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I picked up an 11hp B&S which was running when I bought it. Had it home and laid it on its side to install a pully to use on my Swisher swing blade machine. Now I barely can get a half turn of the crank and she locks up. What could have happened to the motor while on its side? The guy I picked up the motor from re-seated the valves and installed a new head gasket... and it was running at the point when I bought it.
The only thing that I did was swap out the carb and linkage, installed pully on the shaft and fresh oil.
I did pull the plug yesterday and she will still only turn about half a revolution.

Pull the spark plug out. The motor is hydro locked from oil getting into the cylinder.

kwgerloff said:

Pull the spark plug out. The motor is hydro locked from oil getting into the cylinder.

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Yes, spark plug is pulled but I still can only rotate the shaft about 1/2 a turn. I may even try and blow a little air into the spark plug hole to see if anything comes out.

EDIT: I was able to back the engine a good turn, maybe a turn and a half but when I hit the starter it gets to a point and she locks up. That is with the spark plug out and after I hit the spark plug hole with a couple shots of air from the compressor.
I am not mechanically inclined of the internals working but it seems there is a point that the engine will not spin forward. Without the plug in the head I would think it should spin very freely.

"Which was running when I bought it" Did you see it run?

Is the pulley rubbing on anything?

In a quiet spot turn the engine backwards & forward.
If you hear a klunk that seems tobe coming from the top of the engine then pull the flywheel and check for something stuck in the magnets.
If it squeals & stops then you have bent the crankshaft

sgkent said:

"Which was running when I bought it" Did you see it run?

Yes, It was running when I bought it. It actually ran here at my house for about 5 minutes or so. I had it mounted on the plate of the machine and the belt slipped off the idler pully and started to smoke so I shut it down. I readjusted the pully on the motor shaft, worked on the idler pully and even installed a new belt on the machine. Then the first pull the recoil screwed up, so I had to work on that. An hour later when I put the recoil back on she wouldn't go more than 1/2 a turn.

Is the pulley rubbing on anything?

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**Update** I pulled the pully off to make sure nothing down on the bottom was binding and no change. So I said time to pull the head. No problems up top, so whatever is binding at a certain point must be on the bottom end. I just can't understand what may have happened, other than the 30 Wt oil I put in it was something different than what was in it before. Strange because it seemed to idle good, no smoke and was not noisy at all. Some of the original oil leaked out while it laid in my shop for a month so I drained it and added all fresh.

At this point I am giving up on that motor. If the problem is on the bottom end, which where else could be the issue, I am not going to open it up.
Thanks for your replys

How much oil did you put in it? The correct amount of oil could not cause this.

cpurvis said:

How much oil did you put in it? The correct amount of oil could not cause this.

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I gave it 24 OZ which brought it up to the top of the safe range. I did pull the head and there is a noise is coming from the lower end. Its an 11 hp B&S

Ida-Boy said:

I gave it 24 OZ which brought it up to the top of the safe range. I did pull the head and there is a noise is coming from the lower end. Its an 11 hp B&S

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I see we are neighbors. I'm in Petersburg.

Could be something went amiss with the counterweight when you turned it over. Hopefully when you pull the engine apart it will just go back together. Take lots of pics and pay close to the timing dots on cam and crank. If you need further please post make and model from engine so we know what your looking at.

SidecarFlip said:

I see we are neighbors. I'm in Petersburg.

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LOL. If I would move my mailbox in front of my house I would be in Petersburg. We use to have a Lambertville phone when we moved up here 20 years ago. I call it tri corners.

dfbroxy said:

Could be something went amiss with the counterweight when you turned it over. Hopefully when you pull the engine apart it will just go back together. Take lots of pics and pay close to the timing dots on cam and crank. If you need further please post make and model from engine so we know what your looking at.

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I don't think I am going any deeper into it. I am not familiar with internals so as I see it now I have 2 bad motors not just one.
This motor is a model # 253707, type 0173-02 and code 86060110. Was a good sounding engine when it did run for that 5 minutes but my machine is well over 10 years old, Swisher Model # RT105441. I had to fab up a 3rd wheel up front because it kept breaking eyebolts and I have far too many projects around to occupy my time.

Ida Boy did you take the flywheel off like Bert mentioned ?????? Just laying that engine on its side should not caused this... Unless the counterweight inside was not bolted and slipped out of place......

Those engines are way easy to work on... The sump/crankcase comes off easy and then you can see all of the internals on it ~!~!

Let us know Mon Ami ~!~!

Ida-Boy said:

LOL. If I would move my mailbox in front of my house I would be in Petersburg. We use to have a Lambertville phone when we moved up here 20 years ago. I call it tri corners.

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Side Car go look at the engine for him..................

Boudreaux In Eunice La. said:

Side Car go look at the engine for him..................

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I could, I guess...

I believe his issue lies in the top of the motor, under the flywheel, not on the bottom or under the head (Not sure why he would pull the head anyway). I think either the mag dropped a magnet segment or there was a loose bolt up top that when he laid the motor on it's side, the bolt dropped out and got attracted to a magnet segment and is now jamming against the alternator windings or the ignition trigger.

Super easy to get the flywheel off., take the nut off and wack the crank end with a brass hammer and they usually pop off. If not, a 3 jaw puller works. Had that happen to a Kawolski 27 vertical V-Twin. It dropped a segment and locked up tight. Was under warranty so I had the local mower shop order me a new flywheel but in the interem, I pulled the flywheel, removed the loose segment and put it back on. Ran fine, just a bit down on charging current. Ran that way until the new one came in and then I swapped them out and lived happily ever after.

