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Hello

#1

R

Rotoblade

Hello to all lawnworld members. Am new to the organization and not too savvy on computers. I do have a question though. I have a craftsman riding mower model #917.250831 that starts instantly and runs perfect, but when I shut it off in makes a loud couple of clunks like thr bottom end is going out. Any ideas? Thank you


#2

R

Rotoblade

Rotoblade said:
Hello to all lawnworld members. Am new to the organization and not too savvy on computers. I do have a question though. I have a craftsman riding mower model #917.250831 that starts instantly and runs perfect, but when I shut it off in makes a loud couple of clunks like thr bottom end is going out. Any ideas? Thank you
Click to expand...
P.S. The motor also gives a couple good jerks at the same time, like the mounting bolts are loose.


#3

B

bertsmobile1

They most likely are loose


#4

tom3

tom3

Internal balancer? Or an electric blade clutch not anchored right?


#5

Catherine

Catherine

:welcome:

Welcome to the forum!

I'm going to move this thread over to our Craftsman section.


#6

R

Rotoblade

Thanks Catherine,
I think that would work out real well. I’m still having a little trouble negotiating my way around here. I have been too busy lately to check the motor mounts, but hopefully will get to it soon Thanks to everyone who responded.This is a very interesting forum just to read even if you don’t have a problem. Thanks again.


#7

R

Rotoblade

tom3 said:
Internal balancer? Or an electric blade clutch not anchored right?
Click to expand...

Finally got time to check out the shaking mower engine. Mounting bolts tight and pulley not loose. Sounds internal, but the only time it i noticeable is just before the engine quits rotating. No electric clutch, but what is the internal balancer?


#8

B

bertsmobile1

The other things that can go klunk are the PTO pulley and the flywheel.
The flywheel being loose usually causes erratic running so that leaves you with the pulley.
Take the belts off and then see if the pulley has any slack in it.
Start & stop the engine with no belts on it to eliminate everything else.
If it still goes klunk the time to pull the engine .
Take the flywheel off first, mush easier to do with engine bolted in place
Then clean the PTO shaft bright & shiny and pull the sump off before what was going klunk goes bang.
Goe to the B & S web page & download the IPL for you engine.
All the bits are shown & named.

When you get it apart, if what you are looking at makes no sense to you, take some photos and post them.
Plenty of people ere more than happy to explain what everything is , what it does & how to check it.


#9

R

Rotoblade

bertsmobile1 said:
The other things that can go klunk are the PTO pulley and the flywheel.
The flywheel being loose usually causes erratic running so that leaves you with the pulley.
Take the belts off and then see if the pulley has any slack in it.
Start & stop the engine with no belts on it to eliminate everything else.
If it still goes klunk the time to pull the engine .
Take the flywheel off first, mush easier to do with engine bolted in place
Then clean the PTO shaft bright & shiny and pull the sump off before what was going klunk goes bang.
Goe to the B & S web page & download the IPL for you engine.
All the bits are shown & named.

When you get it apart, if what you are looking at makes no sense to you, take some photos and post them.
Plenty of people ere more than happy to explain what everything is , what it does & how to check it.
Click to expand...

Thank bertmobile 1 and others that offered suggestions, I wii check it out"


#10

R

Rotoblade

Worked on the engine some today. Ran the engine with the belts off, sounded the same and pulley was tight. Instead of a clunking noise, after removing the hood and putting it up on the hoist, it seems more like a popping sound coming out the intake manifold. You can feel it by taking the air filter out nd putting your fingers by thr intake tube. It Also puffs out of the intake tube a few times as it is starting. Took the valve cover off and reset the valves. Intake was ok but the exhaust was fairly tight. Set them both at .006. Nothing changed. Seems crazy to me.
.


#11

B

bertsmobile1

It sounds like a leaking head gasket, loose inlet guide or broken flywheel key .

However to be double sure take the plug out and poke a long screwdriver down the plug hole till it touches the top of the piston.
put a little pressure on the piston and with your other hand turn the engine over 2 full revolutions.

The piston should move smoothly from the top to the bottom of the stroke.
Now if the piston clicks or suddenly drops as the motion changed from in to out then the rod is gone.
The two valves you just adjusted should sit at identical heights when the rockers are not pressing on them.
If not then one of the valve guides has slipped.

These engines generally blow the head gasket between the bore & the pushrod tube but occasionally they go between the bore & one of the valves


#12

R

Rotoblade

How can I tell if the head gasket is blown? It seems like when you start it it sounds like a loud exhaust noise coming out of the intake. Also loud the last few rpms of the engine. Kind of sounds like a engine without a muffler at the times it makes this noise.


#13

R

Rotoblade

Rotoblade said:
How can I tell if the head gasket is blown? It seems like when you start it it sounds like a loud exhaust noise coming out of the intake. Also loud the last few rpms of the engine. Kind of sounds like a engine without a muffler at the times it makes this noise.
Click to expand...

Good morning,
Tore into the noisy engine yesterday. Found the noise was coming from the plastic cooling fan on top of the flywheel. There are two allenhead bolts on the flywheel that the fan and two holes in the fan. The fan just sits on top of the flywheel and is supposed to be held down by the bolt that holds the flywheel on. It is just sandwiched in there and the flywheel bolt didn’t put enough pressure on it, so it was loose in there and the holes in the plastic egged out, resulting in the noise. Not a very good design. Finally got it fixed. A poor diagnosis by me. Should have found this a lot sooner. Thanks again to all who replied


#14

B

bertsmobile1

More important is you came back with the final solution.
For which you are to be thanked.
Describing a problem in words is never easy particularly when you do not have the trade jargon at hand.
Could have been worse.
usually the blades all break off.


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