What's missing in this picture?

[Blaine B.]

The bad thing about Tecumseh engines was what I heard my former boss and mentor say many times. "You have to be a mechanic to work on a Tecumseh not just a parts changer."

If you knew how to work on a float style carb and new how to set the point gap with a dial indicator you would end up with an engine that was pretty hard to beat. The sadness is that when Tecumseh went out of business in 2007 there were building a really good engine. Greed and bad management killed Tecumseh.

Did Tecumseh manufacturer engines in China or Mexico like Briggs does?

 

[Hammermechanicman]

How many backyard mechanics took the coil/point assy off a tecumseh and not mark it and then try to get it back on right. Read the book procedure and bring you dial indicator. Not complicated at all

 

[VegetiveSteam]

Did Tecumseh manufacturer engines in China or Mexico like Briggs does?

Everyone manufacture's engines in China today but to the best of my knowledge, Tecumseh never did. They moved most if not all of their engine production to Brazil and then got into some issue with the Brazilian government and the government locked them out from what I understand.

 

[ILENGINE]

The bad thing about Tecumseh engines was what I heard my former boss and mentor say many times. "You have to be a mechanic to work on a Tecumseh not just a parts changer."

If you knew how to work on a float style carb and new how to set the point gap with a dial indicator you would end up with an engine that was pretty hard to beat. The sadness is that when Tecumseh went out of business in 2007 there were building a really good engine. Greed and bad management killed Tecumseh.

The Kohler K-series with their point setting was somewhat tedious also. They put .020 in the manual, but was just a starting point. The actual adjusted gap could be .016-.024 if following proper adjustment procedures. Either had to use a timing light to set the timing according to the timing marks, or use a ohm meter and play with the timing marks to get the points to open at the correct BTDC,

 

[VegetiveSteam]

The Kohler K-series with their point setting was somewhat tedious also. They put .020 in the manual, but was just a starting point. The actual adjusted gap could be .016-.024 if following proper adjustment procedures. Either had to use a timing light to set the timing according to the timing marks, or use a ohm meter and play with the timing marks to get the points to open at the correct BTDC,

The timing light was my preferred method. I've seen a few holes burned through K-series cylinder heads because the points weren't set correctly. I normally didn't get a call until they burned a hole in the new replacement head in about 15 to 20 hours of being replaced.

 

[ILENGINE]

@VegetiveSteam The timing light is a faster method, but in cases where accessing the point cover screws without removing the engine or the engine is not on the equipment the ohm meter works.

 

[VegetiveSteam]

@VegetiveSteam The timing light is a faster method, but in cases where accessing the point cover screws without removing the engine or the engine is not on the equipment the ohm meter works.

And finding the site hole in the bearing plate could also be challenging some times depending on how the engine was mounted. Maybe not so much finding it but being able to see in it.

 

[bertsmobile1]

It was somewhat of a rhetorical question and I know people do idle them down for the reasons you mentioned but is it really necessary? It's all personal preference of course but if I'm only taking 10 or 20 seconds to move something I just let it run full and keep as much cooling air flowing over that engine as possible.

When I bag I use a Snapper and I will either leave it a full throttle or shut it off. That set up on the mower is such that if you let the bag get a bit too full and idle the engine down to take the bag off, clippings want to fall into the discharge chute and at idle not all gets blown out. At full throttle it just blows it out. If I let the bag get way too full then I shut it off because I know I'm going to be having to pull some grass out of the chute and I don't want to be the cause of any more safety labels needing added to equipment.

I don't believe there is a wrong way. It's preference and what you've gotten used to doing. The only thing I believe is wrong is when people are mowing at less that full throttle.

