HELP! Grasshopper Model 727T6 27hp HOW to tighten engine mount bolts?

[edporch]

I have 2008? Grasshopper Model 727T6 with a Model CH740S 27hp? Kohler Engine.
ALL four of the engine mount nuts fell off from underneath.

ALSO, the engine mount bolt that goes under the starter I'm finding impossible to reach to get back in.
But it fell out so there must be a way to get it back in, BUT I'm not finding it.

In tightening the engine mount bolts, HOW to I reach the bolt head on top to keep it from turning when I tighten the nuts from underneath?
WHAT type of wrench do I use to reach them?
I can barely even get my hand to reach the bolt top, let alone get a wrench in there to stop them from turning.

 

[mechanic mark]

Try installing bolt from underneath with nut on top.

 

[edporch]

Vise grips ?

They won't reach in there.
I have the nut and lock washer started on three of the four bolts.
BUT am finding it impossible to put the fourth bolt on the left front in.
I get it started in the hole, and the top hits up against the cooling fin, and it's still at too much of an angle to go all the way in the hole.

 

[edporch]

Try installing bolt from underneath with nut on top.

funny your should say that!
I was just getting ready to try that.

 

[edporch]

Try installing bolt from underneath with nut on top.

Just got in from trying that.
My lower forearm is bruised to crap trying unsuccessfully to force my arm down in to put the washer and nut on the top of the bolt coming up from underneath.

So I sit with 3 of the 4 bolts with lock washers and nuts on them and no way to put a wrench on them at the top to keep them from turning so I can tighten them underneath.
And a fourth nut and bolt I physically can't get in to even get started.

I would've so loved to be there when the prototype of this mower was built and tell the so-called "engineers" who designed it to demonstrate how a service tech can put the engine mount bolts and nuts in and properly tighten them down so the don't come loose.

I'm getting the feeling the reason the nuts all fell off was because my Grasshopper dealer's techs weren't able to properly tighten these bolts and nuts down properly either after they had the engine out a few years ago..

 

[StarTech]

It specialize tools. Either stubby wrench, hemostats, grease, or crowfoot wrench. Sometimes you even have to customize a tool to do the job.

I just got through mounting a Briggs engine on a Hustler Super Z where it is nearly impossible to get wrench in place. I had to buy a set stubby wrenches as there was no clearance for the standard wrench nor had room for my hand to get in there. I had to use a sponge hemostat to get wrench in there. Also had to a hemostat to get the washers and nuts on the screws.

 

[edporch]

It specialize tools. Either stubby wrench, hemostats, grease, or crowfoot wrench. Sometimes you even have to customize a tool to do the job.

I just got through mounting a Briggs engine on a Hustler Super Z where it is nearly impossible to get wrench in place. I had to buy a set stubby wrenches as there was no clearance for the standard wrench nor had room for my hand to get in there. I had to use a sponge hemostat to get wrench in there. Also had to a hemostat to get the washers and nuts on the screws.

And the fact that it should take specialty tools just to keep a bolt from turning on top so the nut underneath can be tightened screams of an incompetent design.

I too had to use some long double curved hemostats to clamp the bolts underneath to prevent them from turning so I could get the nuts and lock washers started.
I lucked out on the right side bolts, in that when I tightened them from underneath with an air wrench, they caught and tightened.

I wasn't so lucky with the left rear, in that it tightened so far and now just spins.
I'm able to see the top of the bolt, but no box end , open end or even socket wrench will get in to fit on it.

Maybe a stubby wrench will be short enough.
I have some really old stubby open end wrenches around here somewhere I've had since I was a kid.

And lastly, the left front bolt that is too long to go in the hole because the top hits and the angle it too sharp to go in the hole.
It's a 1 3/4" long bolt, and I'm gonna try a 1 1/2" long bolt and hope that enough sticks through that without a lock washer and red Loctite, I can get it to hold.

But a simple thing like getting to the engine mount bolts tightened should not be this difficult if it was designed properly

 

[edporch]

It specialize tools. Either stubby wrench, hemostats, grease, or crowfoot wrench. Sometimes you even have to customize a tool to do the job.

I just got through mounting a Briggs engine on a Hustler Super Z where it is nearly impossible to get wrench in place. I had to buy a set stubby wrenches as there was no clearance for the standard wrench nor had room for my hand to get in there. I had to use a sponge hemostat to get wrench in there. Also had to a hemostat to get the washers and nuts on the screws.

Bought s stubby wrench today and it's no good either.
A crowfoot wrench won't work either because I need something that comes out to the side and then up.
.
What I need is an "L" shaped wrench that comes out to the side then up to a handle.
I'M SURE somebody makes something that would let me do this, but I have no idea what it's called or where to get it.

It would've been SO easy if Grasshopper simply had small openings in the side of the frame where a box/open end wrench could be stuck through from the side to easily get on the top of the engine mount bolts to keep them from turning.

 

[MParr]

Do you have a vice and a torch?
If so, you can heat a wrench up and bend it to the desired angle.
Will a swivel, extension, and ratchet work with the crow foot?
Can you get some pictures for us to see what you are dealing with?
What size wrench fits?

 

[StarTech]

Then if the nut is either a 1/2 or 9/16 you are probably looking for a distributor wrench. Advance Auto Parts has one for $10. And can be taken apart and a 3/8 extension added is you need more height.