The church bought an almost new, very lightly used consumer grade
"bolens" lawn tractor a month or so back. It looked to be in VERY nice
shape, ran well, and the price was right. On Friday I got a call from
the older gentleman who does the lawn mowing, saying the tractor had
lost power and he just barely got it back in the shed. It has a B&S
"Powermore" 500cc 13.5 HP OHV single engine. When I got there this
afternoon to check it out it would not turn over. When I pulled the
plug it cranked OK but even then the battery voltage dropped to about
9 volts. I took the battery to the battery shop to have it checked and
the guy said it was a 135CCA battery, usually used on 5HP tractors,
and only tested at about 95cca. I bought a new "east penn" 350cca
battery for $70 including tax and gave it a try. Still didn't crank,
(I eventually did get it to make one full revolution and the engine
started) but the voltage didn't drop as far. When it started it hardly
had any power at all so I popped off the rocker cover to check valve
clearance and found the one rocker stud (the bottom one) backed out
almost 1/4" (and the thead is only about 7/16 inch long) and the
adjuster nut was loose on the stud.

I cleaned it up and Loc-Tited the stud into the head, re-adjusted the
clearance and tightened the little Torx jam-screw in the end of the
adjuster nut and it spun over perfectly. Buttoned it up and it's
running like new. Those darn engines are so noisy you can't even
begin to hear a loose valve adjustment.

Pretty crappy assembly to have the rocker stud come loose before the
muffler is even discoloured!!

On 07/13/2016 7:01 PM, wrote:
....

Pretty crappy assembly to have the rocker stud come loose before the
muffler is even discoloured!!

I think Briggs has gone to just above the Chinese Harbor Freight imports
and maybe not that...

I've the low-end consumer Deere ZTR w/ the 18.5 B&S and it had carb
"issues" the first month...fortunately, the local Deere tech knew of it
and had already planned on replacing it and had the new one on hand
before I even brought it in. He'd done that 'cuz there were so many
Deere was trying to shorten the warranty period and he wanted to be sure
I got covered as he was sure it was going to happen...

I'll ensure never have another B&S anything...

--

This is just another example of the fast buck boys buying fine old
companies and just relying on the name. Think Stanley etc.
CP

On Wed, 13 Jul 2016 18:58:27 -0700, MOP CAP wrote:

This is just another example of the fast buck boys buying fine old
companies and just relying on the name. Think Stanley etc.
CP
Same thing with the BOLENS name. Used to be top notch, heavy duty
equipment. Now it's "bottom drawer" MTD crap.

"dpb" wrote in message
...
On 07/13/2016 7:01 PM, wrote:
...

Pretty crappy assembly to have the rocker stud come loose before
the
muffler is even discoloured!!

I think Briggs has gone to just above the Chinese Harbor Freight
imports and maybe not that...

I've the low-end consumer Deere ZTR w/ the 18.5 B&S and it had carb
"issues" the first month...fortunately, the local Deere tech knew of
it and had already planned on replacing it and had the new one on
hand before I even brought it in. He'd done that 'cuz there were so
many Deere was trying to shorten the warranty period and he wanted
to be sure I got covered as he was sure it was going to happen...

I'll ensure never have another B&S anything...

I bought an HF Predator 212cc 6.5HP engine after seeing a neighbor's
and reading mainly good reviews on it. It's made better than it has to
be, perhaps because it's a Honda copy. It seems the kart racers can
get over 25HP out of it, 10HP without much effort.
http://www.arcracing.com/predator-212/

The new Tecumseh OHH55 engine on an old log splitter I bought cheap
was DOA from the factory, though easy to fix. Both engines have the
same mounting dimensions but the Predator's muffler size can hinder
some applications.

--jsw

On 7/13/2016 10:55 PM, wrote:
On Wed, 13 Jul 2016 18:58:27 -0700, MOP CAP wrote:

This is just another example of the fast buck boys buying fine old
companies and just relying on the name. Think Stanley etc.
CP
Same thing with the BOLENS name. Used to be top notch, heavy duty
equipment. Now it's "bottom drawer" MTD crap.


So if Briggs, Bolens, MTD, Tecumseh, (may have missed one) are all crap.
What is left that is good??

On Wed, 13 Jul 2016 18:58:27 -0700, MOP CAP wrote:

This is just another example of the fast buck boys buying fine old
companies and just relying on the name. Think Stanley etc.
CP

Unfortunately..I agree.


