Repair. Revive. Restore. Specializing in Cub Cadet and Lawn-Boy, dedicated to maintenance and preservation of all equipment. Small engine service videos without sound effects or music and with reduced loud noises and startles. Offering opinions and perspectives formed in decades of experience, untainted by sponsorships or paid promotions.
This is very good information. I myself have a 2185 that I bought new over 30 years ago. The engine is starting to smoke, so it is time for an overhaul. Who does your engine block machining?
Hah! Looking good. Amazing, I got my covers back on today and it was really a challenge with the motor on the tractor. Took some figuring but every single screw is where it should be. One screw underneath was really hard to get to so I soldered a piece of brass wire onto the end of the screw and used that to pull it up through the two panels and was able to get the screw started. Good info about checking the torque after a few cycles. I"ll check mine tomorrow. Also put two new clamps on new muffler I got. Funny how we are in the same orbit. Still can't believe how great it sounds. Peace Greg
It's an awful time trying to work with the lower bolts on the head shrouds with the engine in the frame. It's why we see so many of these shrouds mangled. Glad to hear you got it all figured out and nice trick on the screw! The head retorque on these flathead engines is critical to the longevity of the head gasket. You'd be surprised how much they move after a couple heat cycles. It is nice to hear that another old KT is being saved. So many people repower (and with good reason, don't get me wrong) with the Commands that we are seeing fewer and fewer of these old opposed twins.
Off course it pops off! Excellent work! Finally got a guy to face my valves and got them lapped and in. Mine popped off also. It sounds great . I'll put NOS muffler on tomorrow and cut my grass. You really gave me the confidence to do all the things I did. I would really like to get more info on the oil pressure gauge and installing that. I should be getting my garage started soon and will be able to get my workshop and tools set up that are in storage since my move. Then in the fall I'll pull the motor and address the pistons and the rings Do the seals just pull out and get replaced? I bought the ebay gasket kit too and it is somewhat iffy. Thanks for the great lessons. Have learned a lot. Peace, Greg
Thanks Greg. It was good to have you along for the ride. Glad to hear your work went well, too. Yes, the oil seals pull out of the bores like am other shaft seal. Nothing too tricky, just gotta be precise and careful not to gouge the aluminum. We will make sure to do a follow up on the oil pressure gauge install. The plan is to finish the engine work then go back to the tractor itself and continue filming a little of the whole process.
It will run a very long time with new rings. Everything doesn't need to be 100% perfect to run a long time. I put new rings in a lot of engines without boring them and they are some of my best engines without a lot of unnecessary expense of machine work, new pistons and ect. If people on here want it to be perfect, they should all donate the money for machine work and extra parts.
Thank you. There are multiple ways to approach a project like this - we went in thinking it was just a reseal. Making the leap to doing rings and pulling the jugs added significant time but not significant costs in parts, so it made sense. If the engine didn't have the old style pistons and rods, we would have gone for replacement pistons as well, but we would have had to change rods to match the new style pistons. All this is to say that we think the engine will run better than before with more compression and less oil consumption and no external oil leaks. This achieves the goal of the project, which is to revive the tractor to make it a solid daily driver. It's not a show piece or a full restoration. Approaching the project with common sense, knowing what you can get away with *not* doing is the important part.
The early Cyclops - 1340/1535/1860 etc have less aggressive changes in the caster angle and do not have as much of a swept-forward design. They also have the stock ride height spindles. So, they don't changes the geometry as much but they also allow all the attachments to remain functional without any changes. The super steer axles that have the greatest difference in geometry are the later ones - 1440/1641/1863 etc.
So where in the world did you find the condenser with the orange wires? I have never seen those before. Recently I found a OEM Kohler condenser and it was pretty $$$. My 682 Cubi Cadet KT17S had a single wire condenser rather than the 2 wire condenser like the diagram shows. Is there any real difference between the two condensers other than the number of wires? I have been having trouble with getting my ignition system to fire and I went to turn the ignition switch a few nights ago and it stuck on the crank position in which I had to really work the key to make it release. Do I have to take the fuel tank & bracket loose to get good access to the key switch from the inside? I played it safe and disconnected the battery cable because the switch was stuck in the “On Position”
I haven't checked condensor capacity between the two units, but they definitely look extremely similar, except for the double wire. The points are the same as the K singles. The orange wires, I'm puzzled about as well, I have no idea what manufacturer made them, and they were on the engine when I got it. I replaced the points, fixed the ends of the wiring, and left the condensor alone since it was running well before. I am curious, though. All the replacement condensers I see have the black leads. Easiest thing to do to access behind the dash is to pull the fuel tank. It takes a few minutes and is really not that big of a deal. I think the 82 Series are about the easiest of the vintage Cubs to work on.
@@SolunaGarage Did your Cub Cadet have a 5 wire plug that plugged into the ignition switch because my 682 Cub Cadet ignition switch has the wires plugged in individually on each terminal. The ignition switch has to be pretty old in which I suspect it the OEM ignition switch. That switch has turned several times since the early 1980s no doubt.
