It went click click click, backfired, and died....

jwstewar

jwstewar

Senior Member
Staff member
Since Dad passed I've been mowing Mom's grass with their 14.5 HP B&S powered Snapper riding lawn mower that I bought for Dad back about 96 or 97. It has been a great little mower with a 38" cut - perfect for their yard. I stop last night to mow the grass as it has been 2 weeks since I mowed and it was getting way too high. Anyway, the tractor started fine, I backed it out of the shed, I brought the RPMs up a bit and engaged the electric clutch. The engine stumbled a bit as normal as the deck engaged. I mowed for maybe 50" and all of a sudden I heard several loud clicks. It was like click, click, click and then it backfired and died. Caught me off guard. If I turned the key on it would turn over very slowly sometimes, sometimes not at all, but if it did it would back fire out the carb.

My thinking at the time was the keyway broke on the flywheel and it was "out of time" or the valves went out of adjustment. I went and found one of Dad's toolsets and it didn't take me long to figure out what happened. The Rocker arm mounting stud broke off in the head.:pat: The Exhaust rocker arm then fell down on top of the intake rocker arm and wouldn't allow it to close. Looks like I'm going to have to pull the head off to see if I can get it out, otherwise looks like I'll be looking at a new head for it. Never having torn into one of these, I just ordered one of the B&S repair manuals from Amazon. Unfortunately because it wasn't Amazon selling it directly it probably won't be here until July 7 or later.
 
Well that sucks! Sorry I can't offer anything other than to say "good luck". Looks like that grass is going to be several inches higher by the time you got that rig fixed.
 
Thanks. I did get it mowed last night using their push mower. BTW, have I sais recently that I hate MTD:2gunsfiring_v1::shitHitsFan:
 
Ahhh sorry to hear that Jim. Sounds like a heck of a job. Not sure I'd be up to it. In the mean time, what are you mowing their yard with? Your New Holland? Or are you paying a neighborhood kid to do it?
Good luck getting it taken care of and back to mowing duties.

ps: were you able to connect here last night? From home I could not get here (because of the move to a new server, dns had not propagated). Just wondering what time time warners DNS servers finally caught up with the rest of the world.
 
I used their push mower. It is a small/cheap MTD w/ only a 4.5 HP motor. OK for trimming after the rider is done, but not really up to mowing the yard - especially when it is high like it was last night.

Not sure if I'm up to this or not either Doc. It may just become another project on my to do list that never made it to the done list.:whistling:

I didn't try to get on last night. I got there about 6:00 - got off early but stopped at Menards and spent some money on things I didn't need.:gotsmoney: Figured I would be done by 7 or 7:30 including trimming. Started the tractor and was done messing with it by about 6:45. Then I started push mowing. Grass was so tall I couldn't keep it running so I didn't finish until about 8:30. Put stuff away, wash my hands and grabbed a bottle of water. Went home put a couple of things away and then changed the oil in the car. By that time it was 11:00 and I still needed a shower. Didn't have time to even think about getting on the Internet last night.
 
Just now realized my pictures didn't get attached to the original post. Guess I screwed that up didn't I.:shitHitsFan:

Shoot. It keeps telling me it isn't a valid image file. These came from my phone, but I'm not having any problems with them on the computer. I've resized them to 800 x 600 and they are only about 80K.... Guess I'll have to play later, time to get back to work.:pat:
 
Doc said:
were you able to connect here last night? From home I could not get here (because of the move to a new server, dns had not propagated). Just wondering what time time warners DNS servers finally caught up with the rest of the world.
Click to expand...
It was in and out last night. I could connect and read a few posts, then 30 minutes later I'd get the message that we were moving to a new server. Saw that multiple times in between connecting.
 
If you saw that message Jerry that was on the old server. I left it up there. Time Warner was really slow to update the DNS.

Jim, since we move there might be some differences. That might be what is happening with the images. If you still have trouble let me know. I'll dig into that in the morning.
 
I got it home Friday. F-I-L was here so I forgot to take pictures, but I managed to get the head off the motor w/o pulling the motor off the tractor. Wasn't sure where to head next.....I had just bought a new pack of drill bits at Menards. Hadn't planned on using them for precision work, but next thing I new I grabbed one of the 1/8" bits and had it in the drill press. I aligned the bit up with the Rocker Arm Stud and clamped the head down to the table of the drill press. Let it drill for a few seconds. I then unclamped the head and put my smallest Easy-Out in the cordless drill. Let it run real slow for about 10 seconds and the drill started raising. What do you know, the broken stud backed out. Headed to town to get parts, they had to be ordered because "Hmmm... we never have anyone that needs those":hammer: So I'm replacing both of the studs, the adjustment nuts, head gasket, valve cover gasket, and spark plug for $42. Still waiting on the book to arive so I know how to adjust the valves and I think it will be back in business.

