questions on Bobcat 32" walk behind.

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dodge trucker

Tractorologist
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It's a 2014 "Classic Pro" model, # 932007G Belt drive version, not hydro. Low hours on machine, PO pirated the good engine from this machine, to repower an otherwise identical 48" version, of this mower.... seems all 3 sizes of this series that year (32, 36, and 48") came with choice of 1 engine between them... all were 16hp Kawasaki twins.... story goes, he uses the 48" a bunch, rarely used this 32"..... and its condition shows "barely used" that was claimed, too.

just got this yesterday, got unloaded from the bed of my truck today/ Dug the engine that I plan to run on it, out from the shed. Looks like it "grew" there, like it belongs. have to mount it "sideways" as Briggs L head engines go, with head to right side (from operator position) and muffler and carb to front, so one of the existing sets of engine mount bolts lines up. like I used to see, on what are now "much older" versions of this same mower. Gee, I must be gettin old.
Have thoughts on how I want to do things with this engine retrofit, would appreciate ideas from the peanut gallery..... Here goes.....
Have a brand new 281707 (something like that, should've wrote it down) 12HP I/C Briggs for it, code number starts with "88" (year) but this engine has never had gas or oil in it.... I was worried about the PTO clutch fitting/ being as how I am replacing a dead Kawi and being (mainly) Japanese origins, I was thinking that the crankshaft might have been metric diameter. Surprisingly not. Same 1" dia as my Briggs. which is great.
---Its an elec start engine, (original one wasnt) wiring it in shouldn't be an issue/ I want to do this as an "overlay" wire up and leave the original Bob cat wiring intact. also would like to know what pull start I could use on this engine, if I decide to add one for a back up. Shroud does have mount holes for one.

----Not sure if I oughtta run a redundant push button for the start, or wire in a different Indak key switch... currently a 2 wire, 2 position (off-on only)
----Also have a question on building a battery box.... I have done similar on retrofit electric start engine swaps before, just wondering if Bobcat might have had a version that came that way, maybe there are factory made parts that would save me a lil fabrication time.... looks like it will have to go over the left drive wheel but there's room for about 1/2 the battery on the engine mount surface, only have to hang the battery off the side by about 1/2 its width....

---- On the gas tank.... it has a huge 5 gallon tank, way overkill for me, anyways.... 2 fills will last me a season//// and it looks like I may have to run a pump of some kind, because the outlet is high on the tank. not on the bottom which would favor gravity feed.... which is what my engine is set up for.... also the tank has a 2nd line up high around the corner from the feed line fitting... I think its some kind of vent line, may have been hooked to the old engine somehow as some sort of "vapor trap" like a charcoal canister setup on a car that traps fumes and allows them to be burned instead of vented..... especially with the "emissions compliance" decal next to the gearbox (trans).... that aspect might be going out the window haha.....("SO WHAT!")

--- I've tried siphoning what looks to be about 1/2 tank of who knows how old of gas, and can't get more than a few drops (yeah I know how to siphon gas, haha) being the outlet is so high on the tank, makes me wonder about the necessity of a fuel pump? I do have a pulse/vacuum pump here that I could donate to the cause, but I don't see a way to access the vacuum off the engine. Ideas? It does have the typical rubber line between the valve cover/breather and the carb that L head Briggs engines mostly all had. I don't remember them making that in a 3 way "tee" configuration, that's the only way I see to access vacuum for a pulse pump.

I will TRY (no promises) to get pix of this machine up here tomorrow.
 
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also have an hour meter coming for it "just because" it's in such good shape, and this engine I am putting is brand new even if it is over 30 years old....
more for "curiosity sake" than anything.
 
Not sure but I think the vacuum for the fuel pump would be back on the crankcase under the carb. That is where it is on my 16hp L head's. Would probably be easier to go electric pump. Just my thoughts. I just replaced a Kohler KT17 with a 16hp Briggs L head. Worked out great.
 
Your 16 is a opposed twin, right? Those were a lil different setup than the single cylinder L heads. Which is what I have to work with.
 
Well hopefully here's a picture of what I'm talking about. Engine is bolted on but that's it so far. Nothing hooked up yet.IMG_20210810_204519160.jpg on the 3rd pic you can see some "shelf wear" from 33 years of being shuffled around... oops. IMG_20210810_204546189_HDR.jpgIMG_20210810_205051153.jpg
 
I need to figure out how to get a pulse fuel pump to work off of this engine.any ideas there?
Or failing that, a gas tank with a bottom fitting instead of the high-up fitting like the tank on there now, has?
 
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Well I google searched for adding a pulse fuel pump to an engine that never came with one and came across a thread from another forum that I'd never heard of/ and a post by someone I'm familiar with from other forums over the years posted this answer to someone else asking basically the same question about 10 years ago... Briggs had an alternative breather with 2 holes.... One has a 1/4" npt threaded bung built in, besides the fitting for the breather tube that goes to the carb....
Cheap easy solution.
I couldn't find anything out on the alternative dipstick tube with the fitting molded in. . Some had posted that they'd put a hole in their dipstick tube and added a fitting, I didn't think the plastic tube I have would take that treatment very well.maybe if these engines had a metal dipstick tube with I'd feel better about trying something like that.

