Blower housing for a 31Q

bertsmobile1

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Got a 31Q677 in the shop at the moment
Been out in the weather so the nuts on the air filter cover had rusted solid to the bolts.
The bolts are turning in the housing so I cut the thumb caps & nuts off but the threads on the bolts are heavily rusted and turn freely in the housing.
To prevent the same thing happening again I want to fit the housing that JD use with the sealed thumb screws that screw into the housing 1/2 turn.
Down side I can't seem to work out the right part number as there are so many changes and everything seem to end up with the same number 592814
So the question is has to open screw type been superceeded to the 1/2 turn type or do I need a different part number and if so what is it.
OR
How does one get those bolts out without rendering the housing useless so I can fit plastic bolts thus over coming the rust problem.
This mower lives out in the weather.
 

StarTech

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Cutting these off you have already forced yourself into replacing the shroud with either a new one or used one.

According the ipl of 31Q677-0114-E1 all the engine shrouds have been superseded to 592814 so even thumb caps, nuts, and replace screws are NLA. IF you had the old panel filter you would also need to change the air intake elbow too. Replacing the $68 shroud and then $14 elbow if needed are just the first problem. (my costs) The shouldered retaining screws may also need replacing depend which style cover was used. Just on the above engine there are three different shroud retaining screws listed. (actually just two now as one is superseded to one of the others). Usually there will be two long and two short. To over come this problem here I just stock the various shroud shoulder screws but of course I am always getting in engines with missing screws.

Since you already cut the thumb caps and nuts off, you should finish removing the shroud. Turn the shroud upside down and using a flat blade screwdriver depress the screw head retainer tab to the side (down in the holes) and then from the other side while holding the tab depress push out the screw. I see and remove these several times a year even on engine that left outdoors covered. Usually if the retainer is not off I get them off by putting a flat blade up the hole to wedge the screw hex head. Then apply grease when I reinstall them.
 

bertsmobile1

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Thanks for that.

When I got it the owner had already turned the retainers so much that they turned very freely thus it felt like there was no hex left iin the shroud at all.
It came off complete with the carb & manifold as it is fitted to a rebadged RZ 1946 CA , full engine number is 31Q6777-0126-B1 and there is no access to the rear carb bolt while on the engine & in the mower.
That IPL shows 4 canister filtered blower housing + 1 panel housing.
All of the canisters superceed to 592814 but what I don't know is if 592814 is the open bolt on type or the 1/2 turn one as none of the suppliers can tell me and all of them just show a packet, box or B & S logo as the product image which is of little help.
I serviced this mower 3 years ago and when that was done the bolts were greases which is SOP for all of these type of covers.
Thus I really don't want to put an exposed bolt cover back on again for fear of being in the same boat 3 years hence and they are $ 180 Aus down here + $ 75 extra for the filter cover

When it was off I tried 3 ground down 0.050" feeler gauges down the deep recess from the bottom to see if they would hold the bolt but it was rusted very solid ( starting to think one of the employees was playing funny buggers with it ). However the plastic just deformed and again the bolts turned
I had already removed the screw next to the air horn from the underside so was feeling quite confident that the thumb caps would undo but it was not to be. So it was a case of sacrifice the cheapest part .

I can not see how the bolts were installed as the 3 retaining tangs do not seem to have any give in them and to me it looked like the bolt was rammed up with an air powered insertion tool fast enough to temporarly deform the tangs as it pased by which was one reason I wrote this post to see if there was a simple trick to replacing the 2 bolts which was plan B if I could not find a JD type cover.

The J D dealer can supply a J D blower housing, but only if I can supply him with the J D part number.

As for the shouldered housing screws, I gave up on them a long time ago
Down here they are silly prices ,if and that is a big IF, B & S Aust feels like supplying them in less than a year
So it was turn down some tube to fit, drilled it oversize then taped the inside finally cut it off to length with a Dremel cut off wheel mounted in the small lathe
Standard cap screw, undersized washer drilled out to be a close fit then spacer filled with silicon wound on tight to make sure the trio stay together .
B & S can kiss my rear end & customer gets billed B & S's full exorbitant price for each one.
A little blue locktite makes sure they are there when the mower comes back next time.
 
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StarTech

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They are the half turn version on the new cover.

I can no longer cross reference the Briggs PN to JD since they change JD PARTS website. Matter of fact the JD Parts website is now useless as I used it to find out which had the parts in stock so I could save making multiple trips in the area.
 

bertsmobile1

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A thousand thanks.
I will put the order in tomorrow then rig up a temporary strap to hold the buggered one on till the new one arrives, probably some time around 2022.
All of the suppliers have it as a special order, ie not returnable so I was reluctant to order some thing that I could not see just in case.
The web site is less than helpful but the counter staff are great.
 

StarTech

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This give you an idea of what come with the shroud. Note to differ filter cover knobs but you will normally receive two of each in the kit. I don't know if the filters come too but I think they do. Anyways I need to put one these in stock here too.
592814.JPG
 
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