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I think I screwed up a good deal (8HP Briggs)


ridgerunner

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(back story) About two years ago, I was asking around, looking for a small trailer. So I could haul my tractor over to my fathers and also my brothers place to let them use it for fall clean up. I didn’t want a huge trailer, just one big enough to fit and tranport a garden tractor on, and also be pulled behind said tractor for property chores. (fast forward to this week) I ran into a guy that I use to work with, and during the conversation, he asks if I was still looking for a little trailer for a mower. Told me that he had one that he wanted to get rid of, and would fit a mower nicely. I could have it for a $100 dollar bill. I stopped by his place later to look at the trailer. It’s size would just fit a tractor, and could also be pulled behind it, so I said I’d take it. I asked him what he was going to do with the wood splitter that’s currently mounted on it? He said “what ever you want, you bought it, I don’t need it” Sweet, and I though I was just getting a little trailer, score one for me. :D He told me that he built it about ten or twelve years ago, when he was going to clear a section of trees off his property for a new barn. After building the splitter, he used it for about two hours, and quit using it, because it didn’t preform how he thought it would. Didn’t have the power that it should, because he said used a way to big GPM hydraulic pump for the 8hp Briggs. He had bought a smaller GPM 2-stage hydraulic pump, but never installed it. Put up the barn, and the splitters been stored in there until the last year and a half when he moved it outside and let it sit out in the weather. We put fresh fuel in it, and tried to start it, but the rope would keep breaking, because it was dry rotted. So we took off the recoil starter assembly completely, and used a drill and a socket on the stub shaft, to spin the engine over. It worked and the Briggs started up and ran great. Everything on the splitter work too. (here’s where I screwed up) Now that I brought the trailer/splitter home, I was going to install a pressure gauge, and see how much pressure that this thing would actually make. That way I have something to go by, before I spend money on a new pump adapter, to mount the unused 2-stage pump to the engine. (big GPM pump is 2-bolt, new small GPM 2-stage pump is 4-bolt) I started the engine a couple times using the drill method, with no problems. Then the last time that I started it, the engine coughed and back fired, which jerked the drill hard, and instantly stopped the engine. Now I can only get the Briggs to turn over 180 degrees, and that’s it. I can turn it back and forth, but only half way. What do you think happened...bent rod? Something else internal? This thing ran so great......I’m so mad at myself :( :|| wah












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Do you here some clunk inside the engine at the point it will not turn ? Sounds like the rod broke . I did get fooled with a badly carboned up one. A huge piece of carbon broke off and was smashed onto the piston in the squish area. It did the same thing and all we did was pull the head and de-carbon everything ,new head gasket and it was good to go. You may want to pull the pump off the crancase and see if the engine turns over. It could be in the pump.
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Also if worse comes to worse, keep your eye out for the older Gilson WB (orange)snowblowers, 8HP model 826. They were one of the few that was a steady Briggs customer. Most of those engine should be in good shape as haveing loe hours and no dust atmosphere.
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i have an old milwaukee generator that uses a briggs 7 1/4 horse...very similar thing and it was carboned up big time...a thorough cleaning and good to go...i couldnt even get it to turn over at all and i woulda never have guessed it to be carbon...
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quote:
Originally posted by 1Litre
Do you here some clunk inside the engine at the point it will not turn ? Sounds like the rod broke . You may want to pull the pump off the crancase and see if the engine turns over. It could be in the pump.
I took the pump off, and the pump turns over by hand fine. With the pump removed, the engine still just turns 180 and stops in the exact same two spots. It's not klunky or rattley, like something is loose inside the block. It just stops at them same two points. ?
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Pull the spark plug and feel for compresion or look inside the plug hole and see if you can see the piston moving. If you see the piston and it ain't movin then you've dropped a rod. You can pull the head off and inspect the piston for movement and look for the carbon deposit or some other debris that could have been induced into the cylinder. You might have something blocking a valve but be careful and not force anything as you could do lots of extra damage until the problem is found.
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Could be carbon could also be a bent rod. It's been a while since I've had an aluminum block apart like this one here but I know for sure that the rod to cam clearance is very minimal in the cast iron engines. So much that in some engines if you install the rod backwards it will contact the camshaft. But anyways pull the head like everyone else said it'll only take a couple minutes and you'll know for sure whats wrong. If its not carbon then you most likely have a major internal problem. Regardless you stole that splitter :D.
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UPDATE: Well, I took the engine apart today. I beleve there was a hunk of carbon or somthing in the cylinder. There is a fresh gouge in the cylinder wall where something was present, and it scored the wall on the piston up stroke. So the piston couldn't pass the burr that was left by the gouge at the top of the stroke, and would stop it at that point. B)
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quote:
Originally posted by ridgerunner
UPDATE: Well, I took the engine apart today. I beleve there was a hunk of carbon or somthing in the cylinder. There is a fresh gouge in the cylinder wall where something was present, and it scored the wall on the piston up stroke. So the piston couldn't pass the burr that was left by the gouge at the top of the stroke, and would stop it at that point. B)
Might be a broken ring, I'd check it out further. good luck! thats a nice looking splitter outfit!!
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Thank you for the input guys, I'm going to get a new head gasket and block gasket this week for it, so I can put it back together. Even is it comes back to life, and runs good again, I'll save it for another project. I'm going to repower the splitter with a larger motor and be done with it. I'm thinking about doing an old throw back, like the vintage power units back in the day, that you would see on farms. Just a smaller version. I got a good start on it today.
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I have a 42" Craftsman tractor sitting in the barn. It has a great running 15.5hp Briggs I/C, but has a broken rear axle. I'm going to use the engine from this, to run the bigger GPM hydraulic pump for the splitter. Instead of just bolting the motor to the log splitter deck, I wanted to create my own version of the vintage "power units" from back in the day. That way every thing will be self contained, have a control panel for the key switch, throttle and charging meter. And there will be lights, just in case I want to annoy the neighbors and split wood at 2:30 in the morning.