Hardest part was getting 3 bolts out of the bottom of the head. Little worried about getting them back in. The 1/4" Dewalt impact driver made short work of removing the exhaust bolts and the Right-Angle Craftsman Nextec Impact driver really helped to get those 3 bottom bolts out. Just be quiet about that one....Monica doesn't know that was my Father's Day present. She thinks it was the new electric razor she bought me.:blob_blue:
 
Well the parts finally came in on Monday. I was able to get the head back on it Monday evening. Started to put the aluminum intake push rod in. Didn't realize it went I took it out, but it was bent and actually had a pretty good arch in it. Stopped yesterday and picked one up, they actually had it in stock. Got home put both of the rods in. That was a bit tricky. If you weren't careful you could actually miss the cam shaft. Finally got them both in and turning the engine over by hand they were moving with the cam. Put the rocker arms on and adjusted them by following the directions on Briggs and Stratton's website and watching a Youtube video. Managed to get it all put back together last night. Haven't tried to start it yet though. I need to change the oil first and I figured if I tried to start it and it didn't start I would want to mess with it. Seeing that it was already 11:00, figured I should end the night on a good note that I had it all put back together.:wall: Hopefully tonight....
 
Was pretty anxious last night. Went home ate and changed clothes. Headed out to the barn. Drained the oil. Would've like to have let it drain a little bit longer, but I couldn't wait.:) So I refilled the oil. Turned the key on w/o the choke and let it turn over for probably 10 seconds - which was a good sign that the engine was actually turning over. Moved the throttle to the choke position and......it immediately started. Let it run for a few seconds and shut it down. Looked everything over and moved stuff out of the way so I could back it out. Restarted it, back it out, and then proceeded to mow with it for about 2 hours - Monica was on the New Holland. I have to say it was a pretty successful project. Wish I could find one that that I could fix with that easy of a fix to be able to use around the house.

One thing to note though, after using my New Holland to mow for so many years, I still found myself ducking and looking to make sure the canopy wasn't going to hit the trees as I went by. Also determined that even though this little Snapper has an offset 38" deck, I can still "trim" closer to items with the New Holland. The rear tires on the Snapper seemed like they would catch on things quicker - like going around trees and such.
 
Congrats!!! Not sure if I would have had the patience to let it sit after assembly before firing it up..
 
ARGH!!! Took the mower back into Mom's tonight. Started mowing. Tractor is running great. Then all of sudden the electric clutch/PTO to engage the mower deck went out. It doesn't even try to engage the blades now. Guess I get to work on that now. So I brought it back home again.

Oh, forgot to tell you this one. Last Tuesday I went in to push mow the yard since still didn't have the parts. I had checked the oil in the push mower before I started mowing after the rider broke. So I didn't check it this time, figure it had only run an hour. Started around the yard did one lap and got the front mowed. Then all of sudden the mower died. Engine was locked up tight. No oil on the dipstick. No puddles and it wasn't smoking - so where did it go in just over an hour run time when it was full?

Fortunately, I had taken my push mower with me tonight knowing that was broke as well. So I ended up push mowing the yard again tonight with my push mower.

Little bit more and I'm going to put the bush hog on the back of the New Holland and go at it that way.
 
Wow, just priced this stupid little electric clutch. Discontinued by Snapper, but did find it at one place for $113 and $8 S&H. Most places were between $150 & 160. Some were as high as $220 & $259. Too good of mower to just ditch, even with the engine repairs we are at $200, can't replace it for that. By a used one and who knows how long or what repairs it would need.
 
Looking for a bit of help here guys. I'm trying to get this clutch off so I can replace it. So far I've got 2/3s of it off :)

The second one down on this page is the clutch: http://www.psep.biz/store/troy_bilt_electric_pto_clutch.htm

I've taken the bottom bolt out that screws in to the PTO shaft of the motor. Then I got 2 pieces of the clutch off, but the actual electrical part of the clutch I can't get it off. I've tried pulling it with a 2-arm gear puller and messed the threads up on the PTO shaft and had to retrace them with a die. Tried with the bolt in. I've tried hitting the inner sleeve with a chisel & hammer. I've tried hitting the outer portion with the hammer, I've tried pulling with the claw part of the hammer. Not sure where to go next. Getting ready to go get cleaned up for a wedding, so I won't be able to get any pictures today, but maybe tomorrow if noone has any ideas.
 
Whew, got it off just a couple of minutes ago. I hit it with PB Blaster and then went the route of the puller again. I used a sacrificial washer of the PTO shaft of the motor and just started cranking away. Bit by bit I kept hearing a pop and it was sliding down the shaft. Had to use the puller to pull it completely off the shaft. Would have thought that once I had it broken loose I could have pulled it by hand, but nope, had to pull it completely. Had to rearrange the puller to give me a longer pulling distance because of the length of the shaft. Glad that is off. Now I can verify the numbers I need to order the new one and then try to get it back on the shaft.:thewave:
 
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