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I have a Husqvarna riding mower with a Kohler Courage engine, model SV610. My husband broke the dipstick off at the top into the crankcase and we can't get it out.

Since it is plastic we can't use anything magnetic. I did try a reacher tool, grabbed it twice but since it's so long couldn't maneuver it.

I then tried to find my misplaced telescoping camera to see where it was which I couldnt find right then. Asked my son to come help, so I drained the oil before he had come over because it was getting dark. I eventually found the telescoping camera and found the dipstick resting on a part. He says it's toward the front of the engine. So we added oil back to it but it's not moving back toward the mower.

Can we do this on our own or do I now need to take it to a shop? I did all this work on it myself (oil change, replaced belt, replaced motor mount screws) because I didn't have extra money for someone else to do it.


These are bad pix but shows where it's laying.

I would recommend to keep fishing with the remote flexible grabber.

A shop may wanna pull the engine & split it open.. (read $$ )...

Those sticks get brittle over time, don't grind up your guy over this..

7394 said:

I would recommend to keep fishing with the remote flexible grabber.

A shop may wanna pull the engine & split it open.. (read $$ )...

Those sticks get brittle over time, don't up your guy over this..

Click to expand...

Thanks, do you think if we overfill it with oil it will float out of that area?

You can certainly try it..

That should be a bucket engine and they are dead easy to work on as the engine stays in the mower
So get a new top oil seal and a closure gasket
Remove both belts from the engine pulley
Then remove the blower housing ( 4 bolts )
Remove the flywheel ( 1 nut )
Remove the alternator ( 4 bolts ) and sit it aside , no need to remove it from the cover
If the crankshaft is nice, clean & shilly then give it a once over with some scotch brite right down the seal , lubricated with lots of WD 40 or similar
Wrap the key way slot with some film wrap to avoid damaging the top oil seal
Remove to top cover bolts ( 10 from memory )
Lift the top cover carefully strait up to avoid damaging the seal or pulling the cams out
Do not rotate anything
remove the dip stick with long pliers
Replace everything is reverse order clean the 4 bolts at the front of the engine and apply blue locktite to them .
I do a gasket in about 2 hours so allow you & your other half a full day

Because I am an old style mechanic , I put blue hylomar on the closure plate then use that to sick the gasket to it and a thin film of axel grease ( some times called bentonite grease ) on the crank case so in future the gasket will come off in 1 piece with the closure plate so can be reused as they are a little $$$ .

The really hard part is resisting the temptation to rotate the crank or cams while the plate is off thus potentially getting the engine out of time

bertsmobile1 said:

That should be a bucket engine and they are dead easy to work on as the engine stays in the mower
So get a new top oil seal and a closure gasket
Remove both belts from the engine pulley
Then remove the blower housing ( 4 bolts )
Remove the flywheel ( 1 nut )
Remove the alternator ( 4 bolts ) and sit it aside , no need to remove it from the cover
If the crankshaft is nice, clean & shilly then give it a once over with some scotch brite right down the seal , lubricated with lots of WD 40 or similar
Wrap the key way slot with some film wrap to avoid damaging the top oil seal
Remove to to

Click to expand...

bertsmobile1 said:

That should be a bucket engine and they are dead easy to work on as the engine stays in the mower
So get a new top oil seal and a closure gasket
Remove both belts from the engine pulley
Then remove the blower housing ( 4 bolts )
Remove the flywheel ( 1 nut )
Remove the alternator ( 4 bolts ) and sit it aside , no need to remove it from the cover
If the crankshaft is nice, clean & shilly then give it a once over with some scotch brite right down the seal , lubricated with lots of WD 40 or similar
Wrap the key way slot with some film wrap to avoid damaging the top oil seal
Remove to top cover bolts ( 10 from memory )
Lift the top cover carefully strait up to avoid damaging the seal or pulling the cams out
Do not rotate anything
remove the dip stick with long pliers
Replace everything is reverse order clean the 4 bolts at the front of the engine and apply blue locktite to them .
I do a gasket in about 2 hours so allow you & your other half a full day

Because I am an old style mechanic , I put blue hylomar on the closure plate then use that to sick the gasket to it and a thin film of axel grease ( some times called bentonite grease ) on the crank case so in future the gasket will come off in 1 piece with the closure plate so can be reused as they are a little $$$ .

The really hard part is resisting the temptation to rotate the crank or cams while the plate is off thus potentially getting the engine out of time

Click to expand...

Thanks. Our son attempted to take it apart. He works on cars but didn't want to get to far without reading up on it first. So I'll show him this. I'm going to have him replace my carburetor so maybe he can do both same day, who knows.... Regardless I guess I'm going to be out a mower for a while longer. It's already been 2 weeks. And I have 2 acres to cut.
This all started because a neighbor wouldn't fix my yard from their pigs rooting the crap out of my yard which trying to cut around them caused the engine mounts to get stripped out. I'm not very happy at all over all of this. I appreciate the advice .

