Ok, so whats wrong with the orange motor? Valves leaking? Pressurize the cylinder with air to see, this might save a ton of money on that new engine!
Fed up, putting a predator in Jolene!
I have been messing with the 2 Tecumsehs I have for Jolene for several months now, and last night was the last straw. I went out to the lean-to and two pulled-to start the Greyhound on Miss Emma and went out and worked it for an hour with no issues, and parked it. Then I tried to get Jolene running, which took about an hour because the battery was weak and needed to be charged. Once I got it running, it was the same thing as before- messing with the carb and choke settings, adjusted the points, and I was just getting sick of messing with it even though it runs pretty good. I am planning on selling both the Tecs and all the spare parts and buying a predator 11HP for it- They are on sale right now at Harbor Freight, and with a 20% off coupon, it's only going to cost $200 in beautiful tax free NH. I have a little money saved up, and I need to sell the other 2 motors to finance the rest of the project. I just want easy to operate machines. I love Tec's, but I never should have sold my best running motor in the 67 Suburban 12 I sold this year. So you will hopefully be seeing another repower thread soon.
Consequently, I have 2 Tecumseh HH120's one a point motor, and one and SSI motor, both run, and a bunch of extra parts for sale. The motors are in the For Sale Section of the forum, and if you need anything for a tec tractor, let me know, I might have it.
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Consequently, I have 2 Tecumseh HH120's one a point motor, and one and SSI motor, both run, and a bunch of extra parts for sale. The motors are in the For Sale Section of the forum, and if you need anything for a tec tractor, let me know, I might have it.
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Well, I am glad I listened to you guys! The orange motor had a bad head gasket - that was it. As I said, I changed the head gasket, side cover gasket, crank seal, and valve cover gasket. I pulled the blue motor out of Jolene, put the orange one in (while I was at it, I welded some washers on my worn out clutch so the hole is round again)
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put the orange motor in, filled it up with fresh 15w40 oil, checked for spark (which is good) and cranked her up. I put the "new" tecumseh carb on it, and it started up pretty well, and I adjusted and adjusted the carb, and it still chugged and farted and popped a lot, and I couldn't get it to run right... Just for grin I put my Walbro carb with the pulse pump on it which I had previosuly had issue with as well... Set the idle and main screws to factory settings, and once the bowl filled with gas, it fired a PURRED!!!! I couldn't believe it! Mine tweaks, and it ran great idel to full throttle, no sputter, and no backfiring.
Two things I found out:
1) the spring from the throttle linkage to the governor was in the wrong hole
2) the "New" tecumseh carb that is supposed to be for a 10-12 HP is not big enough for a 12 HP motor.
I am SOOOOOOOOOOO happy you guys pushed me to give it one more try, I have never seen a HH120 run this good before!!! Now I just need a new battery.
Thanks Thank you thank you!!!!!!
:thanku: :thanku: :thanku: :thanku: :thanku: :thanku: :thanku: :thanku:
put the orange motor in, filled it up with fresh 15w40 oil, checked for spark (which is good) and cranked her up. I put the "new" tecumseh carb on it, and it started up pretty well, and I adjusted and adjusted the carb, and it still chugged and farted and popped a lot, and I couldn't get it to run right... Just for grin I put my Walbro carb with the pulse pump on it which I had previosuly had issue with as well... Set the idle and main screws to factory settings, and once the bowl filled with gas, it fired a PURRED!!!! I couldn't believe it! Mine tweaks, and it ran great idel to full throttle, no sputter, and no backfiring.
Two things I found out:
1) the spring from the throttle linkage to the governor was in the wrong hole
2) the "New" tecumseh carb that is supposed to be for a 10-12 HP is not big enough for a 12 HP motor.
I am SOOOOOOOOOOO happy you guys pushed me to give it one more try, I have never seen a HH120 run this good before!!! Now I just need a new battery.
Thanks Thank you thank you!!!!!!
:thanku: :thanku: :thanku: :thanku: :thanku: :thanku: :thanku: :thanku:
I will have video tomorrow. I only got it running at like 9pm, and I didn't wanna run it too long cause the neighbors still like me and I don't want to tempt fate 
Glad to hear Jolene still has her original "heart".....surprising how many things can be "wrong" with these engines,yet still run fairlry well huh??..
I had a leaking head gasket on my '68 Suburban 12 I was not aware of,until one day while mowing with it,it got so hot from a rats nest blocking the air flow in the blower housig,it started on FIRE ,and was so hot it burnt the paint and grease off the engine!...all I did to "fix" it was replace the head gasket and resurface the now warped head,and clean the rats nest out!...it now purrs like pussycat,it does smoke a bit,but it always did,so I use 15W-40 in it now..
Maybe that "new" carb is just jetted a tad too lean for a 12hp,perhaps you could enlarge the jet holes carefully and get it "tuned" to allow it to perform correctly...
Sometimes I wonder if carbs originally equipped with fuel pumps MUST have them to run right too--I have tried deleting a few and noticed the engine seems less powerful,and more likely to bog out on hills or steep angles afterwards...just like the cars we'd get running at the junkyard with a gravity feed gas tank hooked right to the carb fuel inlet--they ran,but not very well--hook it to the fuel pump and you notice an immediate improvement ..you wouldn't think it would matter much on a one lunger,but maybe it does??..
...surprising how many things can be "wrong" with these engines,yet still run fairlry well huh??..I had a leaking head gasket on my '68 Suburban 12 I was not aware of,until one day while mowing with it,it got so hot from a rats nest blocking the air flow in the blower housig,it started on FIRE ,and was so hot it burnt the paint and grease off the engine!...all I did to "fix" it was replace the head gasket and resurface the now warped head,and clean the rats nest out!...it now purrs like pussycat,it does smoke a bit,but it always did,so I use 15W-40 in it now..
Maybe that "new" carb is just jetted a tad too lean for a 12hp,perhaps you could enlarge the jet holes carefully and get it "tuned" to allow it to perform correctly...
Sometimes I wonder if carbs originally equipped with fuel pumps MUST have them to run right too--I have tried deleting a few and noticed the engine seems less powerful,and more likely to bog out on hills or steep angles afterwards...just like the cars we'd get running at the junkyard with a gravity feed gas tank hooked right to the carb fuel inlet--they ran,but not very well--hook it to the fuel pump and you notice an immediate improvement ..you wouldn't think it would matter much on a one lunger,but maybe it does??..
Man I like those orange tractors That is one nice rig
That is one nice rig
I think it looks great sitting there in your avatar
Not sure why but I think that is the best looking tractor and color scheme that Sears or any other company ever produced and is high on my list to find and have
maybe I should just paint the SS18 orange.................................:ROF
Not sure why but I think that is the best looking tractor and color scheme that Sears or any other company ever produced and is high on my list to find and have
maybe I should just paint the SS18 orange.................................:ROF
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