By watching this video, you will see the fix to my surging motor. I believe this could be your issue if you have one of these courage motors on your mower.
I've got the same engine on a 10 yr old Troy Bilt 46" mower. Thanks for the video, mainly it's clear and your tips will help on the heat shield. I ordered a complete tune up kit with new carburetor and solenoid, all 3 carb gaskets, oil filter, spark plug, and air filter with foam insert for $48. Once it arrives I'll review this video and a couple others that had good images and info. Thanks again.
Thank you!!!!!! Rebuilt engine - repaired cracked engine case by head that all these engines have, and it surged. Now this vid is exactly what was wrong....torn gasket, My thanks
Excellent video! You definitly got me on the path to find the problem. The collar tighting the fuel hose to the outpout of the gas filter was loose. Air was coming in. Problem solved! Thanks again!
Good video. Your problem was not my problem but led me to my fix. My engine did not have plastic sleeve in intake plus my heat shield was cracked from outer edge to inside of gasket lip. New heat shield came with gasket set and new intake port sleeve. Runs like new, idles great. THANKS for leading me to fix.
Great video, was also having a problem with an SV601 3212. Carb no longer available. Got a chineesium, put on, still surges 😢 So I tried your solution, and was excited when I found a hole in the gasket. Installed new gasket, and... whallah! It DIDN'T help 😢 Tried the hidden screw thing, STILL surged. This mower I'm working on was previously touched by someone that couldn't spell "gas" if you gave him G&A. Things broken, missing, loose, etc. Nightmare. Anyway, I decided to try re setting the governor, and that was what it was. Great video though, appreciate you sharing your experiences, and maybe my experience will help someone eventually
My brothers mower has a 20 courage with the same carb design/setup. I ended up reseating the plastic piece in the intake, making replacement cork gaskets for all 3 and I used JB Weld on the head of that bolt into that heat shield. Now it can't slip back into the intake and damage the gasket again when putting the carb back on and there's no air leak issues around the bolt. It solved his problems, but like you I can't prove if it was the plastic piece or the gasket/bolt issue but I think it was the gasket/bolt because surging is generally caused by a lean condition. And an air leak from a damaged gasket fits that to a tee.
I needed the heat deflector gasket like that at the time I didn’t have one I made one out of card board till I got mine in the mail but it worked great!
When I throttle up my SV470 engine until that little cutout in the throttle lever where max power would be, my engine surges badly, almost to the point of shutting off. I have to lower the throttle back down about 1/4 inch below that little cutout to keep the engine at full speed, I may have to check on this gasket on mine. Thanks for the video!
hey great vid hate to say it , i had this same problem, same machine. also did Darrells gasket trick previously (late to the party ) 😂 had the serge , new gasket. 😃done thx👍
I’m quite sure that torn gasket was the reason for your engine surging. I recently chased the same Kohler Courage surging problem and after trying several things that didn’t help, it turned out that the engine was sucking air around old carb gaskets. I replaced all 3 gaskets on the carb setup and it ran beautifully! (I removed the loose, plastic intake flow port or whatever it’s called? It just rattled and had absolutely no affect on the engine running smoothly).
I agree with you. I also believe that the gasket was the reason behind my issues. Unfortunately I got the mower used and it needed much work and I don’t remember the condition of this gasket.
have this same surge problem on a sv590.... but do not have the plastic intake piece or its missing ... who at Kholer would think they would want a gasket to hold in the back of a bolt?
It seems that this was their intension but I am not even sure of that. They just had a big hole to cover. Sadly, it’s all about profit margins and not quality.
