kohler courage sv590 Slow/no start, hard to turn past compression.

Tazzin · Jun 24, 2018

FLNative said:
Hello,
Mine does the same thing and even does it when I jump it with my truck. I know the battery is about shot. Is it possible to have a weak starter motor? Never adjusted the valves because I don't know how. I would hate to buy a new battery and not fix it. The mower was a freebie so you can imagine its not in very good condition at all so I really don't want to spend a lot of money on it. Can you explain how to adjust valves? The motor is a Briggs 16.5 HP

I know this is a bit late but I wanted to put some feed back on this as I have worked a Toro LX500 that has a Kohler Courage sv720 in it. Her's was having issues with getting over the compression stroke as well so here is what I did:

1. Had battery tested at Oriellys and checked the solenoid, both were in good shape, but still had issue with compression stroke
2. Tested voltage at starter - was 12+ volts.. this was good.
3. adjusted valves to specs, first and cheapest adjust to see if it fixed it.. It didn't
4. Verified the engine spun easy with ignition by leaving spark plug out - It spun really good
5. Found that one of the magneto coil spark plug wire was partly chewed through by rodents, replaced it and that didn't help either.
6. Had to replace the regulator as that wasn't working but that shouldn't affect starting or compression stroke issue.
7. While re-testing the startup again, the start literally started smoking and burnt up and started smoking
8. replaced the starter.

The starter was the ticket. The lady stated that the other start was only like 1 or 2 years old. BUT the mower stays outside and for the most part is under cover but still in the elements of hot, cold & moisture. My guess is it was either combination of cheaply made parts or elements got to it or both.. Not sure which but the new starter cranks the engine right up now. The old starter just got weak on the bushings and coils to turn the engine over the compression strokes of the twin cylinder sv720 engine. I hope this helps other decide on what to try. I know that I read a lot about the compression release on the cam shafts getting work down but I would MUCH rather spend 30 buck and try an easy fix like that rather than pulling the engine off and tearing it apart to replace about a ~100.00 cam replacement. Please do you research before you just go out and by parts.

So to answer your question about, "Is it possible to have a weak starter motor?", the answer is YES. I have run in to this on more that 1 occasion. The other occasion was on a my briggs & stratton 31p777 motor. You are the first person that I have found to question the starter. All of the other information I have seen on compression issues is people jump right into the whole, "It's the compression release on the cam shaft" statement. Not even suggesting the starter may be too weak to get past the compression stroke.

I hope this helps others who run into this situation of an engine not being able to get past the compression stroke or getting past it but having a very hard time doing so.

bertsmobile1 · Jun 25, 2018

Tazzin said:
I know this is a bit late but I wanted to put some feed back on this as I have worked a Toro LX500 that has a Kohler Courage sv720 in it. Her's was having issues with getting over the compression stroke as well so here is what I did:

1. Had battery tested at Oriellys and checked the solenoid, both were in good shape, but still had issue with compression stroke
2. Tested voltage at starter - was 12+ volts.. this was good.
3. adjusted valves to specs, first and cheapest adjust to see if it fixed it.. It didn't
4. Verified the engine spun easy with ignition by leaving spark plug out - It spun really good
5. Found that one of the magneto coil spark plug wire was partly chewed through by rodents, replaced it and that didn't help either.
6. Had to replace the regulator as that wasn't working but that shouldn't affect starting or compression stroke issue.
7. While re-testing the startup again, the start literally started smoking and burnt up and started smoking
8. replaced the starter.

The starter was the ticket. The lady stated that the other start was only like 1 or 2 years old. BUT the mower stays outside and for the most part is under cover but still in the elements of hot, cold & moisture. My guess is it was either combination of cheaply made parts or elements got to it or both.. Not sure which but the new starter cranks the engine right up now. The old starter just got weak on the bushings and coils to turn the engine over the compression strokes of the twin cylinder sv720 engine. I hope this helps other decide on what to try. I know that I read a lot about the compression release on the cam shafts getting work down but I would MUCH rather spend 30 buck and try an easy fix like that rather than pulling the engine off and tearing it apart to replace about a ~100.00 cam replacement. Please do you research before you just go out and by parts.

So to answer your question about, "Is it possible to have a weak starter motor?", the answer is YES. I have run in to this on more that 1 occasion. The other occasion was on a my briggs & stratton 31p777 motor. You are the first person that I have found to question the starter. All of the other information I have seen on compression issues is people jump right into the whole, "It's the compression release on the cam shaft" statement. Not even suggesting the starter may be too weak to get past the compression stroke.

I hope this helps others who run into this situation of an engine not being able to get past the compression stroke or getting past it but having a very hard time doing so.

