REPOWERING A SIMPLICITY 4040 ?

[chuck]

HI, IAM AM NEW TO THIS SITE AND HAVE SOME QUESTIONS FOR EVERYONE. MY DAD WILL GIVE ME HIS 4040 TO USE AT MY NEEW HOUSE, BUT THE 16HP MOTOR IS SHOT. I SEEE THAT THERE IS A HONDA 24HP DIRECT REPLACEMENTFOR THIS TRACTOR AT $1600. THIS TRACTOR WAS BOUGHT NEW BY MY FATHER AND CUT 5 ACRES FOR APPROX 20YRS. ONLY PROBLEM HE HAD WITH IT WAS THE ENGINE . MY QUESTION/S ARE THE TRACTOR LOOKS IN GREAT SHAPE JUST NEEDS MOTOR. 1) HAS ANYONE DONE THIS MOTOR REPLACEMENT AND HOW DOES IT RUN. 2) WHAT OTHER MAJOR COMPONENTS SHOULD BE LOOKED AT(TRACTOR HAS BEEN SITTING FOR APPROX 7 YRS) AND ARE THE PARTS AVAILABLE AND HOW EXPENSIVE? 3) IT DOESNT HAVE A REAR PTO OR 3 PT HITCH CAN THE BE ADDED AND HOW AVAILABLE ARE THE AND OTHER ATTACHMENTS. FINAL ? ARE THESE COSTS WORTH IT FOR THIS 30 YR OLD TRACTOR OR SHOULD I BE LOOKING AT SOMETHING ELSE? THANKS IN ADVANCE.

[UCD]

Sam has his AC 720 with 25hp honda engine in the classifieds for sale at $5500 firm He repowered it this last winter with some other modifications and posted the progress here. Do a search in the tractor forum arcived posts to find the thread. [url]http://www.simpletractors.com/club2/topic.asp?ARCHIVE=true&TOPIC_ID=10553&SearchTerms=720,repower[/url] [url]http://www.simpletractors.com/club2/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=11493[/url] Is it worth it? What would it cost you to buy a new tractor and mower of the same size that would do the same amount of work?

[goatfarmer]

No need to SHOUT! Yes,Sam did a nice job with a kit I believe from Small Engine Warehouse.He would have all the details.

[torinwalker]

Yeah, turn your caps-lock off. No need to raise your voice. Chuck, why don't you fix the motor? I just pulled a 1965 Landlord out of the muck in my barn and now it's hauling my butt around the yard. This thing was left for dead, and I revived it. It wasn't all that difficult, really. Unless there's something fundamentally wrong with the mechanical soundness of the engine (blown piston, crankshaft bearings shot), it might be pretty simple to repair it. That way, you can use it around the house until you get a replacement motor (which I know you want to do instead of fixing the one you have... I have 2HP-itis myself) I found a mouse's house established around the coil above the flywheel, and one of the high-tension leads had been chewed. I replaced the coil with a new electronically triggered version ($50), a new spark-plug ($1.50), and a carb-rebuild kit ($25). First check the crankshaft and see if it spins. Remove the plug first so you're not fighting the compression. It should spin rather easily, and you'll be able to see the valves move up and down with each stroke. Don't touch the plug while you're spinning (...or DO. At least that way, you'll know whether the coil works. It's not too bad of a shock, and it wont kill you.) You can gauge compression with your thumb over the plug hole. If you crank the engine into the compression stage and hold it at TDC, you can tell good compression by how long the pressure remains. Next, the fuel supply. This is more tricky. I took the easy way out and disassembleed the carb, cleaned it with carb-cleaner from the local hardware store, and reassembled it with all the new parts from the carb rebuilt kit. Nothing looked out of the ordinary, so I assumed it would work, and it did. The trickiest part of my engine rebuild was that damn spark plug. Since I had replaced the coil, I assumed I had done something wrong, but the plug was highly carbon coated, which conducted the spark to ground (i.e. I never saw a spark). Once a new plug was installed, the engine fired up easily. It won't be as simple as I pointed out, but engines are fundamentally simple: It's a few pieces of spinning and reciprocating metal with aerosoled gasoline as a fuel and a spark delivery system. It's pretty hard to mess that up unless, as I mentioned earlier, something mechanical has failed. While you're tooting around your lawn with your 10HP, you can be on the lookout for that perfect 24, 30, hell, even 40 HP engine. Torin...

