Kemp K6CH Wood Chipper

Sawdust

Sawdust

Jim from Kentucky
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I’m going to start a new thread for this in case it can help someone. I picked this up on Market Place for $20. The PO assured me it was legit and it had been under water for awhile. I drove about 2 1/2 hours round trip to get it. It had been under water for about two days, he used it for two years prior and it ran good.
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A couple of not so bad things are the bushing slips out of one of the wheels, it’s missing three cutters on the mulching wheel this indicates some moron put a branch in the wrong end. I cleaned out the hopper and it spins very good, bearings are good with no slop.
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This is the worse cutter rail
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The engine had about a pint of water in the gas tank without any smell of gas but was clean. I was worried when I took the oil fill plug out and couldn’t see any oil. When I took the plug out a little sludge with some water came out but not the clabber you see sometimes. It’s got two fill plugs one on each end of the case. Once I drained it I shot some carb cleaner in one end and watched it drain until it looked clean. I added fresh oil then some fresh gas. The spark plug was dry and clean and had a good spark. After several cranks it tried to start with shooting gas in the carb. The next time it ran but I had to keep squirting gas in the carb. I’m going to take the tank and carb off to give it a good cleaning.

Although this is heavy it pulls around a lot easier than I thought even with the wheel flopping around:eek:.
 

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Do you know the approximate years these were produced, Jim? Looks to be in good shape. The 5hp Briggs with a the Pulse-Jet carb as been out of production for quite some time haven't they?

I'm so jealous---20 bucks!

DAC
 
The one hammer anchor bracket would be easy to straighten with an O/A torch, hammer and 12" crescent with all the hammers removed. Looks like it ingested something it didn't like!! Maybe someone thought it was a rock crusher!! I'm surprised the grate survived. Where are the chipper knives located?
 
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ol' stonebreaker said:
The one hammer anchor bracket would be easy to straighten with an O/A torch, hammer and 12" crescent with all the hammers removed. Looks like it ingested something it didn't like!! Maybe someone thought it was a rock crusher!! I'm surprised the grate survived. Where are the chipper knives located?
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If all goes well I’ll probably take the whole drum out and do whatever needs to be done. The carrier I guess would be a good name for it that the cutters are bolted on is just a piece of angle iron factory welded to the drum. These that are missing will just be as it is. Like you mentioned I can straighten out the bent ones. When the outside cutters left they took a small chunk of the angle iron. I think the outside cutters are a bad design because being on the end of the angle iron that way there’s not much service for them to stay on.

Here’s a pic of where the chipper blade is. It’s just a simple piece of flat stock that has a bevel cut. The factory spec for between the chipper blade and cutting block is no more than 1/16” or less than 1/32”. It looks close to an 1/8” so that will need to be adjusted. That’s some crazy tolerances.
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I took the carb and tank off and it needs cleaned up. I’m surprised the tank is so clean. The gasket between the carb and tank has a piece missing outside of one of the bolts, and the screen on the pickup tube is dirty. I didn’t have time to take the diaphragm off but I’m sure it’s bad. I ordered a B&S rebuild kit off of Amazon it’s supposed to be here on Friday. The carb kit # is 495606 which supersedes the old # of 494624. The link from Amazon is here.
Carburetor Overhaul Kit Replaces Briggs & Stratton 495606 and 494624 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0038U3HLI/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_RVX6RFYRA86NKB3T0853
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MFDAC said:
Do you know the approximate years these were produced, Jim? Looks to be in good shape. The 5hp Briggs with a the Pulse-Jet carb as been out of production for quite some time haven't they?

I'm so jealous---20 bucks!

DAC
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The Kemp Co. ended in the early 90’s and another company took over their inventory but only lasted a few years. Mine according to the engine code is dated 1985.
 
My carb kit came in the mail today so I
I put it all back together, got it mounted but still won’t start unless I give it a shot of starter fluid. It does continue to run now unlike before. One thing I’m puzzled about is this carb did not have the metal ring that goes on top of the diaphragm spring. I ordered a B&S kit it had the diaphragm gasket but no spring cap. Every smaller engine carb I’ve rebuilt has always had this. I’m going to order another diaphragm gasket just to get this spring cap then see if that helps.

