Fun with Roto-tillers

[sudsmaster]

I fixed my roto-tiller today.

It's an MTD (I think). Big and red and rear-tine. I've gotten a lot of use out of it in the past 9 years.

But yesterday it was acting strange. It would surge wildly at idle, and also at full throttle, with lots of popping. It's a briggs & stratton motor, 5 HP, that heretofore has been a real workhorse. So I was worried that I'd broken it, or it had burned a valve, or worse.

I found that if I gave it some choke, it ran smoother, but still not right.

So I pulled the carb and after much head scratching, zeroed in on the "Pulse-Jet Fuel Pump" as the culprit. This thing runs on engine vacuum, with a spring loaded diaphragm and little flapper valves that cause it to pump fuel, I guess in pulses.

Anyway, I was lucky to be able to find a replacement diaphragm and related gaskets at a local mower repair shop... and within about 20 minutes the machine was running perfectly. Well almost. It gave a big backfire when I shut it off suddenly, but that was probably from unburned fuel igniting after the spark was cut off. The only other problem is that I'm probably finished with the machine for the year, unless a nieghbor wants their back yard tilled or something like that.

Anyway, no matter what the object, be it washer or lawn mower, sometimes it's just soooo satisfying to fix a machine that suddenly acts up.

 

[petek]

Well I would never have thought roto-tillers would be of interest.. LOL When we bought this acreage 12 years ago we soon bought a 2nd hand Troy Bilt rear tine tiller and it has been a Godsend worth its weight in gold. We've planted hundreds of trees and bushes breaking up the sod with it. I have a HUGE vegetable garden because of it which is something I could never have managed without it. I'll never give it up even if our next house is only on a smaller plot. BTW I also got on of those mini Ryobi tillers, similar to the Mantis, it's also worth its weight in gold. I would highly recommend one of those to any avid gardener.

 

[sudsmaster]

I also have a small Ryobi roto tiller, but I've found it of quite limited utility. Perhaps that's due to the heavy clay soil here, or the fact that just about every spot is now planted with perennials so tilling small areas isn't happening anyway. I do use the big MTD (5 hp) to till the ever-shrinking vegetable beds (shrinking because all the fruit trees I planted got a lot bigger than I imagined).

I may wind up removing a few fruit trees, just so I can have a bigger vegetable garden. When I moved in, there wasn't a tree on the property. Now they're taking over! Of course, it's only 1/3 acre, not 12 acres. Next time I'll plant only dwarf citrus...

 

[gizmo]

How handy are you guys with small engines??

I have two devices, both powered by Briggs and Stratton Vanguard engines 6hp OHV horizontal shaft. The engines are Japanese made, I'm told assembled by Mitsubishi. One is a 240 volt generator for running power tools at the new house. The other is a 24 volt DC battery charger for the solar power at my current house. One motor is several years old, the other is one year old but the motors are identical.

Both have recently developed the same strange fault - they start easily as normal, but after a few minutes running they stall. They can be restarted immediately - yesterday one of them stalled and I was standing nearby, I pulled the rope straight away and it started with one pull. No choke, just pull the rope. This generally only happens once, then it runs fine till I shut it off.
I suspect the float or needle valve in the carburettor.
Any clues? Any other ideas?

Thanks

chris.

 

[goatfarmer]

Briggs Vanguard

Make sure the fuel filter is good,not plugged,and make sure the fuel tank is vented.Most use a small hole in the cap to vent the tank.

kennyGF

 

[sudsmaster]

Hard to say, Gizmo. If you can get hold of a service manual (which are generally available in mower repair shops and the like), perhaps that could shed some light on the problem. I've seen the Vanguard motors advertised (I think on larger riding mower and garden tractors) but have never used one. Is that a V-twin, OHC design?

Easy restarting a warm engine without choke isn't all that unusual. Although, my rototiller has always demanded full if momentary choke application to restart, even if the motor is hot.

Stalling of a running engine could be fuel starvation, or an electrical problem. Did you check the sparkplug? When it starts to stall, see if giving the motor more choke makes it run longer, or stall faster. A defective fuel pump could be delivering too much fuel, causing the carb to flood, causing a stall. If the application of choke makes it stall faster, then that could be the problem. There's also the fuel filter to check, as well as the air filter. Old gas can gum these up.

Good luck!