Static Timing + Carb Swapping = ITS ALIVE! Well, sort of….

Thanks to a totally serendipitous PM from another forum member, I learned about the static timing options for Kohlers… In the tech manual for the 110, they talk about gapping the points to .020, then taking your timing light and shooting it at the timing hole and adjusting your points so that the S or SP mark appears in the timing hole… Well, I don’t have a timing light, I didn’t have a sniff what the timing hole was, and I didn’t have a CLUE what the heck they were talking about this “S” and “SP” and “T” mark… AND you have to have the engine running well to be able to do that at all… Then this morning I foundsome info about static timing, so I thought I’d check into it… So first of all, what the heck is this timing hole??? Well, on a K181, I guess THIS is it:

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And an S and a T? HUH? Well, out came my flashlight, and sure enough, rotating the crankshaft and looking in the timing hole I see first this,

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then this,

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So, disconnect the points from the coil, hook my VOM up pos to the points wire and neg to the frame, then see where they break (ie, open)….

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Turns out my points on Wally were breaking right at T, Top Dead Centre… According to both the tech manual and the PDF, they should break at S, or 20 degrees before TDC (IIRC from my four-cycle theory, this is so that there’s time for the spark to ignite the mix thoroughly before the piston reaches TDC, so you get maximum force achieved by the expanding gasses for the downstroke… Because the piston is coming up fast enough that if ignition happened right at TDC, you wouldn’t get as much power because full expansion takes a bit of time and by the time that would happen, the flywheel would have taken the piston into the downstroke… Sound right? Or is it that you want some extra compression of the mix just as ignition happens? Or both?)… So adjusted the points so that they break JUST as the S centres on the timing hole…

Then ran and got Wally’s carb and dropped it back on, strapped everything back in, hooked up fuel line, added a bit more gas (because, as it turned out, PART of my problems later yesterday was that there wasn’t enough gas in the tank to push any through the fuel line… Gravity feed! Gotta love it!), open the fuel valve then CRUD there’s gas leaking again! Stupid me, didn’t do up the bolt on the bottom of the carb bowl tightly! CLOSE fuel valve, mop up gas, tighten bolt, turn key…. No ignition! DOH, forgot spark plug cable! Turn key again, Wally fires up, but will only run at low throttle! As soon as I try to speed up, Wally stalls! DOH! So back to the drawing board on THAT carb…

So, since Ernie’s fuel system is down anyway, AND he’s got a promising career as a municipal mosquito fogger in his near future, lets steal HIS carb! Off comes Ernie’s carb (dropping more gas on the floor of the garage, but NONE in my eyes this time!), and I strap it on to Wally, and…..
THIS is what we have!

So, based on that, oh fellow tractor-fanatics, what’s my next step?

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