Just got this from my neighbor after it caught on fire. He put out the fire quickly and there is very little damage from the fire itself. Been cleaning it up with a pressure washer and super clean and It was worse than my bobcat, the whole underneath was covered with dirty oil, dirt and bits of grass everywhere. bailing wire holding deck mechanism and generally never given any attention. With the deck off and cleaned, all the spindles spin freely and no play, idlers also spin free and one has just a bit of noise. Seat is coming off the base and I have to assume that the engine leaks oil. Seat back was loose from the base but the seat itself has not tears. Has a hydro gear 331` 3000 hydrostatic which will need some love as it will slowly move without the bypass rod pulled although very slowly. My deere with a K46 will not move period unless you pull the bypass rod. Anyway the hood is painted so I have no idea what model this is. the tractor # is 917 - 276240 and the engine is a 25hp kholer pro CV730s. It has a 54" deck. Has anyone here worked on a hydro gear 331 3000?
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just got a craftsman garden tractor and need help with model
ole4
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Looks like a motor seal was leaking. The HG 3000 series was a pretty good unit. I did warranty evaluation at their plant in Sullivan IL for about a year. Sometimes I would torture test them on the test stand. If I recall correctly the pump/motor center section is aluminum and can become what we called smeared. Might be able to resurface center section and eliminate oil leaking through transaxle. The Piston blocks are made from compressed metal and are lapped at the factory to be completely smooth. Thrust bearings on the pump/motor are common fail points. Also check input seal and bearing.
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Agree with T.Cruit, bottom end seal leaking for sure. You should check that out and see if it's from that or a sloppy oil change. Sometimes people leave oil like that down there cause they just don't care. Oil drain valve could be leaking to where it meets the motor or where the rubber meets the metal part of the valve. Either way keep an eye on that and see what needs to be done. Don't want to lose a good motor over running it out of oil. Almost did that on a Command V-Twin once. Luckily I had hydraulic lifers on it, cause I heard them before it threw a rod out the side. They were very loud and noticeable, I'd assume yours would do the same if in the same situation. Mine was a terd bucket that burned oil so much that it eventually did that. Didn't even have a single leak, just burned it all. Keep good oil changes with quality oil going and you won't be in that situation.
When I got it it was way overfilled with oil? My neighbor who gave it to me said he never added oil. It has a little brass valve that you open to drain it and it is right near the clutch and the in between the belt guide/idler plate. It was not tight and may have been the source of the leak. I'm sure there was gas in the oil. Looking at the PTO seal it does not appear to be leaking as there was brown dirt there not the oily mess on the rest of the tractor and no oil on the top drive pulley. If it was not the drain leaking then I may have a bad sump gasket. I plan to remove the motor today then finish cleaning the frame. I am not sure if I will take apart the engine or not but will remove rockers and do a leakdown test to see how it is sealed up.
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I'd say just leave the engine be before taking it apart and find out if you really need to replace something before you go pulling it apart.
Was not able to drain and refill Hydro Gear hydrostatic drive as it was too windy today. Received my new drag link and some of the new steering bushings today as well as the ball bearings for the front wheels. Replaced the steel bushes with the bearings and removed the engine from the chassis. The engine looks to have been disassembled in its past and has the sump put on with silicone RTV which is squishing out in spots. Also a question for you folks. The clutch holder which is also the belt guide is half worn away from I guess the pressure of the clutch driving the deck and vibration. Do you think it is okay just to weld up the groove. I am attaching some pics of the wear as well as the RTV on the
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After watching some youtube videos on these kohler command engines it appears they have sump gasket issues and have a replacement dowel for the oil filter side along with the new gasket. Does anyone have a good place to get genuine kohler parts?
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With your dowel issue, I'd just replace it if it were me but if you can weld, go for it. As for the engine, the gasket that has been put on does not appear to have been put on in the best manner possible. It could be that it's leaking, but it's one of those things where you should still run it and see. You don't want to go fixing things that don't need it unless you're me because apparently that's all I do. Best place to get good Kohler parts would be Jack's Small Engines if you need parts. They usually have the best deals on gaskets, seals, o-rings, and such, but for some things, I'd recommend some comparative shopping. The parts page for your engine is here on Jack's
Kohler CV730-0029 EHP/SEARS 23.5 HP (17.5 kW) Parts Diagrams
Kohler CV730-0029 EHP/SEARS 23.5 HP (17.5 kW) Exploded View parts lookup by model. Complete exploded views of all the major manufacturers. It is EASY and FREE
www.jackssmallengines.com
Kohler CV730-0029 Command Pro Twin Engine OEM Replacement Parts From eReplacementParts.com
Shop OEM replacement parts by symptoms or model diagrams for your Kohler CV730-0029 Command Pro Twin Engine!
www.ereplacementparts.com
Thank you for all those links. The parts catalog does show a sump gasket and o-ring but not the improved dowel locator. I will replay the Taryll youtube video as he showed the kohlet part number. It may be my spec 029 version already has the improved dowel. AYOP123 sounds like I am a lot like you, I plan to do a leakdown and it it is good I may leave well enough alone but I doubt it. I am going to wait for all my other parts to arrive and fix everything else so I can free up my workbench full of the dissasembled mower then decide if I need to open it up. Here is the gasket shown on jacks
Kohler 2404166S Oil Pan Gasket Kit - Jacks Small Engines
Kohler 2404166S Oil Pan Gasket Kit - Jacks Small Engines
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Oh well I must be an idiot. On my CV624-65578, we didn't get oil pan gaskets. It's a command like yours, just a small block, but we didn't get gaskets like you did. Should've seen that in your diagram. We also didn't get the updated head gaskets that were released for your CV730 later on down the line. No fair...
