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Kohler Courage 21hp Twin Cam. JUNK.

Took a Kohler Courage 21hp Twin Cam apart hoping I could fix it and this is what I found.

Not an uncommon failure.
Pull the shafts out, wash the cases.
If the bottom bushes are not flogged out get a new top plate, replace all the seals and put it back together.
A dead simple job about 2 hours work.
Don't forget to put some Blue loctite on the 4 bolts near the cylinder base and tension it in stages in a criss cross fashion like a head.

Thanks for the pickies very few take the time & effort to both take photos and then upload them.

You are probably a touched on the urinated off side at the moment but it is an easy repair.
Courages were built down to the price that the mower factories would pay.
It is a sign of the down side of the free market system and as long as people keep buying on price and not quality it will only get worse.

bertsmobile1 said:

Not an uncommon failure.
Pull the shafts out, wash the cases.
If the bottom bushes are not flogged out get a new top plate, replace all the seals and put it back together.
A dead simple job about 2 hours work.
Don't forget to put some Blue loctite on the 4 bolts near the cylinder base and tension it in stages in a criss cross fashion like a head.

Thanks for the pickies very few take the time & effort to both take photos and then upload them.

You are probably a touched on the urinated off side at the moment but it is an easy repair.
Courages were built down to the price that the mower factories would pay.
It is a sign of the down side of the free market system and as long as people keep buying on price and not quality it will only get worse.

Click to expand...

I was expecting it. I wasn't expecting that it could be fixed. Can you walk me through it? What exactly do I need to check? Not sure what bushes are or what shafts.... What's wrong with my top plate?

More pics. What is this big hunk of steel?

How do I replace whatever is broken down below the piston connecting rod?

You will not know if it is worth repairing till it is apart & clean.
Whenever the cam shaft goes it usually damages the hole ( bush ) in the top plate.

It looks like the little con rod on the counter weight gave way or the cam broke , dropped into the engine, jambed the crank and that broke the counter weight con rod.
In any case tip out all of the crud in the bottom and get yourself a big ( 5 gal ) drum of kerro and give it a quick rinse out with the kerro.
The cams just lift strait out.
Roll it over and clean the shaft,they are generally a bit rusty so wire brush, then wet & dry to lightly polish.
Flip it back over
Undo the con rod bolts and push each one deep into the bores ( not as easy as it sounds ) the crankshaft will then lift strait out complete with the counter weightbut better to roll over again and lift the case off the crank .
Number the piston con rods and then slide the pistons out of the bores.
Clean & dry everything then post photos of all of the bits.

We will let you know what needs to be replaced and the locals will usually let you know where they can be obtained at a good rate.
Then it is a matter for the minister for finance to decide if it is a viable repair.

Kohler have the service manual for your engine on their web site as a free download.
They also put out a nice book called "A guide to engine rebuilding" while not for your engine, good general explanations desiged for people who have never done it before.
Parts books are all on line as interactives but can be printed off for refference.

Really important is to photograph everything.
Big view before you remove a part, big view after you remove the part then a close up of the part.
Thus when you go to rebuild it you have a step by step photo guide as to how to do it.
Best done with a digital camera on a stand
( pinch the kids Go-pro )

Before you start, if you are not confident around engine rebuilds do some You tube research.
I recommend
Taryl Fixes All ( a lot of clowning at the start to make you stay for the 15 seconds minimum payment period )
Donyboy73 ( A Canadian with clear & concise methods )

Thanks again for the reply! Most of the con rod bolts were laying in the bottom. What do you mean by this "Undo the con rod bolts and push each one deep into the bores"? I removed the cams. I also removed the two bolts on the con rod for the piston but don't see how it comes undone.

Tomorrow I will remove the engine from the tractor and get it on the bench and try and figure it all out.

