J Deere Mower

[Halfathumb]

No question, just mumbling! Started doing the spring maintenance thing and couldn't get the spark plug on the left out. Tried several time until it broke off inside the head. Fortunately I have a neighbor that is a very experiences mechanic and another neighbor that is a very experienced machinist. Long story short, after removing the ceramic insides of the plug, tried several methods to include putting a bolt inside the plug and welding it in. All we accomplished was breaking off the bolt head. So had to order a new head and valve cover (Oops! Bent it trying to knock the head loose) from Jack's for $170. I've had the mower 4 years  & just gave up on trying to replace that plug but got bull headed this year. The other one came out perfectly. Oh well, spring tears 


Raining a lot for the next few days anyway.
Jim

[R Clark]

How many hours do you have on that mower?

My Gravely has completed 6 full seasons of service and I've never replaced the plugs (Kohler twin cylinder, 25 hp).  How many hours should I expect out of a set of plugs?  I only have 240 hours on the machine.  Oil gets changed every year, and transaxle fluid every three years; I never hit the number of hours specified for maintenance intervals.

[Gary G™]

Our JD LX270 has 20+ years on it cutting way more acreage than it was designed for.
Bought a subcompact last year and still use the LX right around the house.

[Halfathumb]

How many hours do you have on that mower?

My Gravely has completed 6 full seasons of service and I've never replaced the plugs (Kohler twin cylinder, 25 hp).  How many hours should I expect out of a set of plugs?  I only have 240 hours on the machine.  Oil gets changed every year, and transaxle fluid every three years; I never hit the number of hours specified for maintenance intervals.

I'm questimating 210 hours for the 4 years I've owned her. The business end of the plug I couldn't remove was is in pretty fair shape. No more changing every year. Just oil, filters and blade sharpening yearly for this kid.

[daddo]

Anti-sieze compound helps prevent this. Use it on all the bolts.

[barnowl]

Anti-sieze compound helps prevent this. Use it on all the bolts.

AND the spark plug threads.

And hand tight, plus 1/4 turn. Period.

No need to over tighten.

[Halfathumb]

AND the spark plug threads.

And hand tight, plus 1/4 turn. Period.

No need to over tighten.

My friend and neighbor who is helping me introduced me to anti-seize compound. I never over tighten spark plugs. My father taught me that back in the 50's, the one in question was factory set. I think I'll use the ant-seize stuff on the mower blade bolts also.

[Robert Adams]

My friend and neighbor who is helping me introduced me to anti-seize compound. I never over tighten spark plugs. My father taught me that back in the 50's, the one in question was factory set. I think I'll use the ant-seize stuff on the mower blade bolts also.

          I think those briggs engine heads must have been designed by Ford because stuck spark plugs are common on them. At least they know how to make a spark plug unlike ford and their two piece monstrosities that fall apart.


          Don't put antisieze on the blade bolt. It needs to go on dry like lug nuts. Use a 3/8 impact to install and remove blades. 1/2" will get too tight.

[daddo]

I've used a light film of grease (Sometimes anti-seize) on blades and lug nuts for well over 40 years and have had no problems with frozen blades or lugs, nor have I had any come loose. For aluminum, I use anti-seize only.
  I know there are arguments over this, such as friction keeping the bolts in place, and I agree it can mess up the actual torque specs, but not once have I seen anyone use a torque wrench on a plug, lugs or the blade nut/bolts.  It's easy to severely over torque with an impact wrench, but I am guilty of that too.
I got tired of sitting on the side of the road with lugs that were stuck, and under the tractor with blade nuts that were rusted tight.

The good thing is, this is just FYI, so take it with a grain of salt- that takes the responsibility off of me. In fact, if this wasn't in writing, I would deny I ever said it. 



 In reference to the Ford plugs; You may be talking about the Ford 5.4L and/or 4.6L V8 engines ? with plugs that come loose or get stuck. The torque specs on my 4.6L was about 86 inches- just over 7 lbs. I've always torqued them to 20lbs and have had no problems with loose plugs or stuck plugs for 200k miles. I just couldn't agree to 86 inches- way too loose for an engine heating up and cooling down.
 If that is not your reference- never mind.


 The reason, if I remember, I went with Ford at the time may have been because of the engine slap Chevy was having in there engines and calling it normal. Scares me when bad engineering is called normal. I don't remember if Ford called the badly engineered plug situation normal or not, but I bet they wished they could.  lol

[Halfathumb]

I've used a light film of grease (Sometimes anti-seize) on blades and lug nuts for well over 40 years and have had no problems with frozen blades or lugs, nor have I had any come loose. For aluminum, I use anti-seize only.
  I know there are arguments over this, such as friction keeping the bolts in place, and I agree it can mess up the actual torque specs, but not once have I seen anyone use a torque wrench on a plug, lugs or the blade nut/bolts.  It's easy to severely over torque with an impact wrench, but I am guilty of that too.
I got tired of sitting on the side of the road with lugs that were stuck, and under the tractor with blade nuts that were rusted tight.

The good thing is, this is just FYI, so take it with a grain of salt- that takes the responsibility off of me. In fact, if this wasn't in writing, I would deny I ever said it. 



 In reference to the Ford plugs; You may be talking about the Ford 5.4L and/or 4.6L V8 engines ?  with plugs that come loose or get stuck. The torque specs on my 4.6L was about 86 inches- just over 7 lbs. I've always torqued them to 20lbs and have had no problems with loose plugs or stuck plugs for 200k miles. I just couldn't agree to 86 inches- way too loose for an engine heating up and cooling down.
 If that is not your reference- never mind.


 The reason, if I remember, I went with Ford at the time may have been because of the engine slap Chevy was having in there engines and calling it normal. Scares me when bad engineering is called normal. I don't remember if Ford called the badly engineered plug situation normal or not, but I bet they wished they could.  lol

Daddo; I've been burned so many times in my 72 years on this earth that I take just about everything (except the Bible) with a grain of salt. I was a fraud investigator which increased my BS detector to higher level. BTW, does anyone know the head torque & pattern for a Briggs & Stratton 20 HP or the best place to get reliable information?