Small engine replacement

[JRLesan]

Have a Tecumseh VLV engine on a walk behind string trimmer that is 25 years old and not easy to start. Would like to replace it rather than rebuild as rebuilding is not really practical with parts costing what they do. Where do I look for an interchange list between manufacturers or does such a list even exist???

[Buzz Krumhunger]

It seems to me I’ve seen a list of shaft specs and mounting hole spacing on Northern Tool’s website. You’ll have to measure what you have and figure out what one will work best.

From what I remember, replacement engines were high priced enough to make me decide to just replace the old mower with a new one.

It might be worthwhile to further investigate repairing the old engine-maybe a new carb would fix your starting issue.

[SeabeeMan]

I'm with Buzz. If you can find a fairly cheap knock off carb on ebay for that unit, I've had very good luck bringing back engines in that manner. If not, you can sometimes get good results just unbolting the carb and dropping it in a can of carb cleaner for a few days.

That said, I've been a big fan of Harbor Freight's Predator engines. I've repowered several pieces of equipment with them, including the 22hp in a large frame Simplicity garden tractor. That now has a few hundred hours on it constant snowblowing, plowing, rototilling, and mowing in all seasons and I've been very impressed. I've used their smaller engines as well with similar results.

Match the shaft size and you can usually just drill new mounting holes or use a plate if it won't change a critical placement.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I've re-powered a Snapper push mower with a Harbor freight predator ($105) ...it bolted right up.
you probably need to remove the motor and investigate comparability.
Also, do a youtube search, lots of guys like us swapping motors...and some of us make videos to brag about it, maybe someone has re-powered your brand of walk-behind trimmer already?

[skrapyard628]

+1 on the ebay/amazon replacement carb. About 2 months ago I revived a 1989 craftsman snowblower with a tecumseh motor that my neighbor was throwing away by replacing the carb with a $17 one I found on amazon.

The new carb doesnt have the fuel adjustment screw on the bottom of the fuel bowl like the old one did. Which worried me for a minute. But once I fired it up and adjusted the governor linkage properly it runs and idles like a champ.

[farmbif]

check out small engine warehouse

[Nobade]

Another vote for predator engines. The Briggs on my log splitter took a hit that smashed the gas tank and broke the intake manifold. It was cheaper to replace the whole thing than fix it, and now I have a new engine and more power. Other than needing to adjust the valves before starting it, everything works great.

[jsizemore]

http://www.smallenginewarehouse.com/

[Rick Hodges]

I got a brand new chicom replacement carb off Ebay for my old Tecumseh 2 3/4 hp 2 stage snow blower. It was $10.37 to my door, cant even buy a rebuild kit for less than $8. It bolted right on, adapted the choke lever to fit the application and it has been running like a top. The original carb was made in Wisconsin by a company that doesn't even exist anymore. Except for the name the castings look identical.

[JRLesan]

First off, Tecumseh has been out of small engine business for 12+ years which is not good. Secondly, I had to replace ignition module this spring which allowed engine to start but not easily. Also found an OEM carb kit which, on the Vector engine. is a bowl, float and jet assembly. Once I get the engine to start (which only requires a couple of pulls on the starter cord) the primer bulb needs to be depressed every couple of seconds to keep the engine running. Once warmed up. it runs OK but with an occasional (every 10 or 15 seconds) miss which leads me to believe a possible exhaust valve issue. Don't really want to mess with valves as I sold my valve grinding equipment several years back. The VLV engine was heavy duty in its day but 25 years is old for a 90's vintage small engine. Would really like to find a direct replacement without spending more on the old VLV.

[hc18flyer]

Check out 'Small Engine Distributers, KC, MO', we used to get replacement motors there. It will take some searching for info on your part? Tom

[oldred]

Another vote for the Predator engines from Harbor Freight! These things have proven to be extremely tough for me and I use them hard. I have everything from the 6 1/2 hp (2, one on a mower the other on a string trimmer) to the 13 HP that replaced a worn out Kholer in a Cub Cadet to one of the 26HP V-twins in a Zero-Turn mower. Next year I plan to replace the Well worn but faithful old Briggs in my tiller and it will be a predator, nothing comes close to these things for the price!

As far as fit engines of all makes in a given HP will use industry standard mounting holes so your biggest concern is the shaft diameter but even that is rarely a problem, measure the shaft and then check the specs on the Hf website and I bet it will fit if it's the same HP class. Things like throttle cables,etc may need slight alterations but you just can't beat these engines!

[Ozark mike]

For those that like British drugs could just go the whole nine yards and go this route:mrgreen:

https://youtu.be/FK2qK-NCQH8

[higgins]

I used to tinker with Craftsman mowers with Tecumseh engines of about the vintage you describe. The Craftsman carburetor was amazingly simple; that's why I could work on them - I am not a shade tree mechanic. Since you have nothing to lose take off the carb, remove the bowl, and spray every hole and passage, no matter how small, with carb cleaner then clear with a small copper wire or pipe cleaner. Some of the fuel passages are surprisingly small. I've done this with a Craftsman riding mower my BIL gave me that no longer ran and several Craftsman push mowers with Tecumseh engines others had discarded. Usually that's all it took to get them going, even without replacing the mounting gasket. If your trimmer isn't a Craftsman it might still have the same carburetor arrangement.

[shaune509]

I've got a Tecumseh on a Troy tiller, 25+ years old. Always has been a hard cold start to wear you need to use starting fluid, but once its running it will restart on single pull half throttle been that way since Gmpa got it new. May have 300 hrs of total run time since new.
Shaune509