The recoil on the starter finally gave out on the 30+ year old Briggs & Stratton motor on my McLane. Once I plugged my motor model number into B&S website I realized it was considerate an antique motor and I decided it would be less trouble to just replace the whole motor.
EDIT: 1/2" x 19.5" (stock) belt works with adjusting clutch rod.
There is a YouTube Video walking you through it as well.
Parts needed.
Motor: I went with a Harbor Freight Predator Engine just like in the video. The bolt patter matches up great. Mine is a 20" reel mower so I can't attest to other size mowers bolt patterns.
Pulley: I went with a 2.5" diameter 3/4" bore from Ace Hardware. The pic in the link shows the wrong size but it's the correct part number for the 2.5" diameter pulley. The pulley on the B&S was a 2.5" so I stuck with that. Just be sure you make sure you get the proper bore for what ever size shaft your motor has.
Misc: If you use this particular motor you'll need some kind of spacer equaling about 1/2" shown in pic below. That bar hits the bottom of the air cleaner. You also need a longer bolt here as well. The new pulley was hitting part of the assembly and engaged the clutch so I needed to raise the motor. I raised it just over 1/2" with two nuts and a washer. Putting the bolts through the motor and then threading nuts on was much easier then trying to get the bolts through a stack of 8 washers. I used 2.5" bolts for mounting the motor. Again with this particular motor I needed to trim on of the mounting bolts to about 1.9" (still needed a hammer to tap it in a bit too). It would be the drive side back bolt that needs to be trimmed down.
Worst part of the whole thing was getting the shroud that goes around the reel back on. Put gas and oil in the motor and it fired on the second pull. Going from an old 3HP motor to a new 6.5HP motor is a huge difference. It had been 5 days since I last mowed (replacing the mower took me 2 days) and the grass was wet from watering and it didn't even bat an eye. Just plowed right through it. The new motor is quite a bit heavier too. So that's a plus.
I think that's about it. I could easily do this in a couple of hours now that I know exactly what I need and how to do it. It's like a have a brand new mower now. Well worth the sub $200 investment.
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EDIT: 1/2" x 19.5" (stock) belt works with adjusting clutch rod.
There is a YouTube Video walking you through it as well.
Parts needed.
Motor: I went with a Harbor Freight Predator Engine just like in the video. The bolt patter matches up great. Mine is a 20" reel mower so I can't attest to other size mowers bolt patterns.
Pulley: I went with a 2.5" diameter 3/4" bore from Ace Hardware. The pic in the link shows the wrong size but it's the correct part number for the 2.5" diameter pulley. The pulley on the B&S was a 2.5" so I stuck with that. Just be sure you make sure you get the proper bore for what ever size shaft your motor has.
Misc: If you use this particular motor you'll need some kind of spacer equaling about 1/2" shown in pic below. That bar hits the bottom of the air cleaner. You also need a longer bolt here as well. The new pulley was hitting part of the assembly and engaged the clutch so I needed to raise the motor. I raised it just over 1/2" with two nuts and a washer. Putting the bolts through the motor and then threading nuts on was much easier then trying to get the bolts through a stack of 8 washers. I used 2.5" bolts for mounting the motor. Again with this particular motor I needed to trim on of the mounting bolts to about 1.9" (still needed a hammer to tap it in a bit too). It would be the drive side back bolt that needs to be trimmed down.
Worst part of the whole thing was getting the shroud that goes around the reel back on. Put gas and oil in the motor and it fired on the second pull. Going from an old 3HP motor to a new 6.5HP motor is a huge difference. It had been 5 days since I last mowed (replacing the mower took me 2 days) and the grass was wet from watering and it didn't even bat an eye. Just plowed right through it. The new motor is quite a bit heavier too. So that's a plus.
I think that's about it. I could easily do this in a couple of hours now that I know exactly what I need and how to do it. It's like a have a brand new mower now. Well worth the sub $200 investment.