The thing with 2306 on the side of it is the PISTON con rod.
You will have to rotate the crank a bit to get to the 2 bolts.
It will help if you remove the spark plug first
When the 2 bolts are undone the cap will pull off and you will be able to push the rod up the bore out of the way
That big chunk of steel is the counterweight.
It's job is to set up vibrations that oppose those of the piston which then act against each other and make the engine run smoother.
It rocks back & forth on that steel shaft.
The crank has an ecentric machined into it which pushes & pulls on the bits that are missing and sitting all broken up in the bottom of the engine.
When you look at the parts diagrams you will see that there are a couple of variations to the counter weight.
The old ones were split and held together by a single bolt which used to break / undo and cause the counter weight to make a big hole in the crankcase.
Briggs engines still use that system.

Search for a parts breakdown for you engine and all will be apparent

It will help greatly if you also post your engine number.
It should look like SV610-???? ??
Those in the trade will also like to know the serial number as they can use it to check up for known problems & recalls.

bertsmobile1 said:

The thing with 2306 on the side of it is the PISTON con rod.
You will have to rotate the crank a bit to get to the 2 bolts.
It will help if you remove the spark plug first
When the 2 bolts are undone the cap will pull off and you will be able to push the rod up the bore out of the way
That big chunk of steel is the counterweight.
It's job is to set up vibrations that oppose those of the piston which then act against each other and make the engine run smoother.
It rocks back & forth on that steel shaft.
The crank has an ecentric machined into it which pushes & pulls on the bits that are missing and sitting all broken up in the bottom of the engine.
When you look at the parts diagrams you will see that there are a couple of variations to the counter weight.
The old ones were split and held together by a single bolt which used to break / undo and cause the counter weight to make a big hole in the crankcase.
Briggs engines still use that system.

Search for a parts breakdown for you engine and all will be apparent

It will help greatly if you also post your engine number.
It should look like SV610-???? ??
Those in the trade will also like to know the serial number as they can use it to check up for known problems & recalls.

Click to expand...

SV610-3213 Year 2012. Serial #: 4207916023

This is one diagram showing what the crank looked like before the counterweight let go.
I think your one is the one on the right
https://www.partstree.com/parts/kohler-engines/engines-vertical/sv610-3213-kohler-sv610-engine-courage-hop-21hp-15-7kw/crankshaft-1-20-4/
Judging by the limited number of parts available it is starting to look more like a sell the engine on Craigs List & buy a replacement.
But get it apart & clean first .

bertsmobile1 said:

This is one diagram showing what the crank looked like before the counterweight let go.
I think your one is the one on the right
https://www.partstree.com/parts/kohler-engines/engines-vertical/sv610-3213-kohler-sv610-engine-courage-hop-21hp-15-7kw/crankshaft-1-20-4/
Judging by the limited number of parts available it is starting to look more like a sell the engine on Craigs List & buy a replacement.
But get it apart & clean first .

Click to expand...

Nice. Thanks! I used that part number and found this on ebay. Think it will work? I'm going to pull it apart tomorrow.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Used-crank...429768?hash=item4b3a67d248:g:glsAAOSw3sJalEPY

Motor is junk. Found a crack and hole in the case.

Yep.
That's a dead en.
So now you need to have a really good look at your equipment and decide if it is worth repowering.
At this time of year there are oft a lot of factory pull engines around as manufacturers decide to up size engines.
Small Engine Supplier & Small Engine Wrehouse is where I get most of mine from.
Boo haunts "the surplus centre " who also get a lot of really cheap engine from time to time.

If it is from a USA made mower usually you can swap out Briggs, Kohler or Kawasaki with some slight wiring mods.
All you need to worry about is making sure the output shaft is the same size as your old Kohler.

Don't toss the old engine.
It is still rebuildable and there will be people who will pay for it ( not much ) which might cover freight on the new engine.

bertsmobile1 said:

Yep.
That's a dead en.
So now you need to have a really good look at your equipment and decide if it is worth repowering.
At this time of year there are oft a lot of factory pull engines around as manufacturers decide to up size engines.
Small Engine Supplier & Small Engine Wrehouse is where I get most of mine from.
Boo haunts "the surplus centre " who also get a lot of really cheap engine from time to time.

If it is from a USA made mower usually you can swap out Briggs, Kohler or Kawasaki with some slight wiring mods.
All you need to worry about is making sure the output shaft is the same size as your old Kohler.

