28N707 - no valve movement

[tiber]

My dearly beloved mower died.

It's a craftsman something or other grey lawn tractor, and has a briggs 28N707 engine. After much consternation and cursing I finally pulled the valvecover and spark plug and observed that the valves don't move when I run the starter.

Insult to injury - I haven't found anyone who doesn't charge for an estimate, and no-one can give me a range for how much this might cost to replace the cam shaft.

Questions:
1) About how much should I expect to pay someone to fix this?
2) I'm fairly handy (I hope), are there instructions somewhere on changing the camshaft myself? I can't imagine it's very hard, but I'm looking at some of these "this is how valves on small engines" work videos and wondering what I might be getting myself into.

 

[ILENGINE]

Range for repair cost to replace camshaft should run in the 175-250 range. For the most part changing the camshaft isn't hard to do. Getting all the garbage off the engine, and removing the engine is most of the work.

 

[exotion]

Yes pretty simple. Clean everything on the engine and work space. Take engine off mower, disassemble all the covers and gas tank and all those parts carb and exhaust off to. Drain oil, flip engine upside down. Remove pan there are a few bolts the cam and crank will be visible. The cam should have one or two bolts pull it out.

Notice on crank and cam a little dot next to the teeth there is only one. The new cam I'm and line up the dots so they are touching(timing) some cams require the crank to be removed be observant and make sure everything goes back in excatly as you took it out. Pics help if needed. When you put the pan back on be sure to clean gasket off. Replace gasket if you want to do t right I always use red gasket maker. Put everything back together like you took it apart.

Recommend basic tune up at this point new spark plug, fuel filter, air filter, oil, adjust valves, clean carb etc the valve adjustment will be needed without the tune up.

 

[tiber]

adjustment will be needed without the tune up.

What's the valve adjustment and what would I adjust valves to? I am assuming once I get the new crank or cam in there, I use a feeler gauge to get the gap when the rod is furthest from the lifter and adjust the screw on the opposite side? (I forget if it has screws).