Briggs 8hp flathead rebuild - small keeper appeared

[Mdesmond]

Rebuilding an old 8hp Briggs flathead engine. Bought used - and it was well used. Actually worn out. It has been a cool / interesting effort. First time doing it. New piston, rings, valves, carb, magneto - so pretty deep into the project. This morning I noticed a keeper on the workbench that I didn’t remove (photo attached). Any idea where this likely came from / off of??

 

[ILENGINE]

I would guess the governor shaft to prevent it from slipping in or out

item 615 on this diagram https://www.partstree.com/models/19...zontal-engine/cyl-crankcase-piston-control-1/

 

[Mdesmond]

I would guess the governor shaft to prevent it from slipping in or out

item 615 on this diagram https://www.partstree.com/models/19...zontal-engine/cyl-crankcase-piston-control-1/

Thxs much. Now that I think of it - the engine was leaning with the governor down.

 

[Mdesmond]

Prior answer was right on the money. Another question: beginning to reassemble the engine. Ordered a gasket kit. Do you recommend using gasket sealer in addition to the gaskets in the kit? The kit has 4-5 of the same gaskets. Would there be any reason to double up / 2x thickness of a gasket by using two instead of one?

 

[ILENGINE]

No sealant and the different gaskets are used to set the end play in the crankshaft. Standard thickness is normally .015 which is usually the thickest gasket in the set for the side cover. sometimes intake gaskets get stacked on certain engines.

 

[Mdesmond]

ILENGINE:

You’re a wealth of good / valuable information. Thxs very much for the input. I guess I will put the side cover on with the thickest gasket and see if all snugs up will.

 

[Mdesmond]

ILENGINE:
Per prior note thxs much for input. I’m a novice at this but enjoying the process. Made a rookie mistake on valve lash gap and got that corrected by pressing down on the valve (like the spring would do) when setting the gap. Very good compression now. I could use input on two items: The new magneto has two smaller wires like 15” long. One I believe goes to a clip on the throttle plate. Not sure what to do with the other? Are these grounding wires? Kill switch wire? I cleaned / filed the area where the magneto mounts to make sure I have good contact. Also working the Governor linkage/ adjustment . Watched 1-2 videos on this. This is a little counter intuitive - when the motor slows (due to load) the governor arm should drop which should pull the butterfly open to add more fuel. Is that right?

 

[ILENGINE]

The wires are for shutting off the engine aka kill wire. Normally it would connect to a shorting clip and you can just snip off the wire you don't need. The governor spring pulls the throttle open which in you case I believe the spring and tension control are below the governor arm so would pull the governor arm down.

 

[Mdesmond]

My engine is an older vintage and has the metal grounding plate attached to a head bolt - that you can touch to the spark plug to kill the spark. Now that you confirmed what those wire will do - I might add a kill switch and remove the old spark plug grounding plate. On my year engine when the engine spins fast the governor arm gets pushed up which I think should close the butterfly/ reduce fuel to the engine. If the governor linkage directly (hard linkage) controls the butterfly on the carb., not sure what the throttle cable does or what is attached to the back of the throttle plate (via springs) that moves as a result of the throttle cable?

 

[ILENGINE]

You can keep the grounding strap and not even use the kill wire. If this is the setup with the throttle control below the fuel tank the throttle cable connects to a slide that rotates a plate on the back side which has an arm that connects the governor spring to the governor arm.