Kohler
Family 8KHXS.5972GB
Displ. 597
Model No. SV600S
Spec. No. SV600-0030
I have a friend with a Gravely 2042 zero turn, it has the 20 hp Kohler Courage engine that everyone loves so much. He said he was mowing when the deck lost power and then he noticed oil coming out of the bottom of the engine. He bought it used from a a dealer so he took it back to them and they were going to charge him $400 minimum, they told him the engine had "spun a bearing" and the engine would have to be replaced. This guy doesn't know engines from apples so he didn't ask exactly what that meant or how they came to that conclusion. He was ready to scrap that otherwise excellent Gravely zero turn so I asked him if I could look at it.
I picked it up from the dealer and they said the "bottom seal went out...no the top seal...no it was the bottom seal" and that the shaft was moving back and forth more than a quarter of an inch so the "engine was scrap." They didn't open the engine up at all, just wiggled the shaft.
I brought it home to look at it. First off I figure the deck is fine, the loss of power was just a result of oil blowing on the belt. I checked the shaft, they had already removed the belt and pulley so the shaft was bare. The shaft did wobble significantly. I figured I would open it up to find the counterweight was loose on the crankshaft causing the wobble that eventually got so bad that the seal was compromised.
I removed the flywheel and crankcase cover. There was no obvious damage inside the crankcase. There were some very fine slivers and shavings of metal, just a few and very fine. I could not find the obvious cause of the shavings. The crankcase was not cracked, the upper seal looked good and did not appear to have been leaking. I could not find any other source of oil leak other than the bottom seal, and I cannot confirm that, they had wiped the oil from the underside and drained the oil when I got it. My assumption that the bottom seal was the source of the leak was nothing more than a process of elimination of other sources. No oil was coming from the oil filter or anywhere else I could tell.
I unbolted the piston rod and removed the crankshaft and counterweight. I found no play whatsoever from either of the weight/shaft couplings. They were very tight and rotated smoothly.
At this point I dont know why I was able to move or wiggle the shaft from underneath the mower before I removed it. The bottom seal did not have an obvious damage. I wasn't able to look at the seal until after I removed the crankshaft so I can't say that there WASN'T a problem with the bottom seal, just nothing obvious. The seal certainly did not appear bad enough to allow as much play in the shaft as I felt.
I am not into this engine for anything pricey just yet. I'm tempted to replace the top and bottom seal and put on a new crankcase gasket, oh, and replace the oil drainback tube that I damaged when I removed the shaft, and tighten it all up and check to see if the only problem was the failure of the bottom seal. That's less than $20.
Can anyone tell me if this is a bad idea or if I have overlooked something obvious or if there is something else I should check before I do that. I don't have any experience with Kohler engines and my experience with vertical shaft engines in general is also limited so I'm well outside my comfort zone.
Please don't give me the "replace that engine with a Command or Briggs" or something like that. If I can fix this engine I want to do that, even if it only lasts another year or two, I'm into it so far for about two hours and twenty bucks in parts. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
Family 8KHXS.5972GB
Displ. 597
Model No. SV600S
Spec. No. SV600-0030
I have a friend with a Gravely 2042 zero turn, it has the 20 hp Kohler Courage engine that everyone loves so much. He said he was mowing when the deck lost power and then he noticed oil coming out of the bottom of the engine. He bought it used from a a dealer so he took it back to them and they were going to charge him $400 minimum, they told him the engine had "spun a bearing" and the engine would have to be replaced. This guy doesn't know engines from apples so he didn't ask exactly what that meant or how they came to that conclusion. He was ready to scrap that otherwise excellent Gravely zero turn so I asked him if I could look at it.
I picked it up from the dealer and they said the "bottom seal went out...no the top seal...no it was the bottom seal" and that the shaft was moving back and forth more than a quarter of an inch so the "engine was scrap." They didn't open the engine up at all, just wiggled the shaft.
I brought it home to look at it. First off I figure the deck is fine, the loss of power was just a result of oil blowing on the belt. I checked the shaft, they had already removed the belt and pulley so the shaft was bare. The shaft did wobble significantly. I figured I would open it up to find the counterweight was loose on the crankshaft causing the wobble that eventually got so bad that the seal was compromised.
I removed the flywheel and crankcase cover. There was no obvious damage inside the crankcase. There were some very fine slivers and shavings of metal, just a few and very fine. I could not find the obvious cause of the shavings. The crankcase was not cracked, the upper seal looked good and did not appear to have been leaking. I could not find any other source of oil leak other than the bottom seal, and I cannot confirm that, they had wiped the oil from the underside and drained the oil when I got it. My assumption that the bottom seal was the source of the leak was nothing more than a process of elimination of other sources. No oil was coming from the oil filter or anywhere else I could tell.
I unbolted the piston rod and removed the crankshaft and counterweight. I found no play whatsoever from either of the weight/shaft couplings. They were very tight and rotated smoothly.
At this point I dont know why I was able to move or wiggle the shaft from underneath the mower before I removed it. The bottom seal did not have an obvious damage. I wasn't able to look at the seal until after I removed the crankshaft so I can't say that there WASN'T a problem with the bottom seal, just nothing obvious. The seal certainly did not appear bad enough to allow as much play in the shaft as I felt.
I am not into this engine for anything pricey just yet. I'm tempted to replace the top and bottom seal and put on a new crankcase gasket, oh, and replace the oil drainback tube that I damaged when I removed the shaft, and tighten it all up and check to see if the only problem was the failure of the bottom seal. That's less than $20.
Can anyone tell me if this is a bad idea or if I have overlooked something obvious or if there is something else I should check before I do that. I don't have any experience with Kohler engines and my experience with vertical shaft engines in general is also limited so I'm well outside my comfort zone.
Please don't give me the "replace that engine with a Command or Briggs" or something like that. If I can fix this engine I want to do that, even if it only lasts another year or two, I'm into it so far for about two hours and twenty bucks in parts. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