This is one crazy piece of machinery. It was raining on me but I needed to see if it would run. I think I’ll pull the belt off next time until I get the engine tweaked so the drum doesn’t spin. There is no throttle lever on this so I guess the governor controls that once it gets under a load.
 
I think someone must have lost the pump spring cap. All of them I remember messing with in the '80's and '90's racing go karts always had that cap.

DAC
 
dodge trucker said:
Did someone put the spring and cap on the wrong side of the diaphragm? Been there before, done that. The cap is to keep the spring from poking thru the diaphragm.
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No it just wasn’t there at all. I got another set coming tomorrow the diaphragm, spring and the cap. I think somebody did a rebuild on this carb it was too clean inside. The diaphragm was good, the jet was shiny, the tank was empty and clean except for the little reservoir that really wasn’t too bad. I’m hoping the spring cap is what’s keeping it from starting on gas.
 
I got my new diaphragm kit the other day just to get the spring cap. I installed it and it started on just fuel like it should now and runs great. I just realized this engine has no throttle control. Somebody correct me if I’m wrong. Doesn’t this design rely on the governor being under load to increase the throttle? If so my throttle isn’t returning to idle leaving the idle screw about 1/2” from the stop. The governor can’t be working right. I took the belt off so the drum isn’t spinning so I can concentrate on getting the engine running right. Sitting next to this monster while that drum is spinning makes me nervous I tried to screw the nut on top of the governor control rod and thought it was turning but it just simply twisted off and broke the top of the rod off :mad: I’ll go online to see if that rod is still available. I’m thinking if it’s too much I might just order a 5-44 die and just make one. I don’t have a die that small.

Another thing, I’m going to check the RPM’s on this because at high throttle this thing is fast! If this engine was on a go kart it would scream.
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I have only messed with these engines that have throttle levers of some sort, not ones with the screw throttle like yours.

It does sound like the governor probably needs work. In the 20 or so years I raced go-karts we would just run a throttle cable straight to the carb butterfly and let 'er buck! Seems like governed top end was around 3500 rpm?

I still need to find a nice tank for one of these for the NOS engine I got a while back. I'll get time one of these days to do some searching again!

DAC
 
Sawdust said:
I got my new diaphragm kit the other day just to get the spring cap. I installed it and it started on just fuel like it should now and runs great. I just realized this engine has no throttle control. Somebody correct me if I’m wrong. Doesn’t this design rely on the governor being under load to increase the throttle? If so my throttle isn’t returning to idle leaving the idle screw about 1/2” from the stop. The governor can’t be working right. I took the belt off so the drum isn’t spinning so I can concentrate on getting the engine running right. Sitting next to this monster while that drum is spinning makes me nervous I tried to screw the nut on top of the governor control rod and thought it was turning but it just simply twisted off and broke the top of the rod off :mad: I’ll go online to see if that rod is still available. I’m thinking if it’s too much I might just order a 5-44 die and just make one. I don’t have a die that small.

Another thing, I’m going to check the RPM’s on this because at high throttle this thing is fast! If this engine was on a go kart it would scream.
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So its direct drive and spinning the blades as you're starting it.?
No clutch of any kind ? Can't really tell by your picture.

Maybe I missed something from your post.
 
It has a centrifugal clutch Bill but revving the engine up and down causes it to spin. I went on YouTube last night and got a better understanding on how this needs adjusted. I found the governor control rod last night online at several places between $20.-28. with free shipping. :eek: I found a 5-44 tap and die set for $11.on Amazon I may get that and just make one.
 
ol' stonebreaker said:
If I understand correctly that rod is just to set the high governed RPM. I don't understand the function of the spring. I suspect the centrifugal clutch is just to make it easier to start the engine. My MTD is direct drive so it takes a pretty good pull to start it.
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I believe the spring is there just to keep tension on the knurled nut so it doesn't back off...keeping the RPM's steady..
 
I've had more trouble with governors over the years...

I have an H70 tecumseh that I fought with the governor for hours. Finally pulled the engine apart and the weights were missing. So it would bounce up and down super fast.

Mini Bikes I leave the governor in place if they aren't modified because I don't want a rod or flywheel going into my leg...on Hondas or clones I tweak them to about 4000rpm. Tecumseh or briggs I get them as close as 3600rpm as I can.
 
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