I have the exact same engine on my old bronco tractor and we took the deck off to just use it as a lawn tractor instead of a mower and it is surging and we took the carb off when we first got it and the gasket looked fine on it but we think it is the governor do you think you could help with the problem because I adjusted the governor and now it just goes wide open
Unless a spring breaks, the governor is usually the last thing to mess with. And as you found, they can be difficult to set once you start down that path. Since yours is running wide open you have may have made the adjustment incorrectly; you may have lost or stretched a spring; you may have moved a spring to a wrong hole. Unless you recorded or photographed the position of all the springs, good luck if you moved or lost one. If you did not touch the springs, you need to re-adjust the governor following the manufacturers instructions precisely. That should at least get you back where you started--responding to the throttle setting but surging. When you see the governor opening and closing the carb for no apparent reason (surging/hunting), it is usually responding to a fuel/air imbalance. Troubleshoot accordingly.
Op can you share the other videos you referenced? I have the exact same sv540 kohler courage which has a slightly different carb and setup than the larger models..which is all im finding videos for
Honestly I don’t remember any of the other videos. It has been a long time since I worked on this mower and figured out the fix for my specific engine. Sorry! I would just search “kohler surging” and keep going through the videos that have engines similar to sv540.
Does anybody have a pic or video of how the linkage rods from carburetor connect to the control levers/mechanism? This would be where the rods connect to controls where throttle cable is connected. Thx
This is exactly what I'm looking for also, my 18hp courage is exactly like this, but the engine is on low idle while the lever is at full throttle. Need to find where to make an adjustment before putting hands on it and making it worse.
My gasket is torn. Going to go get the part tomorrow. One of my engine problems is that the exhaust pipe is glowing red. Mower seems to stall randomly. Wondering if it is related to the gasket...and did you notice glowing exhaust and stalling? I only noticed the glowing exhaust cause I mowed near dusk.
Same issue with the surging and the glowing muffler/exhaust pipe on my brothers mower. We replaced the muffler thinking it might have restricted flow from carbon buildup and that seemed like it helped a little with the glowing but not a 100% fix. I just fixed the surging problem doing the gasket replace and reseating the plastic piece that's inside the intake. I also glued that bolt head in place on the heat shield with JB Weld so it won't damage the gasket again. I'll have to check the exhaust when it gets dark and see if that fixed the hot exhaust problem as well.
Was it surging while mowing mine only seems to start surging after about 5 minutes of mowing but I can cut blades off and it will eventually straighten back out
I took it all apart this afternoon and I had a peace of plastic that could see in the fuel line on bottom of the tank got it cleaned out and worked great after that.
You can make a gasket with a cereal box or similar if you are in a hurry. That's what I normally do instead of waiting on a gasket unless I need to wait on another part. Just make an impression cut it out and your going the same day.
@Bruce Rehberg Not sure what you're trying to say but pretty sure you don't know what youre trying to say either.. All intake gaskets are on the intake! If makes a seal as a gasket which it does if you can work decently with your hands and have common sense it will not get easily sucked into this flow of pressure you speak of, I can on guess your trying to say the intake. It holds back the external high pressure from the intakes low pressure. Your more than welcome to purchase a gasket opposed to making one but you would probably be better served just taking your engine in to a professional repair.
@@micahap1559 lol … I know more than you can imagine as I’m looking at one. This particular gasket is directly on the intake with a large portion of it “unsupported” by any intake metal backing … your cereal box method would likely have unsupported portions of the gasket sucked into the intake hole if wet with fuel .. this gasket is different and depends on the entire gasket supported and unsupported to not be pulled off the plastic guide… the gasket even holds a bolt on the other side when removed so go figure.. go look at this intake/gasket before you tell people they don’t know what they are talking about … lol.. it is just strange makes no sense, not common has an area of its mass not touching any metal .. also certain models of this engine have a metal carb heat shields with the plastic some don’t …
@@brucer1220 SMH Wow! You don't understand what a gasket is? I'm running a paper gasket cut from a box on my personal. The one you order from Kohler is also paper but doesn't look like a piece out of a box. It works fine. A gasket doesn't support anything. You should at minimum admit to yourself when you don't know something so you may have the ability to learn and not create absurd situations as this!
Any air intake leak can cause surging. You might want to consider keeping the intake area cleaner than what you shown in the video. Even a micro piece of dirt that gets inside a carb orifice can cause trouble.
