My Mower is dead!

[chrisvinky]

Mowing a customers yard yesterday, my Grasshopper with a 27 horse Kohler quit right in the middle of the yard. After hauling it to the shop, mechanics say it dropped the camshaft! ...at 850 hours!!! Rebuild...$1400 New motor...$2700

My brother-in-law who has rebuilt a few says he will help me for free...all I have to do is buy the parts. Anybody else have this happen and how much am I looking at?

[laman]

What does it mean to drop a camshaft. I never heard it put like that.

[Snyder's Lawn Inc]

Had a 22 hp Kohler the gear on the crank broke and went out of time and died and then the push rods all bent Mower was out of warranty Dealer said couldnt fix it Told me call Kohler see what they had to say This motor had 1,000 hrs on when it happen
So called told them the problem They said it shouldn t done that
they sent me a new crank and new push rods for free
I did the labor part

You might call Kohler see what they think never know you might get free parts

[piston slapper]

Chris....No way to know how much it cost till you open er up.
Is there any metal in the oil? If not, It may like Snyder's engine...broken crank gear.
Most crank gear problems only occur on Horizontal engines for some odd reason.
I've only seen it happen once on a verticle in 15 years.

[chrisvinky]

You guys were dead on! Crank gear has a crack in it which won't allow it to turn over. Everything else seems good. My question is, do I have to replace the whole crank or can I just press fit a new gear on?

I'm calling Kohler tomorrow too!!

[Snyder's Lawn Inc]

new crank I ask same thing

[Procut lawn expert]

yea this happen to me mine didn't just stop. it started out it would die if you got side ways on a hill it would die

[piston slapper]

Originally Posted by chrisvinky

You guys were dead on! Crank gear has a crack in it which won't allow it to turn over. Everything else seems good. My question is, do I have to replace the whole crank or can I just press fit a new gear on?

I'm calling Kohler tomorrow too!!

Best case scenario...crankshaft and camshaft and lifters..
Remove the heads and check the valves...sometimes they hit the pistons..
The gears get wear patterns in them and must be replaced as a set.
If you only replace the crank, the cam will likely break the gear again..

[Sharpcut 1]

Listen to Piston Slapper
I had a customer who refused to replace both on an Exmark, I signed off on the repair, less than 100 hours later it was back in the shop with broken crank gear. They are like a rear end. They wear in together. My customer ended up paying a lot more cause he would'nt listen!!

[gopedal]

Could my 18 hp vertical shaft Kohler have the same issue. I posted about it a little while ago and then started reading some of the threads. It starts out 18 hp Kohler, need some help.