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You’re going to do all that to this motor? Have fun! Gotta love a good project!
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1,960 Posts
Ole4,
Here is the video series on my GT5000. They are fantastic machines, well deserving of the effort you are putting in. The broken spindle bolts are par for the course. Every last single one of mine broke, but at least the replacements came with grease zerks.
Here is the video series on my GT5000. They are fantastic machines, well deserving of the effort you are putting in. The broken spindle bolts are par for the course. Every last single one of mine broke, but at least the replacements came with grease zerks.
Great Video! Got a lot of the front end parts in yesterday. Spent the whole day installing the steering shaft and sector with the new bushings, also installed the new drag link and now there is zero slop in the steering. Added a oil pressure gauge and tach/hourmeter. Installed a new spindle, blades and belt. Deck is ready to reinstall. Drained the Hydro gear trans and the oil looked clear coming out but when the container was full it definitely had a metallic sheen to it. Going to refill with mobil 15W50 motor oil. I had one heck of a time getting the new bronze bush in the hole in the steering plate. After about an hour of c clamps hammer and a cutoff steel bar I had it all the way in. Steering is now play free! I need to find the correct gasket kit for it. Online it looks like kit 24755294s but that one has gaskets for the Niki two barrel carb and it also says horizontal. If anyone knows the correct gasket set for a CV730S Spec 29 let me know. Thanks for all the help you guys have been providing. Next steps are to see if I can tell where engine is leaking and also do a leakdown test.
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Great job saving her. Like I said, well worth the effort. Make sure you check/replace the tiny seal up front on the governor shaft. Mine was putting out a substantial amount of oil through there and it instantly hits the exhaust and burns off.
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21,248 Posts
I'm late to this party, but you're making great progress! Every minute you spend on this tractor will be rewarded, they really are beasts!
Mike
Any chance you can post links to part numbers, pics, videos, instructional threads, etc. for these mods???
Mike
so looking at the gasket sets most of them on ebay and amazon are kohler and vary in price from 90 bucks to 160. The latest part number that supersedes the older ones does not have a sump gasket and I suspect that maybe they started recomending to use RTV. Anyway I found a complete gasket set with the sump gasked and newer wider head gaskets for 30 bucks on ebay. After I ordered it I realized it was for a CH730s which I think is the horizontal motor. I am hoping most of the gaskets and seals are the same. Is that the only difference between the CH series and CV series? One is horizontal and the other vertical?
I wound up welding up the clutch holder and it filled up pretty good.
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I wound up welding up the clutch holder and it filled up pretty good.
I performed a leakdown test yesterday and found one cylinder with 3% leakage which is very good but the other was around 14% leakage and air was coming from mostly the crankcase and a tiny bit out the exhaust. By looking around the head I could see it has the new style head gasket but I may pull the one head to check for any gasket leaks and be able to inspect and measure the bore.
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Hmm. If it is coming out of the exhaust, (and I'm assuming it has hydraulic lifers so there shouldn't be error in valve adjustment) then you could have a sealing problem with that exhaust valve. I'm sure you could lap them when you pull the heads off to give it a nice refresh. I think your idea of inspecting the bore and gasket are great too, that should be looked into since you know that someone was there now.
Today I fixed my leak down tester adapter where it goes into the spartk plug hole as the oring kept blowing out. Used a cut off tool in the lathe to sink the groove for the oring. Did more leakdown testing and the worst was 11% not really terrible and was going to leave well enough alone. Then I thought about my JD intek v twin that burned oil like crazy but ran great and it only had about 12% leakdown but upon dissasembly had the worst cylinder wear I had ever seen! It was one of the engines with the faulty leaking flat air filter. This pic is of the bore wear at the top looked like someone had machined out the last half inch of the bore. Anyway I took it apart and it had very litle bore wear with most of the crosshatch still visible up to 1/2 inch of the top and the difference in the bore from the bottom to the top was .0008. I just ran the bore gauge up and down and did not check actual size and out of round, that is for tomorrow. Rod big end still had factory machining marks and crank looks pristine. Piston tops, cylinder head and plugs loaded with carbon and must have been running very rich. Oil stunk of stale gas. Only issue I found was one lifter was not rotating and had some wear in the center. Finished cleaning the block and sump and tomorrow I will measure everything to see if all is OK. Piston rings are 59 bucks but for 137 dollars I can get new rods, pistons and rings. Not sure what I will do yet but for the difference it almost seems like its better value to get the rods, pistons and rings and they are kohler not a off brand. The first picture of this series is of my john deere intek bore wear, the rest are of this kohler.
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