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Okay, I'm next. Here's Kermit. I did this frankenmower back in 2006. Here's the story from my webpage about him:
I found this lawn mower in the neighborhood on a walk with the family one night. It was obviously left for dead. It was on an un-mowed empty lot. One of the front wheel adjusters was jammed, making the whole unit set uneven. The intake pipe was loose on the cylinder head; the engine couldn't have run. The self-propelled cable was so out of adjustment that it WASN'T...self-propelled. And to take it all: the blade was sharpened on the TRAILING edge of the blade. This mower couldn't have cut through butter, let alone a lawn of grass.
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The 10330 came with a Tecumseh LEV100 4-stroke engine, of 4.5 hp. It sort of ran after I fixed many of the issues above. It was real lean, though. It ran VERY HOT, and tried to overspeed. I only let it run for about 30 seconds before turning it off. No bother, I had better plans for this mower.
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I bought my Sears Craftsman mower mostly for the Honda GCV160 engine it had. I knew the deck was only mediocre quality, but I wanted to try the Honda engine. It's really a super engine, but since my Honda HR215SXA has such an excellent deck with a great commercial engine, I just didn't use the Craftsman much. That engine would turn out to fit GREAT on this 10330.
I had initially thought about painting the Lawn-Boy a "gunmetal" grey, like the Craftsman. Sears calls it "Storm Grey". It's a pretty combination, with the silver aluminum of the engine and red/maroon engine shroud/fuel tank. But after cleaning up this L-B, the bright green is SO lustrous, and in such good shape under the dirt and grime that was on there, I couldn't stand to change the color.
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I had the Tecumseh off and on the workbench. The next step is to remove the GCV160 off the Craftsman and further check the lower dimensions (length of crankshaft and location/size of the drive pulley). The mounting bolt pattern is the same between the Honda and Tecumseh engine.
Comparing the engines side by side, they look close enough in dimension to be virtually interchangeable.
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The Honda's crankshaft is a bit shorter, but the Craftsman blade adaptor adds an inch or so of length, so the actual "hanging depth" of the two blades is essentially identical. The Honda's drive pulley uses a slightly thinner belt than the Lawn-Boy, but it works just fine with the Lawn-Boy belt...it just rides a little higher in the sheave.
Here are some initial photos of the Honda engine test-fit on the 10330 deck.
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I think by sheer dumb luck, the flywheel brake cable from the Lawn-Boy is a PERFECT fit for the Honda engine. I was prepared to swap cables between the two mowers, but this one works just fine.
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The photograph above is standing in front of the deck, with the rear wheels at the top of the picture. The Honda engine uses the same three bolt holes as the Tecumseh did on the 10330 deck. The Honda block actually has a 4th mounting hole, but it was not used on the Craftsman mower. It is in the same general location as the hole in the 4:00 position on the 10330 deck as photographed above, but does not line up directly.
Because some aluminum thread material was lost from the Honda block when I removed the three mounting bolts, I went ahead and purchased (3) 5/16-18 x 2" cap bolts with locking washers and nuts to mount the Honda block to the L-B deck. The Honda and Tecumseh both used the same length/thread mounting bolt (3/8x16 x 1"). The 5/16" bolts are just thin enough to clear the threads in the engine block to use as thru-bolts.
After double-checking all the bolts and connections, I tried the engine. She lit up the first time and MAN does it run smooth and quiet on this deck! Over half of the noise from the Craftsman mower was from the deck/blade. This Honda purrs quiet on this L-B deck.
Here are pictures after our first run over the back yard.
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I found this lawn mower in the neighborhood on a walk with the family one night. It was obviously left for dead. It was on an un-mowed empty lot. One of the front wheel adjusters was jammed, making the whole unit set uneven. The intake pipe was loose on the cylinder head; the engine couldn't have run. The self-propelled cable was so out of adjustment that it WASN'T...self-propelled. And to take it all: the blade was sharpened on the TRAILING edge of the blade. This mower couldn't have cut through butter, let alone a lawn of grass.
The 10330 came with a Tecumseh LEV100 4-stroke engine, of 4.5 hp. It sort of ran after I fixed many of the issues above. It was real lean, though. It ran VERY HOT, and tried to overspeed. I only let it run for about 30 seconds before turning it off. No bother, I had better plans for this mower.
I bought my Sears Craftsman mower mostly for the Honda GCV160 engine it had. I knew the deck was only mediocre quality, but I wanted to try the Honda engine. It's really a super engine, but since my Honda HR215SXA has such an excellent deck with a great commercial engine, I just didn't use the Craftsman much. That engine would turn out to fit GREAT on this 10330.
I had initially thought about painting the Lawn-Boy a "gunmetal" grey, like the Craftsman. Sears calls it "Storm Grey". It's a pretty combination, with the silver aluminum of the engine and red/maroon engine shroud/fuel tank. But after cleaning up this L-B, the bright green is SO lustrous, and in such good shape under the dirt and grime that was on there, I couldn't stand to change the color.
I had the Tecumseh off and on the workbench. The next step is to remove the GCV160 off the Craftsman and further check the lower dimensions (length of crankshaft and location/size of the drive pulley). The mounting bolt pattern is the same between the Honda and Tecumseh engine.
Comparing the engines side by side, they look close enough in dimension to be virtually interchangeable.
The Honda's crankshaft is a bit shorter, but the Craftsman blade adaptor adds an inch or so of length, so the actual "hanging depth" of the two blades is essentially identical. The Honda's drive pulley uses a slightly thinner belt than the Lawn-Boy, but it works just fine with the Lawn-Boy belt...it just rides a little higher in the sheave.
Here are some initial photos of the Honda engine test-fit on the 10330 deck.
I think by sheer dumb luck, the flywheel brake cable from the Lawn-Boy is a PERFECT fit for the Honda engine. I was prepared to swap cables between the two mowers, but this one works just fine.
The photograph above is standing in front of the deck, with the rear wheels at the top of the picture. The Honda engine uses the same three bolt holes as the Tecumseh did on the 10330 deck. The Honda block actually has a 4th mounting hole, but it was not used on the Craftsman mower. It is in the same general location as the hole in the 4:00 position on the 10330 deck as photographed above, but does not line up directly.
Because some aluminum thread material was lost from the Honda block when I removed the three mounting bolts, I went ahead and purchased (3) 5/16-18 x 2" cap bolts with locking washers and nuts to mount the Honda block to the L-B deck. The Honda and Tecumseh both used the same length/thread mounting bolt (3/8x16 x 1"). The 5/16" bolts are just thin enough to clear the threads in the engine block to use as thru-bolts.
After double-checking all the bolts and connections, I tried the engine. She lit up the first time and MAN does it run smooth and quiet on this deck! Over half of the noise from the Craftsman mower was from the deck/blade. This Honda purrs quiet on this L-B deck.
Here are pictures after our first run over the back yard.
