Kohler K241S Throttle/Governor Adjustments

[tunahead72 2,423]

Howdy!

Another issue with my 1986 310-8 with a Kohler K241S engine, this one's driving me nuts.

I just recently finished installing some new crankcase breather parts, with good results ( http://www.wheelhorseforum.com/index.php?showtopic=28278 ).

While I had the carb off, I decided to adjust the governor, didn't have to change things much, so I think that's OK.

After I installed the carb and hooked up the throttle and choke cables, and reconnected the wire between the governor arm and the carb, I started the engine. When I moved the throttle control to increase speed, it seemed like the engine would have revved to infinity if I had let it (Yikes!), and then it wouldn't go back down to idle.

So, I shut it off and started looking at all the cables and other parts of the linkage to see what was wrong. The first thing I noticed was that one of the bushings on the end of the governor/carb wire was worn and sloppy, so I replaced it, and it seems better.

I then tried to lower the high speed a bit, according to the instructions in the parts and service manual for this tractor, which said, basically:

• [*:3l29bjlo]Loosen the stop bolt slightly.[*:3l29bjlo]Move the high speed stop and the control lever "clockwise to decrease or counterclockwise to increase speed".[*:3l29bjlo]Tighten the stop bolt, then adjust the throttle cable and governor.

I've followed this procedure half a dozen times or so today, and for the life of me I can't get it right. No matter how I set things, I can't get the high speed under control, and it doesn't always want to come down to a nice idle. I finally had to just walk away this evening and clear my head.

Does anybody have any idea what I could be doing wrong? Is it standard procedure to adjust the high speed, THEN the throttle cable and governor, in that order? Could a worn spring be part of the problem (mine seems strong enough, although I did have to bend one end slightly to eliminate some movement)?

By the way, I did some research here before I started this thread, and I found an old post by Terry (TT) that seems to indicate that the stop and control lever should be rotated in exactly the OPPOSITE directions as what my service manual says ( http://www.wheelhorseforum.com/index.php?showtopic=3912 ). Terry, if you're around, am I reading your post correctly, or does it apply to a different kind of setup?

I'll try to get some photos posted tomorrow, right now I need sleep.

Thanks guys!

[rmaynard 15,501]

The "clockwise, counter-clockwise" thing is backward. The little "L" shaped stop bracket should be positioned somewhere around 1 or 2 c'clock to start, then moved counter-clockwise to decrease and clockwise to increase.

If all was working well before you took it apart, I doubt that the spring is the problem.

With the governor arm loosened, and you turn the cross-shaft counter-clockwise, does it come to a stop?

[corn53 4]

Same thing happened to me on my Raider 10. I believe the tab on my governor let go. I`ve tried to adjust the governor but it keeps spinning. Revs like crazy!!!! :hide:

[tunahead72 2,423]

The "clockwise, counter-clockwise" thing is backward. The little "L" shaped stop bracket should be positioned somewhere around 1 or 2

[corn53 4]

I hope not!!! Mine happened when I opened the air breather to adjust the valves. It just sounds like deja vu. I wish u luck :WRS:

[tunahead72 2,423]

Okay, we're in much better shape now.

Bob, thanks for giving me a place to start, and for your correction to the information in the service manual. I was able to get a reasonably close initial setting, and then adjust from there, and it reacted logically to every little change I made. I did NOT try to adjust the stop bracket with the engine running (whose idea was THAT? <_< ), and the governor shaft moved and stopped pretty much exactly as I hoped it would.

It's now pretty close to where I want it to be, still need to do some minor tweaking to get it more perfect, and that brings up a couple of questions:

First, the outer casing of my throttle cable is getting a bit chewed up near the clamp on the blower housing, can this last for a while before I need to replace it, or should I do that soon?

I think I'm maybe a couple hundred RPM below the magic 3400 RPM that I'd like to set my high speed at. I have an automotive type tachometer that a friend of mine gave me close to 30 years ago, but I've never used it. It has two clips to connect to the battery, and a green one to connect "to the distributor connection on the ignition coil" -- would that be the negative terminal on the coil, the one that connects to the breaker points?