Generally it is crud built up in the bottom of the starter that caused problems by shorting out the carbon brushes.
If you still have it pull it apart and check them they are not expensive to replace.

As for as bad cranking the score goes something like this

Bigger valve lash 75 %
Bad ground 15 %
Bad cam 5 %
Bad solenoid 4%
Bad starter 1%

ILENGINE · Jun 25, 2018

Tazzin said:
I know this is a bit late but I wanted to put some feed back on this as I have worked a Toro LX500 that has a Kohler Courage sv720 in it. Her's was having issues with getting over the compression stroke as well so here is what I did:

1. Had battery tested at Oriellys and checked the solenoid, both were in good shape, but still had issue with compression stroke
2. Tested voltage at starter - was 12+ volts.. this was good.
3. adjusted valves to specs, first and cheapest adjust to see if it fixed it.. It didn't
4. Verified the engine spun easy with ignition by leaving spark plug out - It spun really good
5. Found that one of the magneto coil spark plug wire was partly chewed through by rodents, replaced it and that didn't help either.
6. Had to replace the regulator as that wasn't working but that shouldn't affect starting or compression stroke issue.
7. While re-testing the startup again, the start literally started smoking and burnt up and started smoking
8. replaced the starter.

The starter was the ticket. The lady stated that the other start was only like 1 or 2 years old. BUT the mower stays outside and for the most part is under cover but still in the elements of hot, cold & moisture. My guess is it was either combination of cheaply made parts or elements got to it or both.. Not sure which but the new starter cranks the engine right up now. The old starter just got weak on the bushings and coils to turn the engine over the compression strokes of the twin cylinder sv720 engine. I hope this helps other decide on what to try. I know that I read a lot about the compression release on the cam shafts getting work down but I would MUCH rather spend 30 buck and try an easy fix like that rather than pulling the engine off and tearing it apart to replace about a ~100.00 cam replacement. Please do you research before you just go out and by parts.

So to answer your question about, "Is it possible to have a weak starter motor?", the answer is YES. I have run in to this on more that 1 occasion. The other occasion was on a my briggs & stratton 31p777 motor. You are the first person that I have found to question the starter. All of the other information I have seen on compression issues is people jump right into the whole, "It's the compression release on the cam shaft" statement. Not even suggesting the starter may be too weak to get past the compression stroke.

I hope this helps others who run into this situation of an engine not being able to get past the compression stroke or getting past it but having a very hard time doing so.

The reason for the compression release on the camshaft statement, because on briggs the starter problem is either valve clearance or broken compression release on the camshaft. Both of those issues without being repaired will take out the starter. Don't see a lost of problems with briggs starters that are not related to some other issue. The Courage twin starter is other story. That starter is at the bottom of the torque curve required to turn that engine over reliably, and adding other loads on that starter like having to also turn over the transmission just takes its toll on that starter very quickly.

Dmosall · Nov 4, 2018

headsupkid01 said:
Kohler courage sv590. I parked it last year and now it doesn't start, The battery has been dead for some time so I've been jumping it with a Battery charger. I've never had a problem jumping it so I never went to get a new battery. When ever it turns it stops on the compression stroke and the starter has a really hard time getting past it. It turns with the plug out and it's hard to turn by hand though the compression stroke. Even with the charger set at 12v 200a it still won't pass it.

I did a lot of research and found that the problem is usually related to valve adjustment so I adjusted the valves to the spec in the manual. I'm a 12yr ASE master so I've adjusted valves before and did them the right way(so I think) but still no start.
Any other suggestions?

I don't know a whole lot about ACR but what I can say is I see the small exhaust push in between strokes. I don't know how far its supposed to push the valve but it does happen.

I fixed a problem on a zero turn similar to what your describing.... at first look the starter/solenoid had been changed and a new interstate battery all connections where clean on the positive side... after removing the positive terminal I dropped the starter and noticed 2 small nuts holding the starter and when I dropped the starter the portion that went up against the engine block was made of plastic... and on a lot of older engines you had metal on metal contact with the starter which gave you a good ground... in this situation you had the 2 small studs that was being used for a ground...... I cleaned the area where the nuts held the starter in place and it helped..one way to test this is to use a jumper cable and go from ground side of the battery to the engine block or starter and it should kick you past the comp stroke. basically when checking for a electrical problem not only do u need a good positive side but check the ground also. this was a design issue with companies trying to build stuff cheaper and the customer was happy with me but not too happy with the other place he brought it to first and had to bring it back 4 times and over $400 in bills.

kohler courage sv590 Slow/no start, hard to turn past compression.

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