Balance Gears Kohler K series

[8ntruck 7,395]

Being a newbie, I have been perusing many of the older posts.  I ran across a couple dealing with balance gear failures in Kohler K series engines.  Is this a common failure?  Do

all of the K series engines have balance gears?

 

I have a 1973 14 HP 8 speed with a Kolher K321 engine.  As far as I know it is original with nothing other than oil changes and tune ups.  No idea how many hours are on it.  It has been used mostly for mowing with a 42" deck.  I plan to continue using the traction for mowing, towing a lawn sweeper, and moving our small Coleman travel trailer around occasionally.

 

Should I be worried about the balance gears in my engine?

 

Thanks in advance for your advice.

 

[953 nut 57,998]

       As long as the engine is running well and has no excessive vibration I would continue keeping up a good maintenance schedule. If vibrations show up shut it down!     If major maintenance is to be done then by all means they should be removed.  Just my personal opinion,      others may not feel this way.

[JAinVA 4,629]

I took mine out of a 12 horse k301 at rebuild and could not tell the difference in vibration.I am thinking about installing Kirk engines solution to balance gears on my next rebuild.It is a plate bolted to the crank and is said to negate the need for balance gears

Edited May 29, 2019 by JAinVA

[oldredrider 2,553]

I'm waiting for the block to come back from the machinist for that exact engine. Motor was very tired and had a burnt valve. Balance gears were shaky so out they went to become paper weights. I always remove them on a rebuild; seen the irriversible damage they can do. You won't miss them in the least and you'll have piece of mind the rod won't come thru the block because of them.

[ZXT 2,401]

Not sure if all of them had balance gears or not. Just rebuilt a K321 that had broken a rod and it didn't have balance gears in it. The K301 that I stole the oil pan off of for the K321 didn't have them either.

 

I haven't ever heard of anything good coming from balance gears. They don't negate the shaking much (if at all) and like Paul said above, you don't have to worry about having the rod come flying at you.

[js5020 111]

I have 2 K series engines the 301 did not have the gears but the 341 did have them and I promptly removed the potential grenades from the crankcase, no ill effects and no worries of them letting go and venting the block.