OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Engines Questions On Briggs & Stratton Engines New engine bolt kits?

Working on my Ranger and its missing a number of bolts on the B & S.

Had a look thru the ODK webshop and cant see anything?

Are they available? and if not can anyone give me lengths, threads and gauges?

Mainly for the pull start cowl but the rest look a tad ordinary as well.

Eng # 130902 0173-01 7010260

and the age and size of the engine would be great too

Ta,,
Boffa

Your best chance would be to take one bolt that fits the cowling nciely and go to your nearest store that specialises in bolts/fastners and buy a few. They should be able to work out the size/thread/etc quickly.

Hi Boffa,
From the numbers provided I can gather that your engine is a 1970 model, but the model number also suggests 5 hp so I am thinking it may be a colt as opposed to a rancher?
As for bolts the local mower shop would probley give you a hand full of used ones for a few bucks.
Regards jay

Thanks boys,

Joe I unfortunately dont have one original bolt in the cowling, infact none of them fit and are all too small a gauge but I will go hassle the bloke in leongatha and see what he comes up with.

Jay I got that same info from the ID section and id say it is a 5 HP as its a tad low on grunt cutting the thick stuff.

I have a 13 ish HP with (I was told) a cast iron sleeve in a White rideon am tempted to use as a transplant but im not confident that the clutch system would take the extra grunt.

I assume that the difference between the Colt and the Ranger is HP?

And Id prefer new bolts, im funny that way.

Hi Boffa,
I can�t see any problems with the clutch set up. The only thing that I would say is that the clutch it self would need to be worked with caution as the 13 hp won�t have any troubles stripping cogs if the clutch is let out in a hurry.
As for bolts im cheep, but have never had a problem with them.
Regards Jay

will give it a go with some older bolts I scrounge to secure the cowling then and grab a thread gauge and list the sizes here.

Reason I asked was because its not uncommon to buy engine or body bolt kits for car resto's and it often makes life much easier than reusing what could be 40 year old bolts.

As for the 13 hp? im cautious with the 5hp lol, mid range revs/ get her moving forwards gently/increase revs to near governor speeds/ ease down the cutting deck engage lever.

My 1976 B&S had a couple of stripped cowl screws when I bought it. My cure was to drill, tap, and replace them all with one-size-larger (so I won't have to mess about with two sizes of spanner on that engine). From memory they start out at 1/4" UNC and I replaced them with 5/16 UNC. The original size is fine functionally, but it can't deal with the clumsiness of the people who sometimes work on mowers.
Because the castings are usually aluminium, chances are it is the casting that is stripped rather than the screws. New screws will not help much.

grumpy,

Usually the bolts being metal oxidise to the alloy which is like welding two pieces of metal together. I have in the past had to drill out and tap a new thread because the bolts snap off when trying to undo them.

Note that it does not happen often but when the bolts have not been undone for a very long time this does happen.

This is what seems to have happened to the pull start mech.

Popped the cowling off this morning and the threads are still in the alloy mech but the heads are eaten away and its only held down by one bolt now.

The engine cowling that the pull start mech bolts to is currently held in with smaller bolts and one large self tapper and its driving me nuts because its just so wrong lol

So 1/4 inch UNC you reckon?

If they are all UNC then I might just buy an assortment of inch bolts and give it a whirl, saves me a 40 km drive too.

Ive spent the day mowing a mates block with a small B&S utility type mower on some steep grades, I really could have done with the Rover but when setting up the clutch again the spring that holds the clutch engage carriage snapped so theres no return pressure on the clutch at all.

I reckon I might start work on the "White" unit and see if I cant get that POS to cut grass properly while I do the full strip down on the Rover.

I now remember why I used to pay to get my mowers fixed lol

On my 1976 and 1981 B&S engines �f I recall correctly the cowl retaining screws are 1/4" UNC and the rewind starter retaining screws are 5/16" UNC. It sounds as if your main problem is with the screws holding the rewind starter, which are the larger ones. If someone has forced a self-tapper into one of the threads it probably hasn't done it any favours, and it may not work very well with a proper screw in it. Note that the screws are not all the same length - my rewind starter has at least one long one. Also bear in mind that the engines I'm talking about are 9 cubic inch displacement while yours is 13 cubic inch, so it is possible that yours has different screw sizes from mine - it's best to check.

My solution would probably be to check the screw sizes with a vernier caliper, then buy some long screws, screw them in as far as they will go, mark how much excess thread there is, and shorten them with a hacksaw to the maximum possible length. Of course if you cut them off you have to chamfer them carefully or the burrs on the ends will probably ruin the threads in the aluminium castings when you try to screw them in.

Thanks for that Grumpy, I usually chuck a nut on bolts before chopping them and then clean up the ends on the wire brush especially dealing with 39 yr old cast alloys lol

Im a bit light on for bolts in my collection so I will probably just buy a handfull of each UNC from 3/4 inch to 1 1/2 inch and see how I go and as im now waiting on a new spring for the clutch carriage assembly (A week including cup day hols) im going to do it right.

Ive found Plasti bond or Metal mend a nice quick fix for stripped out threads BTW or if you feel really nasty Liquid nails will do the job as well.

I've never had any success with plastic threads. If there's room to tap it out to a larger size, I do that - it typically takes about 2 minutes, if conditions are favourable. If there's not enough surrounding metal or the machine would have to be dismantled to do the job, I look for alternatives. Still, I don't mind wasting time when I feel in the mood. When I bought my 1976 Victa the tiny stamped-steel bracket that holds the speed control cable to the governor base was missing, and rather than go buy one from my local mower shop I designed a better one and milled it out of a solid block of steel.

Ok if you have a Lathe lol.

Unfortunately I dont even have a drill press at the moment but I see your point re plastic threads.

I use it as a last resort to get a mower going though and only on peripheral bits or dress items and metal mend isnt too bad.

A Tap and Die set is very high on my list of stuff, I miss the set I had.