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Found a 20hp (Kohler MV20S) yardman at the dump a while back.

Owner said it threw a rod. Perfect project for my students.

Checked it out and that wasnt the case at all. In fact it had great compression on both sides.

The solonoid was ratched so we took it apart and re-soldered some joints.

The starter went shortly after we started working on it so we replaced that.

Fuel pump was weak so we replaced that.

Fuel lines were really hard so we replaced those as well as a new fuel filter.

Then after a bit of trouble shooting we found the main jet plugged with scally rusty crud. (Probably the main problem in the first place.)

Cleaned that, reassembled and its been running like a top ever since.

I just sold it for $300 (got my parts cost back)

Should have seen the groups face when it ran. Sure was nice to see hard work pay off.:thumbsup:

Just thought I'd share a success story from the world of ride on mowers and teaching kids

That's great. I'm glad it worked out well.

Good story! Benefits are two fold. Some one gets a running mower for cheap and kids learn how small engines work.
Keep up the good work!

I was wondering where the money was coming from. I take it you are teaching high school. You must have some kind of budget from your school to teach with. I see you sold the engine so I see where some of it come from. Doing this work I know there is a lot more then just parts. Shop supplies like chemicals, rags, uniforms, hard ware, etc. You must need a lot of tools for a whole class to share, lost, stolen, or broken. You must have to work with all kinds, with some not knowing the difference between a chisel and a screwdriver. This all take big money. I have a customer to get mine back from. Wouldn't it be cheaper just to keep your engines and disassemble and reassemble them. It would be cleaner, need no parts and still have to get them runing. That was the way they did it when the dealership sent me to GM school.

reynoldston said:

I was wondering where the money was coming from. I take it you are teaching high school. You must have some kind of budget from your school to teach with. I see you sold the engine so I see where some of it come from. Doing this work I know there is a lot more then just parts. Shop supplies like chemicals, rags, uniforms, hard ware, etc. You must need a lot of tools for a whole class to share, lost, stolen, or broken. You must have to work with all kinds, with some not knowing the difference between a chisel and a screwdriver. This all take big money. I have a customer to get mine back from. Wouldn't it be cheaper just to keep your engines and disassemble and reassemble them. It would be cleaner, need no parts and still have to get them runing. That was the way they did it when the dealership sent me to GM school.

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A little more info might answer some of your questions.

I teach grade 7 - 12 Fabrication (sheet metal, wrought, aluminum, welding etc), grade 10 -12 mechanics and grade 10 - 12 Wildlife. Yes Wildlife. The province of Alberta is full of hunters, trappers, outfitters and many more peolple who use the bush for varying reasons so they developed cruuriculum around it. I'm also a Hunter Education Instructor as well as a Firearms safety Instructor (which is why I teach the course)

Back on topic, my budget is $5000 for a ten month school year. With an extra $2500 if I need to replace any big ticket items Bandsaws, drill presses etc. (The $5K budget is called consumable items but I roll my parts through this budget) it also covers, fast orange, varsol, welding rods, drill bits gasses for the oxy-acet and mig welders, plasma cutter tips, gloves, welding gear and the list goes on.
I have to be careful because I can get a pile of my budget hooked up in parts in a hurry. If I sit on the engine (or whatever it is) the other classes take a hit. My junior high classes are busy with soldering, sand casting and a bunch of other projects so as you can imagine, the budget can deep six pretty quick.

The ride on mowers I try to roll in and out with cost recovery (except consumables) and that is a grade 11 - 12 class so its a bit smaller in size and easier to track progress ( class sizes are usually 15-20)

The kids in grade 10 (class sizes are 25 to 30 as a rule) and they bring in push mowers for the most part. I have a cache of briggs and Tecumseh.......etc on hand incase they need parts. If I don't have what they need then they generally have to buy it.

The fab classes can get interesting too. I have a 24' frame off a holiday trailer and we are going to try to make a tandem, tilt deck car hauler if the frame is heavy enough. I'll have to save some money to buy axles etc..

The other option is to do custom work for fellas, but having so many kids who like you said, don't know a screwdriver from a ratchet, I can run into problems making sure every bolt and nut is snugged up.

