Kohler Courage 15

[Commeres]

Help!
I had a crack in the crankcase of my Kohler and found out that it was possible to repair with cold weld. I took off the top engine cover and did the repair sucessfully. The crankshaft never moved whilst I was working and I replaced everything in order and correctly lined up.
BUT the motor ran perfectly on fist start up but after stopping would not restart. I found out that the Woodruff key on the crankshaft/flywheel had sheered. I thought I had made a silly mistake and so put in a new Woodruff key with exactly the same result.
Does anyone have any idea what could be causing this? Answers are hard to come by here in France.

 

[AirgunSavant]

Sorry I have no idea but a customer of mine owns a big mower repair and sales shop out west in the USA.
Told me never buy a Kohler Courage powered anything. He has seen many blow.
So I took his advice.
I have an old 1972 Wheel Horse with a ball bearing Kohler and its never had a rebuild and
had a hard life. But those were different days.

 

[old1]

Is the flywheel by any chance cracked? If not, the only reason for shearing flywheel keys is not getting the flywheel tight enough. Technically the key is not there to keep the flywheel from turning, it is only for proper alignment when installing the flywheel.

 

[The motor guy]

Originally Posted By: old1
Is the flywheel by any chance cracked? If not, the only reason for shearing flywheel keys is not getting the flywheel tight enough. Technically the key is not there to keep the flywheel from turning, it is only for proper alignment when installing the flywheel.


It's just so the magneto is positioned correctly on the crankshaft, so the engine fires at the right time when the magnet on the flywheel passes the magneto. I also think you don't want the flywheel too tight because it does

 

[old1]

Originally Posted By: motor_oil_madman
Originally Posted By: old1
Is the flywheel by any chance cracked? If not, the only reason for shearing flywheel keys is not getting the flywheel tight enough. Technically the key is not there to keep the flywheel from turning, it is only for proper alignment when installing the flywheel.


It's just so the magneto is positioned correctly on the crankshaft, so the engine fires at the right time when the magnet on the flywheel passes the magneto. I also think you don't want the flywheel too tight because it does


Because it does what? I tighten the heck out of them myself and haven't cracked one in 40 years.

 

[Commeres]

I think that you are right, I didn't tighten the nut enough. However I see that my cold weld fix of the crankcase has failed.
I bought a very old Briggs engined mower today. It is a pile of rubbish but still goes
Thanks for your advice