Don't toss the old engine.
It is still rebuildable and there will be people who will pay for it ( not much ) which might cover freight on the new engine.

Click to expand...

I only paid $50 for the enire machine and the rest is in great shape. I'll look for a new motor. Thanks for your help.

So if i'm interpreting the pictures right, the cams look like plastic to me?! :shocked:

Scrubcadet10 said:

So if i'm interpreting the pictures right, the cams look like plastic to me?! :shocked:

Click to expand...

The cam gears are. Yes.

It takes COURAGE to own a COURAGE! This is the cheaper consumer grade model for the big box store models. I have gotten to where I would much rather buy used commercial grade equipment than something made with a low price in mind for the average consumer. Yes, this cheap low quality stuff is consumer driven. People buy on the price tag and just want cheap. It it too bad everyone jumped on this bandwagon. All brands have a good line and all have a junk line these days.

I work on electronics/computers and it is all the same. If you can buy toilet paper, eggs, milk, and meat at the store, don't buy a computer or TV there. The same goes for lawn equipment. https://www.fastcompany.com/54763/man-who-said-no-wal-mart

Then there is this: https://www.briggsandstratton.com/na/en_us/campaigns/just-check-and-add.html

And people wonder why nothing lasts anymore......

Conor

If you do not sell garbage to the stupid or greedy then you go out of business.
95% of all Rolls Royce cars ever made are still acounted for and over 70% are still running.
Less the 5 % of the production of Ford is accounted for and less that 0,01% are known to still be running.
Rolls Royce have been bankruped 3 times and sold off 5 times ( BMW currently owns them ) and both Mr Rolls & Mr Royce died pennyless.
Ford has remained in the same hands basically since Henry's day and the Ford family has been on the richest 200 list in the world list for decades, having only dropped down to the top 500 in recient years.

JonnyBlaze said:

The cam gears are. Yes.

Click to expand...

DANG! If you're going to skip by on something, at least make it something fairly easy to replace/repair.
My cub Has the K Courage.

They are very easy to replace.
In fact everything on the engine is easy to replace because of the bucket construction.
You can replace the cams, engine in the mower with the drive belts still attached.
It does not get much easier than that.
Only mower engine with a top mounted oil filter that hangs so oil changes are clean.
They were a very successful engine with the only major fault being the top plate fasteners on some of them comes loose & allows a crack to generate in the crankcase.
Side by side with the B & S intec, I would take a courage every time.
In the workshop I see about the same number of each of them dead.

They both toss conterweights at about the same rate.
The courages tend to break the decompression mechanism which generally falls to the bottom and dose little damage.
The Intecks break governors which get jambed in the timing gears and wreck the engine, again about the same rate for each of them.

It all comes down to price.
If the market shopped for quality then quality increases
But the market shops 99% of the time on price.
Price & quality are inversely proportional.
But every one seem to still believe in faries when it comes to riding mowers.

I think most consumers aren't even aware that these are low end models and just assume they are the same as dealers sell.

I had this motor torn down in about 45 minutes total using a battery powered impact gun. Very easy. Could have had it back together in less time if it was still good and had all the new parts ready and this was my first time ripping one apart.

Its just my opinion the Kohler Command singles and twins seem to be good engines. The Courage is junk. Again it is just my opinion that Kohler has hurt their company by building such junk. Of course they still have the plumbing business.:laughing:

I find the Command series to be exceptional engines and very well-made. I also agree that the Briggs Intek is junk as well as the Courage in discussion.

I personally work on computers/electronics and see the same shortcuts to save a few cents per unit made. People buy this stuff because it is CHEAP and the CONSUMER is driving this. A commercial user would never buy a mower or computer from Wal-Mart. I have a friend who almost bought a small Snapper there a few years back. He said it got decent reviews and he has a tiny yard so it wasn't going to get much use. The thing that killed it for him was that there was no practical way to change the oil on this unit. It basically required removing the engine from the unit or using a suction hose to pull the old oil out. I can't see the suction method getting all the crap out unless you changed it frequently so don't like that either. Odds are the oil in such a unit would NEVER be changed.

They probably saved a dollar or two by not putting a drain plug in this unit.

Conor