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Governor Adjustment


Paul_B

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My engine builder just finished the rebuild of my 16HP horizonal briggs for my 3416H and said I'd have to adjust the governor. Is this hard to do? I don't have any briggs books around unfortunatly.
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I think what you need to do is loosen the nut on the governorshaft turn the butterfly on the carb to wide open throttle and hold it there and tighten the nut backup on the governorshaft. Pretty sure that is how it went the last time I did mine. Posted in an earlier post by AL: Hi, The way they teach it at the Briggs school, Forget about clockwise or counter clockwise. [Assuming the correct carb] Just take the governor arm and move it in the direction that opens the carb wide open. Holding the arm so the carb is wide open, loosen the bolt on the arm and turn the governor shaft in the same direction the arm rotated when opening the carb. When the shaft hits the stop, tighten the bolt while the carb is wide open. Same with Kohler. Much simpler than trying to remember cw or ccw. Remember the governor weights must be held in when the carb is wide open and then they work against the spring to control the speed. Also if the engine is hunting, to determine if it is the carb or the governor, turn in the idle stop screw and hold the carb shaft against the idle stop. If the engine idles OK, then run the stop screw in more and hold it against the stop. If it runs good at mid speed with the throttle shaft fixed it is a governor problem. If the engine is erratic with the throttle shaft fixed, it is a carb problem. Personally I just hold the shaft by hand, but in school they teach using the screw for a stop. Good luck, Al Eden
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To me this is the the most important and critical adjustment there is and should not be taken lightly.As rpm increases tensile strenghten of the connecting rod deminishes exponentially!!!Many a rebuild fails because of a improper governor setting.I went for the bucks and bought a digital small engine tach.I discovered that most engines are set below the 3600 rpm the manufacturer claims by hundreds of rpms.Most of the rebuilds I do for customers when there was rod failure was either do to lack of oil or an over set governor.I once did a K341 with a thrown rod and was able to polish outm the crank damage.Remember to do this job I never touched the carb or governor.When I started it and put it to full throttle the rpm was 4200.Way past reline.Do not take governor setting lightly.If you set it and blow the engine that will leave the machine shop off the hook.
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As Keith stated, setting the governor is "the most important and critical adjustment." I would take the complete engine back to the person who rebuilt it and insist they adjust the governor. Then there will be no finger pointing if the engine fails.
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Patrician12: This has been my experience on a couple of engines, as well:
quote:
I went for the bucks and bought a digital small engine tach.I discovered that most engines are set below the 3600 rpm the manufacturer claims by hundreds of rpms.
I also found that many other engines idle too low, and that my own ear would set them lower than, say, the 1,200RPM recommended for the cast iron Briggs. Some of these engines run so well, at 800 or 1,000, that I would not have set them properly, by ear. Now that I have the tach, I know it's right. Also, as some of the aluminum engines (all of them?) idle at 1,800 or so, the many misset idles (not the ones I did with my own ear--lol) I've found could be from misinformation, as well as not using a tach. Paul_B: I think Dutch is also correct--let the wrench who got paid set the engine up--how's he gonna know he's even done, if he doesn't spec. it out for you? Also, as was said, this will eliminate the finger pointing. THEN, I would get some form of tach-my nondigital "Vibratach" was only $18.00, through a Briggs dealer. Then, you can check your man's work. If he doesn't use a tach himself, when setting the governor and idle, well, that's a problem right there, IMHO. Good luck.
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