Short of something like these, I was looking at doing something that I really wasn't wanting to,
I forgot I'd done this to a vanguard engine several years ago.
On that engine, I had drilled a hole in the crankcase and tapped it for a fitting. It worked fine/ but being how this engine I have now has never had oil in it since it came off the assembly line, I wasn't looking forward to pulling the sump to be sure I didn't get any shavings inside. No matter how careful I may be, grease on the drill bit and tap, holding a shop vac nozzle right near the hole as I drill, no other way to be sure that no shards would get inside the engine and causing damage.
By the way the post from years ago that told of the Briggs breather with the threaded port on that other forum came from Walt Conner. I remember Walt from some of the forums that led to this one.... I haven't seen anything recently from him have any of you? He was GOOD with these small engines!!!!
 
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Ok I got the new replacement breather with the 1/8 pipe thread fitting and got it put on. Had to take the carb off to get at the top breather bolt.... Was hoping to sneak it in there, but no.

Next question
Has anyone here ever used a "Tiny tach"? That is what I picked up as an hour meter. Has a tach built in as well as a "total" hour meter.and a resettable "maintenance minder" hour meter.
I have 2 brand new Hobbs meters here but there's something I like about the tiny tach better
With a Hobbs, if the key is left on for some stupid reason the Hobbs will keep counting even if the engine isn't running. We've all heard of people having that issue. This one has an inductive wire that wraps around the plug wire, so it can't count up if there's no ignition happening.
But it appears to be lit up at "0000" right out of the package and stays on. It has a battery inside that doesn't look to be replaceable. I'm wondering what the life expectancy is going to be considering that. Battery died it's junk.
They have a 3 yr warranty and it says those bought online the warranty starts from the manufacture date. So basically my warranty expired while it sat on a shelf. Anyone here ever use a Tiny Tach? Comments?
 
chieffan said:
Not sure but I think the vacuum for the fuel pump would be back on the crankcase under the carb. That is where it is on my 16hp L head's. Would probably be easier to go electric pump. Just my thoughts. I just replaced a Kohler KT17 with a 16hp Briggs L head. Worked out great.
Click to expand...
yup. you sent me the carb off of the KT engine, a while back. Remember that? Component of "another" of my endless projects. Still gotta pull the recipient engine out of the shed, and get that carb mounted onto that engine. Original was a Walbro, that refuses to cooperate. At this point, the Mag 18 is a spare for my GT19 Ariens that I run my snowblower with/ but I want that engine READY, since this original KT19 has ~ 2000ish hours on it/ (the hour meter was a casualty of the rewire job done on that tractor, had 1798 hours on it at that point......) the spare Mag has ALOT less than that. but I want to "get the goody" out of that KT19 first, it is a Series II //so it has that going for it. My other GT19 (the one that has the tiller hanging from it) has a Series I, KT engine. Time bomb waiting to explode. so it stays equipped with the tiller/ so it can get the least use, and extend its life that way.

This Bobcat just "jumped its place in line," waiting for me to get to said "other projects", haha..... It will fill a more immediate need for me at the moment.... will certainly make mowing my mother in law's yard 30 miles away and my Mom's, almost as far from here, so much easier...... no tractor will fit thru the gate at mother in law's. Lots better than a 21 or 22" push version. Been wanting a 32 or 36 like this, since I let that 28" one go.

Gotta hit NAPA tomorrow at lunch time and grab a couple feet of black bulk 6ga cable, and it oughtta run! We'll see tomorrow after work.
I dunno why but it took me most of yesterday and some of today to get the wiring done and the battery box built and mounted. there were a couple of "1 step forward and 3 back, kind of moments mixed in, in the process.

Battery box done, brand new battery mounted, oil drain extended out to where it is accessible, new ignition switch with a "START" position, all wiring done except neg batt cable, new HD solenoid mounted, new fuel lines, new fuel filter, new gas in tank, pulse pump mounted to shroud via Thread Serts (a nut that is installed much like a Pop rivet) Tiny Tach mounted, choke/throttle cables routed and adjusted out, PTO clutch on engine ("right" this time, even built in key was burred and wouldn't let it go up flush, didn't see that the other nite working on it in the dark/ but caught and corrected that yesterday)
Most parts listed as "new," came from my scattered stash around here. all bought who knows how long ago, as "good deals" have come and gone.
I forgot about some of my stash I had.
 
well it RUNS!! Mowed my yard with it 2 days ago, adjusted out the carb and such,,,, Its gonna take a couple of mowings to get used to the controls on that style of mower again..... I got real good with the ones on the Bunton version I used to have...... even though its been a few years, I can tell the "release points"/ "slip/grip points" are a little different than I remember the old Bunton being, gotta remember to squeeze harder on the handle on the side I wanna turn towards..... I should remember that from the other ones I had, but for some reason I'm wanting to do the opposite....
and this one being electric PTO, vs the old one being mechanical PTO, is a little different (for me anyway) too. The Buntons I had, must have been a couple of the originals they ever made like this, I wanna say those were late 70s-early 80s era
 
I did the 1st oil change on it today at 5 hr 13 min of total run time since new on the engine. I pulled the gas cap and my original fill still has about 1/2 of a tank of gas in it..... So looks like it will go about 10 hours of run time on a tankful it seems so far.
 
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