Gravel Kohler (K301?) revival/questions

[The Tuul Crib 7,336]

That very same thing happened to me on a K3 41. It was running very well then all of a sudden everything went silent and the fly wheel kept spinning! Not the greatest feeling in the world. The connecting rod was the weak point and didn't hurt anything internally it just exploded in thousands of pieces!

[seuadr 488]

well, i got paid today - so i can afford to start thinking about this guy again! I am thinking that i'll be doing a repower with a more modern engine - simply because the cost of finding a block and doing a rebuild will be similar, but i'll still have an older technology in there. a lot of people are using a repower kit that used to be offered by bruce guthery but is now offered by keith tarvin - it consists of 1" gears instead of the larger crank of the original motor and a machined spacer that acts as the seal for the rear of the machine as well as the mounting point for the motor. since it is set up for the international 4 bolt spacing, i can put just about anything that will fit in there, even a diesel if i found one with the right length shaft. the way i see it, the rear planetary is rebuilt and originally lasted nearly 1000 hours, this'll easily future proof me for another 1000 hours and if i run into a power plant issue, i won't be forced to find a motor with relatively uncommon shaft size/length.

 

[seuadr 488]

So just got word today that my kit is shipping out! pretty excited, i've got some major brush hogging to do and the gravely was plan a, b and c for getting that done - i don't have a brushog for my oliver even if the steering did work!

 

i will likely be parting out the remaining kohler parts - i know a lot of the linkages and such aren't interchangeable, but seems like the governor and other parts would be, except the crank, since the gravely one is a different size evidently.

 

Edited April 7, 2021 by seuadr