Briggs 3hp Restoration

[Tomahawk27]

As I said in my other thread, I was looking for a project to work on in my spare time (in addition to my other kart) and figured it would be both fun and informative to restore a neglected 3hp Briggs I had lying around. I considered buying a 5hp or smaller GX but figured, you can't beat free.

The first two pictures are before I touched anything. Third is a picture of all the linkages, which is definitely going to be useful putting everything back together and the fourth is a pic of the tubes coming from the carb. Lastly, a pic of what it looks like currently.

Last time I used this engine was just about a year ago and I could tell it needed some work. I'm not looking to sink a lot of money into this but I was thinking: tear it down and do everything that should be done (I'll need suggestions), new filter and exhaust, and remove governor.

To start, I'm going to clean the carb. I don't want to tear everything down and then get lost or in over my head. Aside from watching YouTube videos, any recommendations or tricks?

Wish me luck and stay tuned, I'm going to be asking a lot of questions lol

 

[landuse]

I am going to be following this closely.

Those pickup tubes look really shot though!

 

[Tomahawk27]

I am going to be following this closely.

Those pickup tubes look really shot though!

I was thinking the same thing. The tube with a small filter on the end seems to be okay as I was able to get carb cleaner through it from the other end. However, I think picture 4 is the jet? If it is, I'm going to have trouble getting it out; the rust has removed whatever slot there was to get a screwdriver on it. Drill it out?

I plan on boiling the carb in lemon juice once everyone is out of the house lol, so in the meantime, I made a bit more progress in disassembling it. Took a quick picture of the piston and valves, as well as a general picture of it coming all apart. Comments? Proceed?

 

[landuse]

Have a look at this link regarding your carb. It has some cool pics and info.

I would take a wire wheel to the piston head to clean it up a bit and get the carbon off

 

[Tomahawk27]

Progress has been slow but tonight I got the side cover off:



A little bit of oily sludge still in there but my main question is (and it may be a dumb one), does this engine have a governor? All of the other ones I have seen are the little gear with the flyweights but obviously, there isn't one in there...

 

[Tomahawk27]

Well, upon further research, it turns out I have an air vane governor. Truthfully, I had never heard of this type before and unfortunately, there don't seem to be a whole lot of videos out there for removing them. Going off of pictures I took before disassembly and the parts list online, I think this is the governor:





So, I guess if I remove that plate, the spring, and rod to the throttle, I should be good to go (minus the modifications I will need to make)?

 

[firemanjim]

Yep, I believe so.... That's the rod we used to tie a piece of string to, so we had "turbo boost" on demand.....

 

[Tomahawk27]

Yep, I believe so.... That's the rod we used to tie a piece of string to, so we had "turbo boost" on demand.....

Haha. Hopefully if all goes well, I won't have to rely on a piece of string

 

[OzFab]

Maybe you missed the point, the piece of string is a governor override...

 

[Tomahawk27]

No, I understood what he meant by using the string, I guess I just didn't say why I won't need to rely on it. I assume it got lost in the lengthy first post, but one of the main reasons for tearing this down was to remove the governor and just use a direct throttle setup if I can figure it out

 

[OzFab]

So you did, my bad

It shouldn't be too difficult to sort a direct link, by the looks of it, you have most of the hardware there already, it's simply a matter of repurposing...

 

[supermanotorious]

keep proceeding, do you watch Fast and Loud on Discovery? in the words of Aaron Kaufman: "like I said, motors just want to run" (Bad *** Bronco Part 2)

 

[Tomahawk27]

So you did, my bad

It shouldn't be too difficult to sort a direct link, by the looks of it, you have most of the hardware there already, it's simply a matter of repurposing...

No problem, like I said, it was rather easy to overlook.

That's what I'm hoping for. I figure that if I can't do it with the parts available, it shouldn't require many more new ones to get it running without the governor.

keep proceeding, do you watch Fast and Loud on Discovery? in the words of Aaron Kaufman: "like I said, motors just want to run" (Bad *** Bronco Part 2)

I do actually. Can't say I always agree with some of their style choices but for the most part, they buy some pretty nice/neat cars and they usually turn out pretty cool. Was the Bronco the episode where they sold it to the owner of "Twin Peaks?"

 

[Poboy kartman]

No problem, like I said, it was rather easy to overlook.

That's what I'm hoping for. I figure that if I can't do it with the parts available, it shouldn't require many more new ones to get it running without the governor.



I do actually. Can't say I always agree with some of their style choices but for the most part, they buy some pretty nice/neat cars and they usually turn out pretty cool. Was the Bronco the episode where they sold it to the owner of "Twin Peaks?"

Not only is that show based on a shop in my general vicinity.....but I work around several of those kind of guys....as well as storage hunters......lol....but reality life is better than reality TV......NO Kardashians around here tho......but look for the new series...."Poboy Survivor ".....

 

[Tomahawk27]

We do have our fair share of Texans on here, I hadn't even considered that some may have had dealings with them. I will say that the episode last night had me actually laughing about the in-shop bickering.

Local Kardashians is a matter of preference lol. Some find them annoying beyond belief, others think that they are very attractive; I don't think there is a middle ground.

From posts I have read of yours, Poboy Survivor would certainly qualify as "must see TV" haha

 

[landuse]

We do have our fair share of Texans on here, I hadn't even considered that some may have had dealings with them. I will say that the episode last night had me actually laughing about the in-shop bickering.

Local Kardashians is a matter of preference lol. Some find them annoying beyond belief, others think that they are very attractive; I don't think there is a middle ground.

From posts I have read of yours, Poboy Survivor would certainly qualify as "must see TV" haha

I think the kardashians (don't merit a capital letter) are the ugliest, most annoying family around. People obsession with them is just mind boggling

 

[Tomahawk27]

I think the kardashians (don't merit a capital letter) are the ugliest, most annoying family around. People obsession with them is just mind boggling

I couldn't agree more. To this day, aside from an "infamous" tape, I still can't figure out what they've done to warrant a show on their lives

 

[landuse]

I couldn't agree more. To this day, aside from an "infamous" tape, I still can't figure out what they've done to warrant a show on their lives

Yeah....I think a show about my life would be more interesting, and believe me...my life is not interesting!!

 

[Tomahawk27]

As much as I like ripping on the Kardashians, I think it's time to get this thread back on track lol.

I boiled the carb and some of the linkages in lemon juice and things turned out pretty nice. The only thing that I'm still not entirely confident in are the pickup tubes. I'll post a pic or two soon and see if they look good enough

 

[Tomahawk27]

First picture is the end result of a little scrubbing and a boiling bath in lemon juice. The second and third pictures are the pickup tubes I was wondering about. Maybe someone who knows Briggs well, or just what these things should look like, can tell me if these are good to go?