@@SolunaGarage Yeah, I am really curious about what I am about to find. I had entertained the thought of using one of the heavier duty ignition switches like the auto parts stores sell being that I wired my headlights up on a separate circuit and will probably leave the headlights alone being that they work really well. So that’s one wire that I won’t have to worry about. I may pull the mower deck off to open up a little more room underneath the tractor I actually have a OEM ignition switch that I bought for my 1710 Cub and maybe a switch from HD Switch from out of Florida in whom I have purchased bearings and other switches from and have been pretty satisfied with the quality.
Hello, I have 2 Cub Cadets and 1 Ford garden tractors with the KT17 engines and luckily all 3 engines are the Series 2 engines with the pressurized oil system. I am weighing maybe finding a different engine to install in my Cubs. How much difficulty did you have in getting the engine parts for your engine tear down and reassembly? Do you have a good source for engine parts that would be around for a good period of time? I do know that there are a lot of haters of the Kohler KT17 engines, But I always kept the engine oil changed and never really had any issues with my engines other than electrical problems with both of my Cubs.
Yeah there is a lot of hate, it started with the Series 1, which to be fair was a poor lubrication design. As the KT evolved and in its final iteration as the Magnum twin, the engines became known for reliability - with the exception of the governor gear falling into the case and causing overspeeding. For replacement parts, I go with iSaveTractors.com. Norman stocks the common parts like rods, pistons, and rings (though pistons and rods are the new design and do not interchange with the older KT engines).
They look great. Have you tried SeaFoam for carbon removal. It worked pretty good on my cylinder heads for the heavy carbon. Where are you sourcing the rings? Are you looking for 52 108 01? Thanks Greg
We are getting rings from iSaveTractors.com. Our mix in the ultrasonic tank is some amazing parts cleaner that works wonders for carbon. We also ran the engine for about 10 hours before the teardown with a pretty heavy dose of Marvel Mystery Oil in the fuel, which helped a little on that top ring groove. Haven't used Seafoam directly on the carbon before. Will give it a try 👌🏼
@@SolunaGarage Waiting for my valve spring compressor and lapping compound from Amazon. There's really no such thing as two day out in the country in Georgia. Got a name of guy out here that will do my valve seats right if the lapping doesn't get me to speck on the gaps. I did score an NOS muffler today on ebay at a great price. My head covers are all polished up and ready to go. Lot of fun learning. Your videos are a godsend.
Greg, Most likely we will not be replacing the pistons on this build. We usually source from iSaveTractors.com, but the standard bore pistons are discontinued for some reason, and we aren't really going as far as getting machine work done on this engine. Gonna cross fingers a hone will get out the scratches and that the pistons aren't too scuffed up. If the bores and pistons simply cannot be reused, we will bite the bullet and rebore/install new pistons, but we are going to try and avoid it for budget and timeline.
@@SolunaGarage He has a shop on Amazon and says they aren't made in China or Taiwan. His parts number for the rings is pretty close to my number in the parts manual and I think he offers a standard piston that might work. Can you just replace the rings without replacing the piston? Thanks
Just gonna see what it takes to hone out the compromised areas of the bore on cylinder #1. It will be the cylinder that doesn't fit the piston as well, but the gouges are only a thou or two. When I pulled the head on that cylinder I saw oil on the bottom of that bore, so I know it has consumed some oil on that jug.
I'm doom and gloom, always have been. Do yourself a favor and re-power that machine with a Command V-twin, even the smaller 77MM bore works excellent. Once you drop the excess 40lbs. off that front axle the machine is much better balanced and mowing is so much easier. You can pick up a complete 3000 series machine for $300, use the blue balls driveshaft (shortened) and an Amazon clutch for $90 bux. These engines do run hotter in the old metal machines because they need more air. I have 5 of those boat anchors sitting around my shop because they are simply antique, overweight, under-powered junk. Easy to see why they don't make heat or power because they only make 90PSI cranking pressure. Also be wary of Red Barn stuff, I bought a bunch and NONE of their crank seals have worked yet, they either spin in the crankcase or just plain leak, same with the pistons, buyer beware. Sorry! Make sure you get a machine with power steering, I'm in the process of converting a junk 1811 with steering from a 3000 series, I hope it works out for me.
You are of the popular opinion in the enthusiast community, for sure. Most people repower. We are actually developing a plug and play harness with starter solenoid control upgrade to assist with Command swaps for the KT17 and M18. The Commands are great engines, definitely don't disagree with that and the repower makes sense. However, we really enjoy these old tanks, and as more people repower there are less and less of these guys around. There's something unique and enjoyable about having the old thirsty opposed twins still chugging along.
Nice, so I have a red 782 that I am attempting to restore. I just assume the yellow ones were tied to Cub Cadet corporation at the time? Did that model have the KT 17?
Yup, CCC built this one. It was one of the last lines of production before they switched to the 1710/1711/1712 badging. It has the original KT17. Hour meter is inop, but I would guess 1000+ hours easily.
Why does it only have one hydraulic lever? I have the HDS 3205 and it has two levers. Do I have some weird version? I have only seen one other with two levers and its for sale on marketplace.
The 3000 Series came standard with one hydraulic circuit. You could add three more valves for a total of four circuits. The third valve would be located on the opposite fender (which required cutting the sheet metal). To find one with all four is rare.
