Save The Scag - It is Now Toast - Literally

[alldayrj]

Use a punch and a hammer
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[pjm123a]

alldayrj, thank you sir! Your hammer and punch method worked great. Now I also know why I kept that old brake rotor. Interesting to note that from the same caster one bearing was all dried out and fused to it's race. The other bearing was still nice and greased up. If the fused dried up one got that way from the heat of the fire it is quite interesting to note how uneven the effects of the heat were. Now to get new bearings in, I've heard that you should keep the old ones so you can put them against the new ones and beat on the old ones to drive the new ones in. Anybody ever tried this method or would this be the time to invest in a press and use it to get the new ones in?

[Procareope]

You can improvise plenty of ways to to pop those bearings in. A press may come in handy further down the road with this project and would certainly be preferred.

[White Gardens]

Originally Posted by pjm123a

Now to get new bearings in, I've heard that you should keep the old ones so you can put them against the new ones and beat on the old ones to drive the new ones in. Anybody ever tried this method or would this be the time to invest in a press and use it to get the new ones in?

All the time. Works like a charm. Using old races and sockets work also.

You can get a tapered bearing/race driver also, but generally aren't cheap.



..............

[pjm123a]

The sand blasting and priming of the frame is almost done. Will hopefully wrap up this phase of things over the weekend.

[pjm123a]

I have gotten around to completely dismantling the engine. As an engine it is a total loss with a hole burned in the block and will have to be replaced as part of the rebuild. All the external parts of the engine are all useless (carburetor, linkages, oil cooler, etc). Anything that is plastic or rubber simply no longer exists. The internal parts look to be OK (camshaft, crankshaft, pistons, etc). I am going to try and sell the internal parts. I have to assume that where the large hole is burned in the block has to be where the fire was the hottest and/or burned the longest. Perhaps this is at or near the origin of the fire and to a knowledgeable person might provide a clue as to how the fire started? Would love to hear some theories.

[Procareope]

We'll probably never know exactly what happened, but when the engine is installed on the mower, there is a sizable gap between the block and back the seat/frame right where the hole on your block is. Under that gap you have belts and idlers right there. Your wiring harness, and fuel lines, also travel through this gap. On top of that, this area is exposed, meaning leafs or debris can settle in this gap. Friction from belt sparked leaves/debris, which caught a fuel line and expanded from there? Speculation only of course.

[bls47303]

http://www.scag.com/recalls.html

[Richard Martin]

Originally Posted by bls47303

http://www.scag.com/recalls.html

That may have caused it but from the amount of damage, I don't know. A problem like that wouldn't take 7 years to manifest it's self.

It's probably time for me to remind everybody about an issue that almost every ZTR and most walkbehinds have. At 7 years on this Scag mower I'd have to venture an educated guess that this is what happened.

I've posted warnings about this particular part before. This is something that should actually be mentioned in big bold letters at the front of every owner's manual for every mower that uses this part, and it's a lot of mowers. The mods may want to sticky this, it's that important.

Scag and many other mowers use a fuel tank grommet where the fuel fitting passes through the side, bottom or where ever of the tank. These are rubber grommets and should be replaced periodically. They will get old and dry out. When they do that they crack and can leak fuel or just plainly fall out. Ferris uses the same grommets but they mount them high on the gas tank which causes a whole different issue but it's not a fuel leakage issue.

Even if this isn't why your mower leaked fuel this message should be seen by everybody so this is a good thread to post it in.

This is what the grommet looks like:



This is a typical installation using this grommet:



This tank actually has 2 of the grommets. One at the top and one at the bottom. Why it has 2 grommets isn't important for the topic of this thread.

If your mower uses these grommets you should replace them every 3 or 4 years. I have a bunch of equipment that uses these grommets, including a gas powered generator, and all of them have had the grommets replaced recently.

These grommets usually run under $5 a piece so it should never be an excuse not to replace them.

If you have an older mower with these bushings please replace them NOW.

[ed2hess]

Originally Posted by Richard Martin

That may have caused it but from the amount of damage, I don't know. A problem like that wouldn't take 7 years to manifest it's self.

It's probably time for me to remind everybody about an issue that almost every ZTR and most walkbehinds have. At 7 years on this Scag mower I'd have to venture an educated guess that this is what happened.

I've posted warnings about this particular part before. This is something that should actually be mentioned in big bold letters at the front of every owner's manual for every mower that uses this part, and it's a lot of mowers. The mods may want to sticky this, it's that important.

Scag and many other mowers use a fuel tank grommet where the fuel fitting passes through the side, bottom or where ever of the tank. These are rubber grommets and should be replaced periodically. They will get old and dry out. When they do that they crack and can leak fuel or just plainly fall out. Ferris uses the same grommets but they mount them high on the gas tank which causes a whole different issue but it's not a fuel leakage issue.

Even if this isn't why your mower leaked fuel this message should be seen by everybody so this is a good thread to post it in.

This is what the grommet looks like:



This is a typical installation using this grommet:



This tank actually has 2 of the grommets. One at the top and one at the bottom. Why it has 2 grommets isn't important for the topic of this thread.

If your mower uses these grommets you should replace them every 3 or 4 years. I have a bunch of equipment that uses these grommets, including a gas powered generator, and all of them have had the grommets replaced recently.

These grommets usually run under $5 a piece so it should never be an excuse not to replace them.

If you have an older mower with these bushings please replace them NOW.

When I brought our 12 year old 32" Scag in from storage the gas was streaming out from that fitting. I think it is a bad design. Is the recall for this or Kaw fuel filters?