Coffee, First of the New Year

Anyone else get that winter depression crap? Man, I've got it bad this year. Days get shorter, air gets frigid .. just wears on your soul.

Jesus Smitty, I have been feeling it worse and worse every year in Maine. I recognized it many years ago and it just got worse. I have to say, I have had zero, that is zero depression down here. Hard to get up because it gets light late, but staying up later on other end. Just really can feel the difference. Ya gotta get out of Mass. The whole NE drives ya ta drink!

Kevin

Oh I hear you 300% Kevin. I remember how I felt in AZ ... and it was NOTHING like I feel in MA. This place brings out the worst in me.

Someday ........ that's what keeps me going. Someday ....

SMITTY wrote:Oh I hear you 300% Kevin. I remember how I felt in AZ ... and it was NOTHING like I feel in MA. This place brings out the worst in me.

Someday ........ that's what keeps me going. Someday ....

I get a bit of that seasonal bummer myself Smitty. Cabin fever, call it what you will but some think it's a vitimin deficiency, lack of sunshine, too much time on my hands in winter, maybe all of the above but I notice that Spring and Fall seem to be the best seasons for me mood wise. For me, It's improved as I got older though. Also I don't hardly drink anymore either and maybe that has helped level it out too. As I get older I have really learned to appreciate life and not take for granted how fantastic it really is. I try and wake up every day thinking that it is going to be awesome and it usually is!

SMITTY wrote:Oh I hear you 300% Kevin. I remember how I felt in AZ ... and it was NOTHING like I feel in MA. This place brings out the worst in me.

Someday ........ that's what keeps me going. Someday ....

Trying to work in impossible working conditions would get anybody down. Can't you get some proper heat into your barn? A mechanic with your ability has to charge enough to at least cover good basic working conditions.

Alot of that is my fault. I have an oil furnace AND a coal stoker furnace sitting out there .. but haven't got around to hooking it up yet. There's still some oil left in the tank, so I've been saving that for the really cold days. Floor is dirt. Should've got that taken care of when I first moved in, but was broke. Then by the time I had the cash to do it, I filled the damn space with more cars, trucks, lawn equipment, mopeds, dirtbikes, ATV's and lawn equipment than you can shake a stick at. I'm disorganized because I'm impatient - I'm always in a hurry ... never have time to hook up the stove. The dirt floor really sucks, but the way I look at it, it's better than laying outside in the snow like I did for 10 years prior to owning this place. Can't have it all. Winter's the slow time, so not much work coming in now. Trying to get caught up on my own projects, and organize my barn a bit before I get slammed in the spring. Got to get organized!! That's my biggest problem.

Managed to get the tire machine working better than ever though. Ended up being a pneumatic piston that was BONE dry - not a spec of grease on it. I had to put a screwdriver through the end, and put my feet on the machine, and HANG on it ... and it STILL wouldn't move. No wonder the jaws moved so slow - it's a wonder they even moved at all! So I popped both pistons out, greased the everliving *censored* out of them, reinstalled, then removed, cleaned and greased the remaining 3 jaws. I also tried to epoxy the leaking PLASTIC foot valve to no avail. Can't find parts for this chinese thing anywhere ... but I don't have the money for that anyway. Globbed another load of epoxy on there before I went in. We'll see how that works tomorrow.

HAHAhahaha! Hey Smitty, there is a saying Downeast about the people being to busy working to make any money! Sounds like you fit right in. I understand the disorganized stuff. I have had to work very hard to not get overwhelmed with to many projects and stuff. To many hobbies, so little time.

Kevin

That's the truth! Always something to do. Yesterday I decided to rebuild the carb on my 79" Gilson snowblower. Thing is built like a tank compared to the new stuff. Anyways, the carbs been leaking fuel and it stinks up the barn so I bought a rebuild kit. Took about an hour and if I were to guess, it was that pin under the donut float that was causing the drip. It was running fine but I changed out the jets anyways since I had them. Fired right up after and a little adjustment it was running peachy.
Now I need to figure out why the governor doesn't seem to be working as well? It screams a bit more then it should for a big old L head briggs. I thought it was just an air powered governor under the pull starter shroud, but nope, it got an arm that is actuated by "something" in the front of the crankcase? Not sure what moves that arm?

SteveZee wrote:That's the truth! Always something to do. Yesterday I decided to rebuild the carb on my 79" Gilson snowblower. Thing is built like a tank compared to the new stuff. Anyways, the carbs been leaking fuel and it stinks up the barn so I bought a rebuild kit. Took about an hour and if I were to guess, it was that pin under the donut float that was causing the drip. It was running fine but I changed out the jets anyways since I had them. Fired right up after and a little adjustment it was running peachy.
Now I need to figure out why the governor doesn't seem to be working as well? It screams a bit more then it should for a big old L head briggs. I thought it was just an air powered governor under the pull starter shroud, but nope, it got an arm that is actuated by "something" in the front of the crankcase? Not sure what moves that arm?