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On Thu, 14 Jul 2016 07:07:03 -0400, ABLE1 wrote:

On 7/13/2016 10:55 PM, wrote:
On Wed, 13 Jul 2016 18:58:27 -0700, MOP CAP wrote:

This is just another example of the fast buck boys buying fine old
companies and just relying on the name. Think Stanley etc.
CP
Same thing with the BOLENS name. Used to be top notch, heavy duty
equipment. Now it's "bottom drawer" MTD crap.


So if Briggs, Bolens, MTD, Tecumseh, (may have missed one) are all crap.
What is left that is good??
Well, Tecumseh is gone, so rule that one out.

Honda (their "good stuff") and Yamaha and (diesel only) Kubota and
Yanmar, as well as Kawasaki are all pretty good. The pro ceries B&S
are still reasonable but the consumer grade stuff is pretty
questionable.

On 07/14/2016 11:35 AM, wrote:
....

Honda (their "good stuff") and Yamaha and (diesel only) Kubota and
Yanmar, as well as Kawasaki are all pretty good. The pro ceries B&S
are still reasonable but the consumer grade stuff is pretty
questionable.

I've nothing but praise for the Kawasaki small 4-cycle gas engines...and
the Yanmar diesel in the JD utility tractor is top-notch as well.

I'm not sure whose engines Kubota uses??

--

On Thu, 14 Jul 2016 07:07:03 -0400, ABLE1 wrote:

On 7/13/2016 10:55 PM, wrote:
On Wed, 13 Jul 2016 18:58:27 -0700, MOP CAP wrote:

This is just another example of the fast buck boys buying fine old
companies and just relying on the name. Think Stanley etc.
CP
Same thing with the BOLENS name. Used to be top notch, heavy duty
equipment. Now it's "bottom drawer" MTD crap.


So if Briggs, Bolens, MTD, Tecumseh, (may have missed one) are all crap.
What is left that is good??

Kohler? Subaru (robin)?

My old Tecumseh was smoking for the first 5 minutes yesterday when I
started it to mow the lawn. It usually just had a puff and was clear
from then on. I checked the oil and it was a quart down. Today, it
started and sent up a large cloud, but cleared up pretty quickly, but
it's still smoking a small amount after running for a minute. Damned
if it doesn't seem like an overhaul is in order soon. sigh I think
the old Murray mower is about 20 years old now. I got it in trade for
some work, and was surprised that it matched the gold of my Tundra.
Color coordinated mower and truck. Wheee!

--
The ultimate result of shielding men from folly
is to fill the world with fools.
-- Herbert Spencer

On Thu, 14 Jul 2016 14:13:55 -0500, dpb wrote:

On 07/14/2016 11:35 AM, wrote:
...

Honda (their "good stuff") and Yamaha and (diesel only) Kubota and
Yanmar, as well as Kawasaki are all pretty good. The pro ceries B&S
are still reasonable but the consumer grade stuff is pretty
questionable.

I've nothing but praise for the Kawasaki small 4-cycle gas engines...and
the Yanmar diesel in the JD utility tractor is top-notch as well.

I'm not sure whose engines Kubota uses??
Not sure who makes their gasoline engines. _ so I checked - they build
their own gasoline engines too - - -

We have a John Deer X series my wife drives. It is sold only by Deer.
The other ones are foreign and the X is designed and for the most made
up north.

One thing I noticed on a shipment yesterday on my Solar array - the
metal poles - ground mount - were made in Viet Nam.

Nothing like scrap metal everywhere.
Martin

On 7/14/2016 11:35 AM, wrote:
On Thu, 14 Jul 2016 07:07:03 -0400, ABLE1 wrote:

On 7/13/2016 10:55 PM, wrote:
On Wed, 13 Jul 2016 18:58:27 -0700, MOP CAP wrote:

This is just another example of the fast buck boys buying fine old
companies and just relying on the name. Think Stanley etc.
CP
Same thing with the BOLENS name. Used to be top notch, heavy duty
equipment. Now it's "bottom drawer" MTD crap.


So if Briggs, Bolens, MTD, Tecumseh, (may have missed one) are all crap.
What is left that is good??
Well, Tecumseh is gone, so rule that one out.

Honda (their "good stuff") and Yamaha and (diesel only) Kubota and
Yanmar, as well as Kawasaki are all pretty good. The pro ceries B&S
are still reasonable but the consumer grade stuff is pretty
questionable.