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I've worked on a couple of Tecum****s, if you take really good care of them they're alright. I'll stick to my Briggs though. I've known how to start that thing, check the oil, add the gas since I was 4. I was strong enough to start it by myself on the first pull too.
Both my Tecumseh's need work. Briggs arent built like they used to be though.
I have had Tecumseh, Kohler and Briggs engines on various items over the years. I also have 2 Onan gensets. Of the ones I have currently, the Kohlers are the best built, both are full pressure lubrication, and the 15hp single has hydraulic lifters, no valve adjustments!
Tecumseh used to build a very rugged engine, their weakness was the magneto, it didn't have a real good spark at cranking speeds. Many are ball bearing cranks and iron sleeved.
Back when I worked in a lawn mower shop (when I was your age Matthew), we had Clinton, Briggs and Tecumseh engines. Clinton was the cheapest built, with Briggs second and Tecumseh was the high end.
Briggs big stuff in those days were the cast iron horizontal shaft engines, some of which the design dated back many years, Briggs was in the process of changing there designations from alpha series like B, N, ZZ and alpha numeric like 6, 8, 10, 6B, 6BH to the current all numeric, then started adding letters again.
FWIW, this apparently 1972 vintage Tecumseh runs like a clock, no smoke and the tractor has gobs of power for only 10hp. The 6 forward and 2 reverse gears help.
I have had Tecumseh, Kohler and Briggs engines on various items over the years. I also have 2 Onan gensets. Of the ones I have currently, the Kohlers are the best built, both are full pressure lubrication, and the 15hp single has hydraulic lifters, no valve adjustments!
Tecumseh used to build a very rugged engine, their weakness was the magneto, it didn't have a real good spark at cranking speeds. Many are ball bearing cranks and iron sleeved.
Back when I worked in a lawn mower shop (when I was your age Matthew), we had Clinton, Briggs and Tecumseh engines. Clinton was the cheapest built, with Briggs second and Tecumseh was the high end.
Briggs big stuff in those days were the cast iron horizontal shaft engines, some of which the design dated back many years, Briggs was in the process of changing there designations from alpha series like B, N, ZZ and alpha numeric like 6, 8, 10, 6B, 6BH to the current all numeric, then started adding letters again.
FWIW, this apparently 1972 vintage Tecumseh runs like a clock, no smoke and the tractor has gobs of power for only 10hp. The 6 forward and 2 reverse gears help.
My gripe with Tecumseh is their 1980's and newer engines to 2008 when they went under. The older stuff is good. You forgot Wisconsin engines as well. As far as I know now days all Kohlers are made in China, and they've been there for a long time. But what isn't?
In getting Rusty ready for the upcoming road trips I decided today was the day to fix his mirrors. The problem has been that the heads don't stay where they should be and no amount of being gentle with closing the door prevented them from moving. So I decided that I'd put the original mirrors off of Dad's truck on my red-headed step-child called Rusty. (Sure seems an appropo name.) All was well on the driver's side, but I'd forgotten that the head of the stud on the bottom mount on the passenger's side had snapped off at some point. And, a search of the attic determined that I had three sets of mirrors, all with the passenger-side lower mount's stud snapped off.
So today was the point in time to figure out how to repair the lower mounts. Here's what the stud looks like:
Here it is after center-drilling the stud, after which I tapped it 1/4-20:
And here it is with the repair almost finished. I used a stainless SHCS and lock washer, and a 5/16" flat washer that just slips over the .300" stud. But, I didn't have a stainless washer in that size so that'll have to wait a day or two.
Now I have mirrors that stay where they are supposed to be.
My gripe with Tecumseh is their 1980's and newer engines to 2008 when they went under. The older stuff is good. You forgot Wisconsin engines as well. As far as I know now days all Kohlers are made in China, and they've been there for a long time. But what isn't?
Have you ever seen and heard one of the Wisconsin V4 engines? They sound for all the world like a Ford flathead V8. Most of the ones I was familiar with had a crank starter and an impulse magneto. Just like a T-Model, you pulled up on the crank so it wouldn't break your arm if it kicked back on you. While you're on forgetting, how about Onan, Cushman and OMC most of those where usually twins, but Onan and OMC built singles also. The OMC engines where OHV aluminum blocks with sleeves, Cushman built L-head and OHV engines for scooters, golf carts and had one called a Mailster for the USPS. NNS used to have Cushman scooters with little pickup beds and 3 speed transmissions. The lab had two, one had golf cart gears, 15 mph WOT in 3rd, I never used 1st and rarely 2nd on that one. The other had Mailster gears, we were clocked one night at 45 mph going North in the yard. One of the lab guys had reground the cam and bypassed the governor, it also had dual straight pipes off the two cylinders. About once a month we'd get a call telling us to bring it in so they could check the exhaust, The stock system would be stuck back on, usually with one loose joint or bad gasket so the garage could find the problem and fix it. Then it was back to the duals.
Last edited by 85lebaront2; 08-27-2014 at 03:28 PM.
Reason: Additional wording added.
True, but the stud is a bit longer than the thickness of the arm even with the nylon washer between the mount and the arm. So I would have to trim the stud down a bit, although that's a piece of cake as I had the mount in the mill and cleaned the broken end up anyway. So, with all that said if this weren't Rusty I'd be going for a cleaner solution. But Rusty seems to look even better with manly solutions. Maybe more like Frankentruck?
08-26-2014, 12:24 AM
