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914 Story


Chris727

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Last year I only bought one tractor.This 914S was traded into the dealer I work at. It came with a new 46" HD dozer blade. The PO had taken it to a different shop and they couldn't get it to run properly after installing new points. I was told it had a recently installed shortblock and it included the original engine as well. Paint is above average but there are two scratches across the top of the hood:( Battery had been leaking also and will have damaged some of the paint. Still felt it was worth grabbing up and likely was an easy fix. This was not a cheap priced tractor and in the "whats it worth" forum I would be laughed at for what I paid for a non-runner. But when you tell a JD salesman its a shuttle and its undesirable they don't understand you. Anyhow here are some pics:

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I first checked the points and they were corroded and gapped too wide at .040. I cleaned the points and readjusted them. The machine fired right off but then died quickly. It seemed it would try to run on carb cleaner. I disassembled, cleaned the carb, and repeated the process with no improvement. I thought maybe the compression was too low to draw in fuel. I felt very little compression and when putting a gauge on it was next to none. I expected a stuck valve and removed the head to inspect.

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I found a fairly clean bore .010 with cross-hatch remaining. I knew then the shortblock had already been rebuilt once but it appeared recent. No valves were sticking when cranked over. Piston was not loose in the bore. I thought OK, must just be the compression release throwing off my readings and the leaky head gasket. Go back to ignition for troubleshooting. I reinstalled the head. Rechecked the points when cranking. Suddenly they stopped moving. I found the PTO side of the crank was also not moving. I thought to myself that surely the crankshaft was not broken if the piston turned over with the head off? I then found the flywheel was spinning on the crank when the engine was under compression:O After removing the driveshaft shield I could see that when the engine was last installed the PO had run the driveshaft bolts directly through the driveshaft into the flywheel, eliminating the vibration dampening of the flex discsm00

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Here is the resulting damage to the crankshaft:

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The flywheel washer ate a deep groove into the flywheel.

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After removing the engine I decided the crank and flywheel were damaged beyond good reusable condition. I began inspecting the rest of the engine and found it was not even a "Kohler" OEM short block. The paint was a slightly different gray and scratches and knicks were painted over, rather than paint over a new surface. There was no gasket under the points cover, no gasket under the fuel pump, no gasket under the valve cover and look what was found inside the valve box:

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Hard to believe it ran like that as long as it did, stuffed with paper towels. I suspected this was an eBay REMAN engine as their picture also showed the paper towels in the valve box. I called the previous (2nd) owner and found out he had in fact bought the engine as a "remanufactured" unit from a rebuild shop (likely the same as the eBay shop but can't verify) and he and his brother had installed it themselves. I didn't elaborate about the paper towel, lack of gaskets, and improper driveshaft assembly. Upon disassembly I found the rod was also somewhat scored. I took both the REMAN engine and the original engine to my local Kohler Specialist, Steve. He found the REMAN engine had developed a crack in the block. He also noted the REMAN engine had the wrong crankshaft in it. The shop had put a 12hp crank into the 14hp engine. The 14 and 16hp cranks have full flyweights to counterbalance the larger pistons while the 12hp cranks have partial flyweights as for the lighter piston.

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We ended up junking the cracked block and instead rebuilt the original engine. Steve bored it .010 and turned the crank .010 undersized. I procured the parts and he reassembled the engine. It turned out beautifully. Its now just awaiting warmer weather for paint and it will then be reinstalled. If anyone near Troy, MO or St. Louis needs any small engine machine work feel free to PM me for his contact info. Sorry for the long post.

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Don't be sorry for a long post. Great pics and story. Look forward to when you get it up and running this spring.

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Great post and pics. Tractor sure looks nice. Will be a super unit once you get engine back in and set. Thanks for posting

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That's a nice looking tractor. I picked up a 7112 about a year ago that had no valve gap, the exhaust valve was not seating and had low compression. I called the guy to let him know why it was so hard to start.

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That's a lot of work you put into bringing this tractor back to life...great job! I love the fact the original engine is back in the tractor dOddOd.

NICE SAVE!!

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You should let the dealership know exactly what kind of trouble you save them by buying this tractor. Imagine the unhappy customer they would have had to deal with had they sold this to someone else.

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Steven, reconditioning for retail sale was never taken into consideration as they knew it was sold before trading. A tech in the shop had also expressed interest in it as he collects AC tractors. They thought they were going to have s bidding war.

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She's a beauty Chris. Job well done there. Sometimes you just know you have to have it, and pay up to get it! I like a deal like the next guy, but there's a few machines in my shop that noone in their right mind would have given what I gave to have them.

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quote:Originally posted by Talntedmrgreen

I like a deal like the next guy, but there's a few machines in my shop that noone in their right mind would have given what I gave to have them.


id="quote">
id="quote">IMO..I bet there are not to many here that can't say " Been there,done that" on at least one or two tractors in our collections.;)
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Thanks for sharing the story.

The tractor itself looks to be in great condition. Here's hoping the rest of the mechanicals are in good shape.

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Thank you for the comments. The BGB and cone clutch seem nice and tight. I can touch up the scratch on the hood. The previous owner had owned it since 1982 or 83 and kept the tractor waxed and garaged. The reason the original engine wore out was an oil leak from a blown head gasket caused the cooling fins to plug completely on the flywheel side.

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quote:Originally posted by Chris727

Steven, reconditioning for retail sale was never taken into consideration as they knew it was sold before trading. A tech in the shop had also expressed interest in it as he collects AC tractors. They thought they were going to have s bidding war.


id="quote">
id="quote">There's a Simplicity commercial in the making......you and the tech standing out in front of the JD dealer....."Although we work for the local JD dealership we only collect and use Allis Chalmers and Simplicity tractors"......dOd
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Thank you for all the comments. I probably should have mentioned I got all of the owners books and some receipts with it. He had the deck bearings replaced for only $15 labor:O in 1992. The owner used it on probably 1/2 to 3/4 of an acre. He said it had never been in the rain and he washed and waxed it often. Also came with the discharge chute but we had to remove it so the tractor would fit in the trusty 'ole '92 Ford. A very kind forum member offered me a chute :) and I kindly informed him that it came with one.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Making a little more progress. Decided since the engine would have to be painted, I would go ahead and do the engine tins too. Took the afternoon off to get them bead blasted and painted since it was almost 70 degrees.

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Came out pretty nicely.The engine had been painted silver by the machinist to keep it from rusting. I feathered out the flat surfaces.

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Engine is now in primer. Needs a little more finish work before painting.

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