage came out so I'm assuming no junk under the engine cover (i.e. no mice stuff). I'm not sure I've ever found mice stuff in my tractors. I have no baits or traps behind the house or under the deck either. Maybe they just prefer my various wood piles and ignore the tractors.
- I bent the belt guard for the blower belt because it seemed like the belt was grazing the edge of it which isn't generally good from a wear/heat perspective.
- The battery is on the charger now though it cranked as it always does with that Group 75 car battery. It's more critical to have a good charge in the winter to maintain good cranking performance (this is obvious) but also to prevent the battery electrolyte from freezing and cracking the case (a little less obvious). It is prone to freezing if the battery is discharged, but will generally not freeze if the battery is topped off. It's a chemistry thing. I'm just happy to avoid any kind of starting fluid or jump starting BS - I want it to be as self-sufficient as possible.
- It needed plenty of cranking as always because the bowl was empty (though even if I store it full it seems to leak down somehow), but the engine didn't even smoke when I started it. Maybe this one is less worn out than I originally thought. It runs, idles, etc. beautifully. Still want more power though.

Everything seemed to function exactly as it did last time. So I think I'm ready for snow. Didn't take a whole lot of work but it helps that I really went through the machine last time to get everything tuned up and working right. Stuff that is malfunctioning doesn't magically heal when it sits. And I can't think of anything more frustrating than having to fix something on this machine in the middle of trying to remove snow.

I think I could have actually just cranked it up and blown snow, even without touching a single thing like the tires or the battery. It wouldn't have been optimal but it would have worked. That's pretty cool.

Other notes:
- I put a socket on the crank pulley thing. The bolt is way up in there probably a good 6". So if I do need to use a puller, I will have to rig up something, like a much longer bolt. It is a 5/8" head. I am still wondering if I will be able to get it off under the machine or if I should work on it once the engine is out. I suppose I would remove the bolt and sort of gently see if I can slide the pulley thing off the crank. I just thought even though I'd be on the ground, it may be easier to yank it off the crank with the engine bolted to the frame of the tractor, rather than everything moving around. Not sure I could realistically mount it in my vice because the engine is rather large.

The other option is drop $160 on a NOS one and swap the bottom pulley over (3 bolts). At some point that may seem appealing because I could get into a situation where I can't get the pulley thing off the engine, mangle something and now I have no functioning snow tractor.

Should I replace my scraper blade?

2106746ASM

It's about $105...

I guess I'll decide in another couple of days. I tarped both tractors under my deck. I also topped off the battery on the Deutz. If we get as much as they say (currently around 13" and ranging from 11-17") I will be in for a real test of this equipment. I will also have to use my walk behind to make a path to drive to the driveway. Should be interesting.

I think we got over a foot and then it packed down to something less than a foot.

Ian helped me shoot like 45 minutes of footage and I stitched it altogether here: https://youtu.be/KMNqZvKK-RI

I did add some jump points of interest in the description.

Overall assessment is that it exceeded my expectations. I did have to use the walk-behind to make a path so I could drive the Deutz out from the back of the house to the driveway. There was no way it would have driven through this and I didn't want to get it stuck to satisfy my curiosity. However, what I did notice later was that I could set the blower level on one notch above float and it would actually power through my yard. That was impressive. However, you couldn't turn and even backing up was very difficult. The reason for that is because when I lift the blower (and all the snow that accumulates on it), it takes a lot of weight off of the rear axle (despite the fact that I'm still sitting on it) and the available traction goes down noticeably. The Terra-Grips were actually digging into the grass and tearing it up. Not ideal. Also the Terra-Grips give forward/backward traction only. They actually slip easily sideways. So backing on an incline makes the rear slide sideways. H-pattern chains would be the only way to improve this I suspect. On a driveway it's not an issue, just in the yard.

Other thoughts:
- I had traction issues with the walk-behind so I was very concerned that the tractor was going to be outmatched. But it outperformed the walk-behind despite the massive 42" swath (walk behind is only 26").
- When I would lift the blower to maneuver on the driveway there was plenty of weight on the front axle. Steering was always possible, even at sharp angles.
- As I said before the engine did better than I expected however was still taxed when I had to re-throw snow in that big area in front of my garage. This is what I predicted. It just makes it take longer. But if I wasn't re-throwing snow, the engine power was sufficient for what I was doing. It even pushed its way through the plow drift at the end of the driveway.
- I think the hydro belt was slipping briefly after a restart. I think snow was melting onto it somewhere and when I would restart the machine after doing something else, the hydro was a little jerky for a minute until it heated back up and got the water off. This was a very minor inconvenience and it never actually stopped. I think I would also smell a little belt smell during this period. Not too worried about it.
- The blower belt seemed to do fine. It had enough grip to load the engine up to near-stalling on a couple occasions. I did NOT stall it but I think there were a few times I could have if I wanted to.
- I love the feeling when it takes a full cut of snow. The governor loads the engine, there is enough traction to push it forward and it just eats it. It's satisfying and always left me thinking "this is better than I expected." I mean it's rear drive with an open diff. It's not that heavy of a machine, either. 42" is kind of big. But nonetheless it did well.
- I am glad I went with the 42". Even with the 42", it's only about as wide as the rear wheels. 36" would have caused difficulties backing up. I will credit Bill for bringing this to my attention as I wouldn't have thought of it necessarily. It is possible that going forward 36" is not an issue and possibly even provides some snow for the rear tires to grip into but that may be a stretch. Plus I'd be compacting that stuff which doesn't help anything. So yeah, 42" was the way to go.
- As I mention in the video, the chute did not clog one time! I was always able to rotate the chute as well. I could lift it even with all the snow piled on it. Basically even at 33 years old this machine seems both well designed and operating as it should.

On the modification discussion:
- I'd still like to do the engine swap but I do not currently feel that motivated to tackle it this winter. I think I will need a heavier storm than this to make me feel like I'm just struggling with the 12.5 hp. It would be smarter to tackle this in the spring or something. We will see.
- It would be nice to add some weight to the rear. My only real option is to hang something off of the rear frame and maybe use the trailer hitch to help position it. I may have to build something though so not sure if this will happen or what I would use for weights. If I could track down a spare bagging assembly, I could cut and use the portion of that frame that attaches to the tractor, and build something on that. For general driveway use traction was really only an issue a couple of times. It would either power through while slipping or occasionally require a couple runs to get through the snow. This only happened either from the plow drift at the end of the driveway, or when I was re-throwing some snow in the driveway toward the edge. Kind of a minor thing so given the custom work that may be required this may not happen, unless there's something universal I could adapt (or start with a bagging frame).
- Lights. I was working in the daylight so the lighting was not an issue. However it is not uncommon to blow snow past like 5pm in some situations so I could still see wanting to do this. But I think this will wait until I get the 18hp engine on, as it has the higher output regulated charging system that can handle some extra lights.
- Scraper blade. I think it may be worth the $100 to replace the blade because it will get that much closer to pavement. I already run it contacting the driveway and even put extra pressure on the lever sometimes to hold it down. I'd like the blade to be closer to pavement. I will probably order this.

That's it really. I will say clearing the open parts of my driveway didn't take that long. I had 90 minutes into it (which included a good 10+ minutes getting the Deutz out onto the driveway). But then I was out at least another 90+ clearing off cars, clearing the snow that I put on the driveway and other areas that weren't quite optimal, plus shoveling the front steps and walk. That stuff took just as long or longer as the main part. Take that for what it's worth.