[MPH]

Chuck, for starts your looking at 8-10 grand to replace the 4040 with a new tractor, Not sure your getting an equal at that price. Secondly, does it have any of that heirlome value to you? ya know, been in the faminly since new..For starts, how bad off is the engine, does it run, smoke a lot, whats the problem with that ole Onan? If your getting it for free, you got nothing to lose except some time messing with it to see if you can get it going,,even running poorly, you can check out the rest of the tractor to see what shape its in. If the tin is all straight you got 500 dollars or more worth of tractor from the get-go. I made a 3pt for mine, the rear pto I think is pretty hard to add on as it intails getting inside the tranny. Oh, welcome to the site by the way..MPH

[chuck]

Hi, thanks for the replies. the main problem that the engine gave my dad was it would lose spark from the points. I have not seen the tractor for 10 yrs and don't recall all the headaches he had, but he just said the points sit in a liitle box and the rod that opens them would squirt oil into the box around an o ring that was replaced very often and would still squirt oil and shut off the spark? my thought is there any way to convert this to a pointsless system? Any thoughts or ideas greatly appreciated. Chuck

[SmilinSam]

I put the Honda in my 720, but if you notice in the link above I added a secondary transmission oil cooler. The engine is a great engine, and SEW has improve their kit since I bought one, but there are cooling issues to be dealt with that SEW has yet to address. Just so all are aware, if I have not mentioned earlier, its my opinion that the kit is not a simple "put it in and go" thing, nor is it for the novice to attempt to install. Also because of the unresolved cooling issues I am hesitant to give a full thumbs up to the product. It works for me, but you all see the extra work I put into it, and I still would like to do something to remove the heat build up from under the hood yet.

[torinwalker]

Well, I have to disagree to a point. I hauled my Landlord from the barn after 15 years of gathering dust and the first thing I had to replace was the coil. A mouse had built a little nest in the space above the coil inside the blower housing and had (I presume) chewed through one of the coil leads. Briggs and Stratton (this is where my argument stops) provides a replacement coil with built-in trigger electronics such that the points are done away with entirely. The leading edge of the coil provides the timing for the spark. No need to mess with condensers and points. There may be a solution like mine for your engine. The total fix-up job to get my engine running was $79CAD. Torin...

[thedaddycat]

That sounds like the Magnetron ignition to me..... There may be questions concerning the flywheel magnetic polarity when converting from points to Magnetron. Do a search and you'll find a night's worth or more of reading.....

[powerking_one]

Torin, You are in a different world trying to compare the power plants of a 4040/Power-Max type tractor to your Landlord/Briggs 10hp as far as replacement parts cost go. Onan has priced their replacement parts of the venerable CCKA/B series of engines right through the proverbial roof. Case in point: a new CCKA downdraft carb lists in the range of $330.00 now! Sam's and others' conversions to B&S or Honda solutions are not to be taken lightly for the novice "new to DIY" tractor owner with respect to all the ancillary mods that must be considered. Chuck's problem with oil in the point box is addressed with a service bulletin that says to remove/modify the plunger seal (or something to that effect). I would think Chuck would have the fundamental ability to see if the crank "spins". Spark plugs are the least "tricky" problem to plague and engine (unless it's a Champion) and last hundreds of hours on a healthy engine. Your discoveries cited about your 10HP Landlord engine have been discussed many, many times in this forum; one only has to search the archives for speedy and informative topic perspectives. Peace, Tom(PK)