New Tiller

[raffy]

I just purchased a new Craftsman front tine tiller the other day from Sears. It's shown in the link below. My old Craftsman front tine tiller's carburetor finally gave up the ghost after almost 17 years, so instead of rebuilding it I decided to buy a new one. Besides, I never liked the carburetor design on the old tiller because it was tank mounted and therefore very difficult to keep clean. The tank itself was difficult to drain fuel from, which meant that I never did it (just added fuel stabilizer) which probably led to the demise of the carburetor to begin with.

Anyways, I noticed that the new Craftsman tiller design is virtually identical to those sold at Lowe's and Home Depot (at higher prices than at Sears, I might add). I'm assuming the engine is a Briggs and Stratton (although it's listed as a Craftsman brand engine). It's OHV and has a regular bowl carburetor with a fuel drain bolt on its bowl bottom, so I have no excuse now not to drain fuel from it at the end of the season! I've run it a couple of times already to prepare our garden (here in the south we can begin planting about the end of February) and it seems to have every bit the power the L-head on the old tiller had, if not more.

Other than the engine design and mods to accommodate it, the new tiller is very similar in design to the old one, with a stiff and sturdy tube running from the deck up to the handle. Who makes this tiller itself, and is the engine a Briggs?

http://www.sears.com/craftsman-208cc-fro...mp;blockType=G1

 

[jeepman3071]

I believe that engine is a "Chonda" as people call it. It is a Chinese copy of a Honda.

 

[NHGUY]

Sears Craftsman is usually made by "American Yard Products".Or AYP for short.

 

[punisher]

Yup, Chonda, 90% chance it is a "Lifan" OEM. Everybody uses them.

 

[raffy]

Is there a way to find out for sure the source of the engine on this thing? Internet search, website, etc.?

 

[AandPDan]

Every Briggs OHV I've seen has either a label on the blower housing and/or B&S stamped into the valve cover.

It's a Chonda. No doubt about it.

 

[user52165]

Actually those Chonda engines are not bad. The Predator type that HF sells replaced a Honda on my lawn edger. Went from a 110cc to a 210cc (3.5 - 6.5 hp). Works well and lots more power. All for under $100. Starts with no problem. There is no mixture adjustment and it is less sensitive to lousy ethanol gas we can only get in Calif.

 

[punisher]

Originally Posted By: user52165
Actually those Chonda engines are not bad. The Predator type that HF sells replaced a Honda on my lawn edger. Went from a 110cc to a 210cc (3.5 - 6.5 hp). Works well and lots more power. All for under $100. Starts with no problem. There is no mixture adjustment and it is less sensitive to lousy ethanol gas we can only get in Calif.


I keep wanting to do that with my edger, but every three-four years I throw another pump diaphragm in that old Briggs and it runs great.....until the next time. true enough, there is not a thing wrong with the later model Chondas. I would have no hesitation using one over a Briggs (Vanguards excepted).

If you go back a decade or so, there were more than a few Chinese companies making Chondas, and some of them were pretty sad (really bad/cheap metallurgy). Lifan and one other company consolidated the production/ran the other makers out of business and quality picked up. Still not on par with a GX for commercial use, but for generic consumer use, seem to work fine.

 

[eljefino]

Originally Posted By: user52165
Actually those Chonda engines are not bad. The Predator type that HF sells replaced a Honda on my lawn edger. Went from a 110cc to a 210cc (3.5 - 6.5 hp). Works well and lots more power. All for under $100. Starts with no problem. There is no mixture adjustment and it is less sensitive to lousy ethanol gas we can only get in Calif.


Drilling the jets perked mine right up. Was doing a backfire/ afterfire when I throttled down, and it had a no-load, full speed surge that a little choke fixed. We get E10 gas here exclusively. Went from a .028 to about .032 with a 67 drill bit. Got the whole bit kit postage paid for around $7!! It includes bits small enough to lobotomize tubulinea.

OE jets if you screw up are $4. A whole new carb is $15! These things are the small block chevies of the OPE world.

 

[yeehaw1960]

Look at the labels on that tiller. It's all made in China. Store your old one to recondition when the Chinese tiller starts nickel and diming you in the next couple years. Just replaced the feet on a one-year-old snow blower today. They were horribly worn after blower was used in four or five storms. Steel that wears like playdo. Good old Chinese materials!

 

[raffy]

That's the thing, I don't see any labels on the engine. They're probably there but I'd have to strip components off to look for them. There are no B&S labels on it so, if Briggs equipment is always labeled as such, it's not a Briggs. Otherwise the new tiller is basically the same design as the one it replaced. But maybe the tiller frame, tines, drive housing, etc. are also made in China. We'll see how it holds up over time.

The tines on the old tiller were fairly worn but still did a good job of tilling up the ground. We'll see how long the tines on this tiller last - ask me in a few years! I will say that the new one looks easier, and probably cheaper, to repair and service. Things are easier to reach and the design is a bit more modular.

 

[eljefino]

Does your old machine have the second pulley coming off the cam to drive it in reverse? That interferes handily with putting a modern replacement engine on the things. Also rube goldbergs up the works more than it needs to. My in laws' tiller has five belts: two for forward drive, two for tines, one for reverse. It's special.

 

[raffy]

Eljefino,
Yes, unfortunately the old machine did have the reverse pulley on it. Reverse is really a feature I don't need in our garden; it might be nice for a hilly garden but ours is level. I figured it would be a real pain to put a replacement engine on the old tiller and the carb was tank mounted which makes it somewhat of a pain to remove, and therefore there was no drain on it. The new tiller does not have reverse, so it's belt arrangement is very simple! Also, with the new tiller the carb is simpler and mounted to the engine and thus has a separate bowl with a fuel drain bolt, so I can easily drain the carb at the end of the season without having to remove it or take the machine apart. The new engine is OHV, so maybe it will be a little more efficient and run a bit cleaner.

I sold the old one on Craigslist so it is gone now. So far the new one works just as well as the old one and appears to be easier to maintain, so maybe, just maybe, I might be able to get 15 to 20 years out of it like I got from the old one. Even though it's a Chonda, LOL. We'll see.

 

[yeehaw1960]

Those Chondas (I'm going to say it out loud) are not so bad. You just have to treat the gas you put in them and keep them maintained impeccably. I've seen more than one post on here where folks had to acquire new tines and other parts for the Craftsman tillers under warranty and it proved to be kind of a nightmare. You're going about things correctly though. There are people on this forum that will make you much, much, MUCH smarter about taking care of small engine powered appliances. Not me though! Most people's IQ drops several percentage points just by talking to me for a few minutes...

 

[Nick R]

Yeah I'll be honest, chonda engines aren't that bad. The internals for the most part are pretty well put together. The carbs are mildly questionable. The one on our snowthrower caused it to constantly hunt and surge. I even tore it apart to try to drill out the jet, not really possible. I finally just adjusted the "idle" screw so that it runs at one speed, one slighly higher than normal full throttle. That solved the surging problem. It runs like a swiss watch, and always starts instantly when cold, and 2nd/3rd pull when hot.