Some 314 Work

For some reason 314s have been showing up a lot lately.  I bought one that was delivered last Monday, 2 others I bought May 15 this year along with 4 decks, and dad's that was brought up here on March 14.  Dads is all spruced up and made into my new hill mower so I decided to start on the one I bought this week because it was already in the shop.  

The one bought this week is a 1996 50th anniversary tractor.  It had some very "creative" mechanic work done on it...  It ran and sounded great minus a little noise from under the flywheel cover, and the switch wouldn't shut it off.  The fuel bowl was leaking so I started there.  I looked the carb over and thought, well this can't be good so I took it off to get a better look.  You can see in the first few pics what was done.  Someone broke out the bottom of the carb prob because they stripped out the bolt for the bowl trying to stop the leak.  I keep new carbs around so it got a new one and the old one still had a lot of good parts on it so it got stripped down for parts.   All of this over a little bowl gasket that just needed to be replaced...

Next up was the switch not shutting off the engine.  I checked the switch and the switch ground was bad to the case so it was fixed with some solder to the case.  The switched worked after that but it still didn't fix it.  The plastic air diverter came with the tractor but was not on the coil, I was told it didn't fit.  Because of this it heated up pretty quick when running it after the carb was replaced so it was time to take a look under the cover.

I pulled the flywheel cover to see why the magneto wasn't being grounded and you can see in the pic the kill wire was disconnected for some reason...   The noise was someone took the coil off and didn't set the air gap so the coil frame was hitting the magnets in the flywheel as seen in the pics.  The backside of the coil was sanded down and as I would find out later, it had no spark...  I set the air gap to 0.014 (spec is between 0.012 and 0.016), put the cover back on and it was on to more testing.

Now everything was back to where it was before someone tried to "fix" it so I could now find the real problems.  Yea, this is normal around here lol.  



 

After putting everything back as it belonged and getting all of someones other "fixes" fixed I tried to start it and nothing happened, but all of the circuit board lights worked and the seat switch light was on telling me there was a problem there.  I jumped the switch and it started right up.  With the ground to the switch fixed it also shut right off.  So to summarize, the carb was good but just needed a bowl gasket before someone ruined it,  it wouldn't start because of the seat switch grounding and sending the kill to the magneto, and wouldn't shut off because of the bad ground connection at the switch.  Just 2 ground problems, one working when it shouldn't (bad seat switch), and one not working when it should (bad ground at the ignition switch).  And peeps want to know why I cost so much to fix little things after someone worked on it...   


As I said in the last post and say to peeps almost every day, as soon as I get everything back to where it was before someone tried to fix it, then I can find the real problems.  Yea, this is normal around here...  Of course this makes it cost a lot more than if I had it before someone else tried to fix it, but that's not because of me, or my problem.  I can't help it there aren't many mechanics that know what they're doing.  A carb bowl gasket, a jumper (or new seat switch) and a little solder, (or a new ignition switch) was all it really needed from the beginning.  

After all of that I ran it around the property for 15 mins wide open and it's now a sweet little tractor again.  Everything is good on it and works like it should, transmission is quiet and smooth, sheet metal is also all perfect with no rust at all.  It's getting steam cleaned next week and parted out, I need the motor for another project scheduled to work on soon.     

 

Crazy busy and another one from IN coming for a restore next week but getting a few things done around here.  I have to make room for the one coming next week and Jeremy's truck rolling chassis to do.   

I finished #2 of the 314s last week, one left to go.  The 2nd one I got going was another 314-8, the one that says Stowe's on it.  That one was pretty easy and done in one evening.  It had some melted wires and connector supplying the battery power to the switch.  I grabbed a used connector from the back and used the main power lead, then just transferred the old wiring + connectors to the used housing.  It also had a wire cut in two going to the circuit board main power so it was just reconnected and all the circuit board lights worked.  After that it fired right up and sounded great.  It's nice no one tried to fix it before so there was no mess to redo...  

I took it out like the last one and ran it around the property wide open for about 15  mins and it did fine and everything works as it should.  It will also be parted out, the sheet metal is perfect with no rust at all, transmission is smooth and quiet, the seat is surprisingly nice, and like the last one I need the motor off of this one for another customer project as well.  The hour meter works and it only has 206 hours on it so I guess it's not that surprising.  

2 down and one to go.   

 

The 3rd one is gonna be a bit more of a challenge.  I'll put up a few pics and have a lot more but the past 2 days have been crazy with peeps running in and out and I need to get outta here...  

 

Now on to #3.  At the start it wasn't getting fuel so I pulled the carb bowl and it looked new inside although the needle was stuck in the seat.  I put it back together and sprayed carb cleaner in it to see if it would start and I had some big backfires with flames coming out of the muffler.  That told me it was a valve or timing issue so I pulled the head and the last post shows what I found.  I pulled the front apart to get a look inside the lifter area and it looked like new in there too.  Next I blasted the old exhaust valve and it had some marks right where the spark plug electrode sits.  It seems someone put the wrong plug in it (way too long) and as soon as they went to start it the valve hit the plug and broke it.  I bet someone was sick after that...   

I've had a lot of Magnum heads off lately and all of them had blown head gaskets on the bottom side near the bolt with the engine puller bracket.  I'm thinking this may be a common problem.  Even after replacing a gasket and torquing it, then running it for 30 mins and allowing it too cool as it says in the Kohler manual that bolt tightens more than the rest.  I've been running them a 2nd time and letting it cool down and the only bolt that is not to spec is still that one bolt.  The 3rd run in it is still at spec and doesn't move, not sure what's up with that but I've made a note to torque all Kohler head bolts after a second cool down from now on just to be sure...     

I have a lot of NOS valves but then I thought I have a big container full of valves and over 100 blocks in the other garage so I dug the correct stainless valve out of my container in the back.  I also thought I should pull the intake valve and get a look at it while the front was apart.  I wasn't too bad but since I had to fit the exhaust valve I might as well lap the intake valve too.  

 

Valves are lapped in and installed, front cover is back on and everything has new gaskets.  Next up was the starter bendix that was stuck in the out position, and the fancy wiring job to extend the coil kill wire.  The bendix was easy, just a little penetrating fluid and some working and it snaps back like new.   I tugged on the coil kill wire and it came right out of the connector as usual.  Please don't use regular pliers to crimp things, it won't hold very well...  The factory crimp on the plug end looked terrible and I have the new correct terminals so I just made a complete new wire as the engine is being sold and I guarantee my work for life, only difference is it's yellow instead of white.  

It still has a fuel pump leak but I wanted to hear it run so it was all put back together and run around the property for 15 mins wide open like I usually do and everything is good.  Everything on this tractor works and is solid like the other 2 now.  It's really not normal but nice that there are 3 completely solid 314's here with no rust or dents now that everything on them works, including the circuit board lights.   

 

All 3 purr like a kitten and everything works on them.  They went outside yesterday.  3 more things off the list.