Also, the scale on this tach has direct readings for 6 and 8 cylinder engines, and says "FOR 4 CYL. ENGINE, DOUBLE 8 CYL. SCALE". Does this mean that for a single cylinder engine, I should either multiply the 8-cylinder reading by 8, or multiply the 6-cylinder reading by 6, to find my engine's RPM? If so, this tach may not be sensitive enough for my purpose, since it reads from 200 to 2000 RPM on the 8-cylinder scale, which would translate to 1600 to 16,000 RPM for a single cylinder engine. So, I wouldn't be able to get an accurate idle speed reading, and 3400 RPM on my engine would read as 425 RPM on the 8-cylinder scale.

It's worth a try at any rate, assuming somebody can tell me where the green clip goes. And if it doesn't work, I'll probably pick up one of those inexpensive laser tachs some of you guys have recommended in other threads here.

Thanks again for your help!

--------

And corn53, I hope everything works out well for your machine. I know how frustrating these old tractors and their attachments can be, and yesterday was one of those days that I started to understand why people buy cheap-a$$ mowers, neglect 'em and beat 'em into the ground, and then get rid of 'em and start the process over. But today was a better day, a couple pieces of information from someone who knows a lot more than I do, a lot more patience and willingness to learn on my part, and my machine and I are in better shape than we were this time last night. You'll get through this, too.

[corn53 4]

Glad 2 hear u had better luck Anything can happen when u have 16 of them. Just replaced a tranny on my 855. I have fun playing and learning!!! :WRS:

[tunahead72 2,423]

An update ...

When I last checked in, I'd been able to dial in my throttle and governor settings reasonably well, not perfect, but OK. Since then, I saw Bob's (rmaynard) laser tach setup at the show (thank you, sir!), and did a bunch of searches on this site for information on tachs and how to use them on my engine.

One of the things I read was a thread from 2009 with some information from Gregg (gregg.d250) on how to hook up an automotive type tach and convert its readings to single cylinder Kohler RPM's ( http://www.wheelhorseforum.com/index.php?showtopic=13672 ). His suggestion was pretty much exactly what I outlined in my post last week (red to positive, black to negative and green to negative terminal on coil, multiply the 8-cylinder readings by 8 to get single-cylinder RPM's), so this afternoon I decided to give it a try.

I hooked up my friend's tach, and then started up my machine and let her warm up for a few minutes. I had deliberately set my high speed a little low last week, just to be safe. I guessed I was hearing about 2500-3000 RPM, and the tach indicated about 350 RPM on the 8-cylinder scale, or about 2800 RPM on my engine. I know there's some discussion here about whether to multiply by 4 or 8 or 16 or whatever, depending on how many times the engine fires each cycle -- I don't claim to understand that, but I do know from many years of listening to my three Kohlers that this engine sounded like it was running near 2800 RPM, not 1400 or 5600.

My goal was to get to 3400 RPM from there, and I adjusted the stop bracket, throttle cable and governor three or four times before I got to that number. At some point, I realized my linkage had a couple of minor problems, so I removed the stop bracket assembly to straighten the control lever a bit, and the governor spring to bend one end a little, it all seems smoother now (nice when that happens ).

I throttled up and down several times over the full range from idle to wide open, with almost no variation in idle or top speeds, so it all seems good for now. I also ran for a few minutes with my mower deck engaged (full throttle), with only maybe 50-100 RPM decrease in speed, so I think my governor is doing its thing properly -- I'll know better after I mow the lawn tomorrow.

I may at some point bump up the top speed to 3500 RPM, just to get a little more blade speed, but only if I feel confident that it's not ever going over the 3600 RPM that Kohler specifies as the absolute top speed for this engine ('cause I really don't like the idea of engines exploding and shooting things at me while I'm using them! ).

Or maybe I'll just leave it alone and find something else to do!

Oh, and knock on wood, my earlier work to fix my crankcase breather seems to have worked, no oil leaks anywhere that I can see.

So much for now. Thanks to everyone who helped me out with these things! :D