Reading posts on here, it appears to me that most people on here with issues, tend to ignore the obvious and look elsewhere. Small engines are rock simple. Not much to break really. Not complex either. If you don't make it complex, it stays simple.

Myself, I would have started with the flywheel but that is just me.

Now with that said you have my attention: I did use the compressor to blow away a few pieces of what looked like copper wires pieces from the outer edge of the flywheel. With your statement of something possibly getting under the flywheel and causing an issue has me thinking that I may have to go and pull it to if anything confirm your statement. As little as I know about this engine I will have to check and see if there is a YouTube video showing the removal of it. I do have a big enough 3 jaw puller if needed...
See what you did? You got my mind engage again, LOL. I'll see what I can do.

Ida-Boy said:

Now with that said you have my attention: I did use the compressor to blow away a few pieces of what looked like copper wires pieces from the outer edge of the flywheel. With your statement of something possibly getting under the flywheel and causing an issue has me thinking that I may have to go and pull it to if anything confirm your statement. As little as I know about this engine I will have to check and see if there is a YouTube video showing the removal of it. I do have a big enough 3 jaw puller if needed...
See what you did? You got my mind engage again, LOL. I'll see what I can do.

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Take the shroud off (pull the spark plug wire first), expose the flywheel, remove the nut and wack the end of the exposed crankshaft with a brass hammer and the flywheel should come off. I bet you have something lodged between the magnets and the stator or trigger and if one of the mag segments let go (highly unlikely), just remove it and the corresponding one across from it (to maintain static balance) and put it back together. You might loose a little charging current but that is it. The magnets are usually epoxied on to the flywheel inner bore.

I would have done that first thing instead of last myself.

Well SidecarFlip you were right: issue is on top of the motor. Look what I found.

This is what I found when I turned the flywheel over when I took it off.



Doesn't look like there is any hope in repairing. Nothing to attach a new stator to.
Really tore up the flywheel.

Just like Bert said in post 5 I think.... Take the flywheel off......

Now that is going onto a swisher with no electrics so you can just leave the whole mess off. It just means you will have to pop the battery onto a charger overnight when you finish mowing.

Actually, the stator should be real cheap. You need to drop bvy the lawnmower shop on Lewis, south of Crabb and see them. I get all my OEM parts there, everything else I get at Agri-Supply (ASC) online. Cheaper than anyone even with shipping.

I knew something was a miss under the flywheel. It is...

One issue with a forum like this is, you get a bunch of people who have no real idea of what is going on that throw out ideas but most of those ideas are only that. Why I don't post on here much and I find some of the posts amusing (much to the chagrin of the poster).

Armchair mechanics are a dime a dozen.:wink:

bertsmobile1 said:

Now that is going onto a swisher with no electrics so you can just leave the whole mess off. It just means you will have to pop the battery onto a charger overnight when you finish mowing.

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I wasn't sure if it would run without a stator. Wouldn't I have to hook up a battery for it to run without one? I can kick the starter with a jump box but the engine needs voltage to run.

SidecarFlip said:

Actually, the stator should be real cheap. You need to drop bvy the lawnmower shop on Lewis, south of Crabb and see them. I get all my OEM parts there, everything else I get at Agri-Supply (ASC) online. Cheaper than anyone even with shipping.

I knew something was a miss under the flywheel. It is...

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Did you notice 2 or the 4 mounting holes for the stator have been busted away? There was quite a bit of turmoil under that flywheel.

Spot drill and tap the holes and apply sealer to the threads. Not a big deal even if you drill into the cankcase. IOf I had time, I'd do it for you but I'm swamped sharpening chipper knives for tree companies right now.

Ida-Boy said:

I wasn't sure if it would run without a stator. Wouldn't I have to hook up a battery for it to run without one? I can kick the starter with a jump box but the engine needs voltage to run.

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The engine itself is self powering.
By definition that is what a magneto is and the magneto is on the outside powered by the external magnets.
So unless you have an electric clutch the only power required for running is 12V to the carb solenoid but a good battery will power that for around 2-3 days

bertsmobile1 said:

The engine itself is self powering.
By definition that is what a magneto is and the magneto is on the outside powered by the external magnets.
So unless you have an electric clutch the only power required for running is 12V to the carb solenoid but a good battery will power that for around 2-3 days

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Pretty easy to defeat the carb solenoid too. Usually they enter a 'dry hole' so the 'fix' is cutting a length of coat hanger long enough to keep the port open with the solenoid not energized. Only reason it's there is to prevent run on. It's a fuel cut.

SidecarFlip said:

Pretty easy to defeat the carb solenoid too. Usually they enter a 'dry hole' so the 'fix' is cutting a length of coat hanger long enough to keep the port open with the solenoid not energized. Only reason it's there is to prevent run on. It's a fuel cut.

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The threads never changed from bowk bolts through to solenoids so just get a bowl bolt from any old mower workshop 7/16 UNF from memory.

bertsmobile1 said:

The threads never changed from bowk bolts through to solenoids so just get a bowl bolt from any old mower workshop 7/16 UNF from memory.

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Do you guys down under use UNF and UNC bolts? Thought you were all metric.