Kohler have their engine repair manuals on line as a free download
IF yu can not find them come back here because there are a couple of other places that have them as well .

Here’s the Kohler service manual. https://www.mymowerparts.com/pdf/Ko...urage-SV470-SV480-SV530-SV540-SV590-SV600.pdf

bertsmobile1 said:

Kohler have their engine repair manuals on line as a free download
IF yu can not find them come back here because there are a couple of other places that have them as well .

Click to expand...

I have it.

..............................deleted

Today's update.....it doesn't float...

bertsmobile1 said:

That should be a bucket engine and they are dead easy to work on as the engine stays in the mower...

Click to expand...

I just watched a video on what you basically said above. It looks easy just time consuming and I think my son can do it no issue. Thank you so much. between your input and the video I think we can get the dipstick out. Should I buy a gasket though to just have on hand for this? It is 10 years old, bought second hand, I'm 3rd owner, bought 3 years ago.
Thanks again for your input.

Unless the gasket was fitted by some one like me it will tear when you take to plate off
And there is a good chance you will damage the top oil seal as well
So I would buy both to have on hand
Unless you have to do not touch the rocker cover and it is also worth while to have one of them on hand.
There is a mile of BS circulating about how bad a design it is but that is because lazy mechanics use power drivers to install the rocker cover bolts
Every leaky one I have repaired has been over tightened which defeats the whole reason for having a thick cork gasket on these in the first place
So the repair starts with panel beating the bolt holes flat again
They are really only done up finger tight + 1/2 turn the specs are in the manual, some thing like 8 to 10 ft lbs
Power drivers are good fir removing the top plate because there is a lot of bolts there so spannars or sockets take a long time but when replacing it I use a T bar spun with a finger then tighten finally in 2 stages with a 6" long tension wrench & 1/4" drive sockets
You 1/2 " drive 150 ft lbs torque wrench from Harbour Freight will not do the job properly .
Rule of thumb for torque wrenches is not to trust the top or bottom 20% so you should always use one where the tensions you need are as close to the middle of it's range as possible

I play with a lot of old motorcycles that have oil filled primary drives with pressed tin covers so I have a 0-20 ft lb torque wrench and when I use it my covers do not leak ( bike leaks every where else of course ) .

Thanks Bertsmobile1, I will let him know

And the last handful of torque wrenches I got from had scales the didn't line. They failed the torque calibration tests here. Returned them all for a refund. No wonder they had them on sale.

One of the 1/2 drive wrenches was over 15 ft-lbs off (higher then the wrench setting). No wonder I was stripping bolts. I now use a digital torque adapter to test my wrenches every so often. My current torque wrenches very accurate according the calibration test. Another thing don't store your torque wrenches with them loaded.

FWIW
The only spring loaded tension wrenches I have are the ones that are over 250 ft lbs with 3/4 " or 1" drives.
With the metallurgist hat on I can confidently say that the most accurate will always be the deflecting arm ones as they do not suffer from fatigue or permanent deformation as the spring loaded micrometer adjustments do .
Even better are the deflecting arm style with a flat spring arm and a signal trigger
My 6" one was bought back in 1966 and has been used by me & 1/2 the bike club members for decades
It got a calibration test when I got the 400 ft lb tension wrench cheap so sent them all off
All 5 of the deflecting beams came in under 3 % deviation which is more than good enough for non avaition use

I had a similar predicament with a brand-new Kubota UTV. The first time I checked the oil I found that they had overfilled it by a lot. So I got out the oil suctioner that I use on our push mower, which doesn't have a drain plug. I inserted it into the dipstick tube and sucked some oil out. But when I tried to remove the soft plastic tube, it got snagged and the end sliced off (I suspect there was a sharp burr on the lower end of the steel dipstick tube). I called the dealer in a panic, but both the salesman and the service manager said I should just leave it in there; that it would just sit in the bottom of the oil pan, and that baffles would prevent it from finding its way into moving parts. Looking at drawings of the engine confirmed that it shouldn't be able to go anywhere. I hope I'll be able to grab it when I do the first oil change, but after 14 hours, so far so good. Not being familiar with your engine, I'm not recommending this, but it could be worth investigating whether the best course of action might be to do nothing.

there is so much about this that just screams "phrasing"...but I will resist the urge to be course.

Old timer's trick, Use a straw with something sticky on the end of it (bubble gum) and carefully slide it down and push it onto the dip stick. If it's dry enough on the end, it will grab it.

How about using job weld to attach to the end of the broken dipstick. Much like the gum suggestion. You don’t need much

You are all getting way off track with this thread
Mom2 is not trying to repair a broken dip stick , which by the way can not be done & never even be tried, Mom2's problem is retrieving the broken off section of the dip stick that has fallen down into the sump .