Here's an old Allis Chalmers "power unit" that I'm talking about. Not common so much now a days.


Imagine that.....a broken Craftsman tractor XX(


Yes, it runs as good as it looks.










Yes, I've been a busy boy.


I machined an adapter to bolt the hydraulic pump/adapter to the larger motor.
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Here's some more.


I mounted the battery under the control panel. You have to lift the fuel tank to install it.


I made some T-bolts out of stainless steel, to hold the fuel tank in. That way the fuel tank is easy to move out of the way, to install the battery.


The old coupler.


The new engine has a shorter crank stub. I'll machine a new longer extended coupler to compensate for the now 1 1/4" gap.
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Had some more free time.




The tires that came on the trailer were two different sizes. I had a set of low-profile tires in the barn, so I put them on the trailer instead. I will use the smallest one that came with the trailer, as a spare. The smaller tire is the same height as the wide low-profile tires.


I will use as much from the left over parts from the tractor that I can. So I cut up the tractor seat pan, so I could use as fenders on the trailer, should it ever see the road. I thought they looked pretty good, with the mock up.






I also didn’t like the small 4 gallon hydraulic tank that came with it. (not enough volume to dissipate heat) So I made another one, out of a 30# propane tank. The new tank will hold 8 gallons of hydraulic fluid, which will help the fluid from getting hot on and extended run. I don’t know it it will help or not, but before I welded the outlet fitting on the bottom of the tank, I welded a 1” piece of tube to the 90 deg. fitting. That way with the fitting welded to the lowest point, It wouldn’t pull fluid directly off the bottom of the tank, if it got any dirt or crud in it, resting on the bottom.




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Only one suggestion. Use a vented cap on your hydraulic tank. As the oil heats up, it expands, building up pressure... Usually not an issue, but on a splitter, you'll be pumping oil all the time, even if it is just bypassing back to the tank.
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Yes, I was going to drill and tap the fill cap, for a vent fitting. That way it will be at the highest point above the fluid. Thank you for the tip though, it's one of them things that could be forgotten.
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I finaly got around to making the needed 1 3/8" longer coupler, to connect the pump to the engine. I made it out of 316L series stainless steel.






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Very cool makes me wanna do something like this for a small frame but don't have a use for it. Maybe a saw blade rig or air compressor
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Very cool makes me wanna do something like this for a small frame but don't have a use for it. Maybe a saw blade rig or air compressor
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