That sounds just like my B & S 5hp on my homemade logsplitter, damb pin under float was not riding smooth and kept it to keep calling for gas gas gas, rebuild kit worked fine but then had to also buy a new gov. screw and greased up everything else and now she's running like a champ! lot to be said for these ole' briggs engines and how simple they are and how cheap and accessible parts are now if I could just get a welding machine id throw a 4way on this beast

@Coalkirk , You got me depressed by looking back at old photo's when we were 19 years young I commend for being able to continue visually seeing a 19 year old in front of you any tips on how to get girls to still view me like that? LOL

SZ, can you post a pix of that arm/gov set up--I'm gonna take one of my old JD blower set up--it's got a long thin spring that actuates something????

freetown fred wrote:SZ, can you post a pix of that arm/gov set up--I'm gonna take one of my old JD blower set up--it's got a long thin spring that actuates something????

Fred, I finally just bit the bullet and took it apart this morning. Sheesh what a complicated governor deal! You have to remove the front of the crankcase (after taking off any pulleys etc... and it's got a gear (on the inside of the crankcase) that the arm is on driven by the camshaft with little weights that fly out and cause it to accuate a plunger deal. It only moves like 1/2" at the most also. Got to make sure that the arm hasn't loosened on the shaft also or you have to realign it all.

It's really complex compared to the old air paddle jobbers that were under the shroud and powered by the flywheel. Some engineer spend allot of time on this thing! You have to have it though cause the motor will rev itself to death without a load on it at high throttle which of course you need moving snow.

In this day and age it is probably easy to do it electronically with a rev limiter on the ignition or whatever.

Here's a pix of the arm and shaft Fred

SteveZee wrote:......You have to remove the front of the crankcase (after taking off any pulleys etc... .. and it's got a gear (on the inside of the crankcase) that the arm is on driven by the camshaft with little weights that fly out and cause it to accuate a plunger deal. It only moves like 1/2" at the most also. ......

I was gonna tell you that, but you beat me to it.

Since you had the carb off, it probably just needed an adjustment. Very VERY rare for those flyweights to screw up inside. Those have been in use for over 50 years in all kinds of engines. Very simple & reliable design - I like that.

I usually just adjust the run speed on the fly by bending the arm until it sounds right. Takes all of 15 seconds.

Steve, when I read your post my first thought was that it might be running a little lean...or the throttle linkage got messed up. Like Smitty said, it is rare for the governor mechanism to get messed up.

A friend of mine used to repair small engines for a living, he said if you could go to the B&S factory and mic every engine component and pick the pieces that were dead-on spec, you would have one of the toughest and longest lasting engines ever made. Of course we can't do that, so we get whatever gets thrown together...

I just recently repaired my uncles 45 year old rototiller with a 5hp Briggs on it. Carb clean, points clean/adjustment, gov.adjustment, and a new recoil rope and she's running as good as new.

Thing sat outside uncovered for probably 5 springs too.

Don't have a clue if these are helpful--Freetown fix---take a big ass hammer to her the spring broke on mine so I just stretched it & re-hooked it--I'm not even sure if I hooked it back in the right place but it fixed the erratic running

SMITTY wrote:

SteveZee wrote:......You have to remove the front of the crankcase (after taking off any pulleys etc... .. and it's got a gear (on the inside of the crankcase) that the arm is on driven by the camshaft with little weights that fly out and cause it to accuate a plunger deal. It only moves like 1/2" at the most also. ......

I was gonna tell you that, but you beat me to it.

Since you had the carb off, it probably just needed an adjustment. Very VERY rare for those flyweights to screw up inside. Those have been in use for over 50 years in all kinds of engines. Very simple & reliable design - I like that.

I usually just adjust the run speed on the fly by bending the arm until it sounds right. Takes all of 15 seconds.

I was hoping you'd chime in Smitty! It does seem to be all there and working but the thing does seem to rev higher than it should. You're right though that the rod attached to the lever does have a bend in it and that may be what needs the adjusting/rebending. I ended up changing the jets out because I had em in the kit and used the new gaskets. Fired right up and a little tweeking on the main had it purring.
Rob, you may be right that it was on the lean side. The old main jet spring was getting weak so I'd have to blow snow with a stubby screwdriver in my pocket as it would start to load up a bit after 20 min or so. It always needed to go clockwise (lean) to get it back on song. One morning after this last big storm I was out there early at dawn and I could see the muffler glowing red inside and spitting a sparks here and there. Bit too lean that was
Seems ok now and it's not leaking, but we'll see when I use it again. I'd like to be able to run full bore and not have to reach for the throttle when I'm out of the snow.