Wheel Horse 267-H, Kohler CV18S governor stuck?

Hi, I have a 1997 Toro/Wheelhorse 267-H garden tractor in fair condition but a couple years ago the engine bent a push rod. I bought the parts but ran out of time to fix it. So it sat for a year and a half partly disassembled before I broke down and had a local guy do it but he could not get the governor to work right. The engine races terribly. He said he tried to adjust it several times, even going back to the Kohler manual to triple check it and still could get it to stop racing. He thinks it may be the wrong spring but I'm pretty sure I gave him the right one and I'm thinking a wrong spring would make it surge as the governor tries to compensate, not just race wide open but I don't really know.

I didn't have time to fiddle with it this fall and ran it the way it was and just was very careful with the throttle as to not let it race. So I would run it at half, engage the mower then raise it up to 3/4 throttle. If I was going up hill I had to go up the rest of the way on the throttle, then back it off at the top. The engine seems fine otherwise, it's just like an old school engine with no governor now. So I just put it in the shed for the winter but it would be nice to get it right again, especially since my wife likes to use it sometimes and I'm afraid she will forget and blow the engine.

From what I'm reading if it's a stuck governor then it means taking the engine down and splitting it to get to the governor weights to unstick them. I'm not equiped to do that and it would be too expensive to pay someone to do it for me.

I hate to give up on it but if I can't get it fixed am I playing with fire? Should I sell it while it's still in fair condition before the engine blows up? (I will be honest about the governor issues if I sell it)

Anyone have any thoughts?

When I was a kid, my dad and I did a valve job on our Wheel Horse w/ a Kohler in it. We had the exact same issue, and ran it for months that way. If you're careful, you're just doing what the govenor does.

If you're not comfortable with using it that way, sell it - it is a nasty job from what we heard.....that's why we sold ours.

Well, I'd rather not have to monkey with it and I am afraid my wife might blow it up. Just not sure I will get much for it, especially with that issue. I'd hate to have to buy a box store mower. Nothing against them, my dad has a one and it's perfect for his small, flat yard and he is much smaller than I am. I'm 6'2", 235 lbs with lots of hills and obstacles in my yard and those cheaper mowers just don't stand up to that.

When my Wheel Horse went down my father-in-law had started hiring out his lawn mowing so he gave me his 20hp Yard-Man mower that was like new. It barely lasted two years just mowing my yard. It ran but the tranny was shot so I sold it to help pay for the Wheel Horse repairs. Now I wish I kept it and swapped engines, oh well, didn't know the governor was gonna stick after the push rods got fixed.

Carl in CT said:

..... Just not sure I will get much for it, especially with that issue.....

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Can't expect like new price if it's not right......so I guess you have a decision to make. :wink:

Yup, I guess for now I'll run the Wheel Horse and just be careful with it.
Maybe I can rig up a throttle stop of some sort that I can remove if necessary but will keep others from inadvertantly running it wide open when not under load. I really do like the mower anyway and the budget says no new toys right now.

Who knows, maybe it will work itself out or maybe it really is the wrong spring or out of adjustment (but I don't think so).

What does tick me off is I paid top dollar for that mower new in 1997 partly because of the Kohler Command v-twin in it. When I bought the new push rods the dealer said I had to buy the whole set which I probably would have done anyway. What ticked me off is when he said that Kohler knows about the bad push rods in that engine so they won't sell them except in a set since they all will need to be replaced eventually. I said if Kohler knows about it they should pay to have it fixed but the dealer just chuckled and said, "good luck with that".

They guy who actually did the repairs says he sees more Kohlers than ever with problems like that. In his opinion Kohler is no longer any better than Briggs and Stratton, even in the more expensive lines like Command but they still charge twice as much for them. I don't know if I'd go that far but I'd say Kohler is not what it used to be and is raking in huge profits from selling standard quality engines based on their exceptional quality reputation. Nothing against Briggs, I think they are pretty good for the money, I just put a new one on my 1976 Troy-Bilt Horse tiller. The point is Kohler costs way more than Briggs but they aren't way better.

I like to buy American made products but the sad truth is there doesn't seem to be an American made engine out there that can hold a candle to a Kawasaki or Honda. Heck, half of the American engines are probably more Chinese parts then American anyway - sad. I hope someone can prove me wrong about that.

I gotta agree with you about Kohler resting on their laurels. Same for about any product made today - Resting a so-so product on a respectable name, and hoping no one will tell the difference right away. (Honda and Kawi have been doing the same of late)

I stopped liking Kohler when they stopped being cast-iron. The Kohler in our '76 Wheel Horse was one of the cast-iron variety, and it was a great, torquey beast for only 8HP....no B&S could hold a candle to it - even a 10 horse!

Can't say the same about Kohler vs. B&S today........HP for HP, the B&S wins based on, as you said, price.

It is too bad, too. :confused3:

Well now I saw a Simplicity Legacy Garden Tractor for sale at my local dealer for $3,500. It's not the bigger XL model which is almost a subcompact tractor but I don't need anything like that. So now I am thinking about that and I posted on the Simplicity and the buy/pricing forums to see if anyone has any thoughts on that. It's big and powerful and looks in good shape but it's around 7-10 years old so it's not much newer than my Toro/Wheelhorse but it only has 385 hours and looks extremely clean. My poor tractor looks like a wreck in comparison and while it started right up with a new battery yesterday the touchy throtlle is scaring me. Sigh, decisions, lol.

Not going to buy the Simplicity, it won't even fit in my shed. I test drove it and while everything worked it seemed like it had more than 340 hours on it and the budget is still crying uncle. I'm now trying a last ditch effort to adjust the governor on the Wheel Horse now but it seems like there is not much adjustment at all. I loosend the clamp on the shaft coming out of the engine so I could turn it to adjust it but it really doesn't move much at all. Is that normal, that there isn't a whole lot of adjustment in these or is that a sign that it's stuck? Or do I need to get a better grip and try to apply a little more force to it?

Seems like I have the governor adjusted better, there just isn't much play in that thnig apparently. Still not running that well but at least it's not racing anymore.