On Thu, 6 Nov 2008 14:55:16 -0600, "sal" wrote:
"stryped" wrote...

I have an old troy bilt tiller about 1981, that broke a rod. It is the
HH60 engine. I have chaecked everywhere and no replacement rod is
available. It is discontinued. I believe it is a 6 horse engine.

I am wanting to get it running before next spring cheaply. I have a
new Harbor Freight store that opened up and has a 6.5 horse engine for
sale for 139.99. Can anyone help me determine if it will work? I think
there is a similar engine online at their website.

I belive my shaft is 3/4 inch and 2 5/16 long. But the literature says
I think (not sure) it is a 2 9/16 bolt pattern. I cant seem to
determine that. WOudl it be hard to get that thing to work?

Also, on a tiller, is it possible to use the engines with the throttle
control on the engine?

Don't fool around with that old engine pick up an small Honda or equivalent
and adapt it to your tiller . You can always find something to adapt the
sprocket to tiller drive.

I have to agree with Sal. If you aren't ready to tackle a total
rebuild of your old engine - including sleeving the cylinder if the
busted off rod made a mess of things inside, and deal with going
through the carb, and the ignition (magneto, most likely) and all, get
a fresh engine.

But the Harbor Freight ones worry me like any no-name Chiwanese
engine, you'll go through all the trouble of adapting it and it blows
up three hours later. Honda engines are expensive in comparison, but
it'll probably outlive you.

The things to watch for are the output shaft size, of course that
can be solved by buying new or reworking the output clutch/pulley/
sprocket to the right size hole.

You also need to match the speed range - there are engines with a
6:1 gear reducer on the output of the engine, but it's rather obvious.
They are usually on cement mixers so you only need a small belt drive
to the pinion drive gear.

You could go with a small Hatz Diesel, but they usually run slower
than the average 3,600 RPM of a small gas.

For generators you need a fairly precise constant-speed governor and
a tapered output shaft for direct coupling the generator head, for
other uses a plain air-vane governor works to hold it fairly constant
once you set a speed.

The way the remote throttle controls hook up have to work with the
new engine, and it physically has to fit in the same space including
the fuel tank and exhaust system - you can modify them to fit, but now
it's getting complicated.

Electric start is great - but now you have to find a place to mount
the battery box, and probably fabricate some brackets...

-- Bruce --