For an air cooled engine running at low idle for 2 minutes while you do one of those tasks is a lot better for the engines than shutting down & restarting this applies particularly for the cool bore unlined alloy barrels .
Remember we use mowers for our benefit and for a lot of people restarting 5 times when mowing can be quite a problem
I have a lot of older people in my run who are over the moon when I refill their mowers with 10W 40 oil so they can actually pull start them cold.
Women in particular are amazed when I take them a Honda powered mower and for the first time in decades they can start a mower.
Very few of these older people ( often widows ) would be up to starting their mowers 5 time a mowing session.I have probably removed the flywheel brake? dead mans ignition from at least 50 mowers so the older customers can use them.
It is a big problem that mowers seem to be designed by shaved gorillas with 10" long fingers.
I spent a long time modifing one of the Toro SP mowers that has 3 bails on it that make the handle bar cluster so dig I could barely get mu hand around it and it is nearly impossible to drop the motion clutch so you can pull the mower backwards without dropping the blade clutch & throttle at the same time .
Then there is one of the Hondas with variable speeds that is fine flat chat but if you are old & walk slow then the speed control bail is 3" below the handle bar another impossible grip .

 

[bertsmobile1]

The bad thing about Tecumseh engines was what I heard my former boss and mentor say many times. "You have to be a mechanic to work on a Tecumseh not just a parts changer."

If you knew how to work on a float style carb and new how to set the point gap with a dial indicator you would end up with an engine that was pretty hard to beat. The sadness is that when Tecumseh went out of business in 2007 there were building a really good engine. Greed and bad management killed Tecumseh.

Bad management not greed
When you supply the bottom end of the market, the price pressures are massive so the instant some one offers one of you customers an engine 1¢ cheaper than yours, you loose a sale
All engine makers are just assemblers of mostly bought in parts so there is 5/8 of SFA profit per engine thus they must keep massive sales to cover the fixed cost .
Just loosing a small customer like Victa who sold about 3,000 tecumseh powered mowers a year can be enough to send the business to the wall.
So from the first day that the US push mower assemblers starting buying engines from China ,Tecumseh was doomed .
So the greed was not Tecumseh but the retailers like Walmart, Lowes , & HF who demanded lower prices from the factories .
And the retailers will say ( not really truely ) that it was the greed of the buying public that was driving their prices down .
So ultimately what killed Tecumseh is the same as what killed B & S and will kill every US made engine maker
1) management solely fixated on dividends
2) Chinese government policy designed to use the greed of foreign businesses to destroy the manufacturing base of the countries they operate in to undermine the governments

 

[ILENGINE]

Bad management not greed
When you supply the bottom end of the market, the price pressures are massive so the instant some one offers one of you customers an engine 1¢ cheaper than yours, you loose a sale
All engine makers are just assemblers of mostly bought in parts so there is 5/8 of SFA profit per engine thus they must keep massive sales to cover the fixed cost .
Just loosing a small customer like Victa who sold about 3,000 tecumseh powered mowers a year can be enough to send the business to the wall.
So from the first day that the US push mower assemblers starting buying engines from China ,Tecumseh was doomed .
So the greed was not Tecumseh but the retailers like Walmart, Lowes , & HF who demanded lower prices from the factories .
And the retailers will say ( not really truely ) that it was the greed of the buying public that was driving their prices down .
So ultimately what killed Tecumseh is the same as what killed B & S and will kill every US made engine maker
1) management solely fixated on dividends
2) Chinese government policy designed to use the greed of foreign businesses to destroy the manufacturing base of the countries they operate in to undermine the governments

The funny thing is most of the fall of the US small engine manufacturer and various products all circles back around to the bankruptcy of Murray. Murray was a large user of Tecumseh engines With the purchase of Murray by Briggs set up the issue of MTD seeing Briggs no longer as an engine supplier but as a competitor, which ushered in the MTD powermore engine line.

Most of the small engine manufacturers have a much larger main business like Honda with their auto and powersports lines. Subaru with the auto line. Kohler with the plumbing fixture line. Tecumseh in the small engine world was known for their engines and transaxles but were actually a very large manufacturers of compressors for refrigeration systems. Briggs at one time was a large manufacturer of automotive parts.