Its always interesting down the "shop":thumbsup:

Those kids are lucky to have you as their instructor. Great teachers are hard to come by. As the son of a retired teacher, and the husband of a teacher for nearly 19 years, I feel I have an informed opinion about what makes a great teacher. Keep up the good work sir!!

mullins87 said:

Those kids are lucky to have you as their instructor. Great teachers are hard to come by. As the son of a retired teacher, and the husband of a teacher for nearly 19 years, I feel I have an informed opinion about what makes a great teacher. Keep up the good work sir!!

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You are very kind.

I have great kids and super parent support so working hard for the kids is comes easy.

Years back I saw how important my job was first hand. We bulit a house on six acres with me as the general.

Well, all but one of the subs had old students on their crews. It was quite a thing to see guys that went through my program working on my house. (good thing we got along eh?:wink

Our demographics are unique up here. We are 15 hours north of the US border and 4 hours north of the nearest post-secondary. We usually dont have anymore than 10% of our grad class moving on to post-secondary. They usually enter the work force right out of high school.

So getting them some emplyable skills is pretty important whether they think so or not:tongue:

Right now we're all inside working as its -20 here today, but soon (2 months) we'll be ripping around the school yard at a whopping 5 miles and hour on our ride ons lol.

Had a young fella ask me this morning if he could take his truck transmission apart and fix it. How do ya say no?

Here we go.........:biggrin:

mumptia said:

You are very kind.
Had a young fella ask me this morning if he could take his truck transmission apart and fix it. How do ya say no?

Here we go.........:biggrin:

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It sound like something I would of done about 60 years ago. I just never could keep my hands clean, they always have grease stains on them right up to today. Sure sounds like a future mechanic to me. I was never afraid to take something apart but have to say there was and still is times I get over my head. Only now I am older and a little smarter.

reynoldston said:

It sound like something I would of done about 60 years ago. I just never could keep my hands clean, they always have grease stains on them right up to today. Sure sounds like a future mechanic to me. I was never afraid to take something apart but have to say there was and still is times I get over my head. Only now I am older and a little smarter.

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Quite a thing when being "over my head" can be a normal day. lol. Never know what is going to come through the bay door. Sound like you know exactly what I'm talking about.

I suppose now that you are a little older and a little smarter, you still jump in over your head but now you know how long you'll be there eh?

The machines and engines that come into this shop are many time the ones that are DOA with no expectations of revival. But, we've got a bunch of tenacity and lots of time. Sometimes we win and some times we have a moment of silence:laughing:.

I had an old 70's 5 horse briggs come in here a few years ago that looked like it was stored in salt water. Not one moveable part was even close to being workable. The cylinder was so corroded that it swelled and surrounded the rings (like a rope looks after being tied to a tree for 15 years). We ended up cutting parts out and using it for display. I called the dad to let him know that his engine was DOA and he started killing himself laughing ( I was set up:smile He sent another one in soon after.

The old blocks and aluminum parts sure come in handy for the casting unit I do with the grade 8's (got to supplement that budget eh?)

On semester break right now. So the new group has been shaking bushes looking for engines. Couldn't imagine what treasures they'll find on the farms around here he,he.

My problem is I don't always know how to say a simple word like NO to a customer. Oh just see what you can do they say to me. The problem is then I spend days on something and how do you charge someone for this, I just can't, seeing a lot of my customer just don't have the money and I feel sorry for them. This pass spring I had a customer that had his ATV to a big local dealer and he just spent big money to get it fixed and when he got it back it ran just as bad as when he brought it there. I told him I would fix it after he give me the just see what you can do story. It just needed a new camshaft which wasn't a bad job. But that wasn't the end of the story. Now the ATV won't shift right so I am the one that is responsible to fix it. After days of tracing wiring circuits I found that the dealer broke the plug to the computer. I felt sorry for him so I only charges him a few hours for the wiring job. For a hobby I keep my eyes open for old outboard boat motors. Just something I can pick up for next to nothing. I know what you mean by the one sitting under salt water. Never had one setting in salt water but have had them that that were laying on the bottom of the lake in fresh water and they can't be much better. When you have troubles with them is after it is out of the water and full of water and then left outside in the freezing temperature. I call that hard water and it sure breaks things.

I'm not to good at saying no unless I know we'll be putting money into dead horse. Then I make some phones calls to the owners.

Funny though, some parents will pay anyway. All in the name of learning they'll say.

Nice to have that support from home now and again.

I've seen many times how "pay it forward" works. The compassion you show to another is contagious and it takes little effort for them to pass it on.