Who has removed their governor?

[RobertD]

Who's removed their governor / disabled it?
What engine type / HP?
Any problems?

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I disabled mine from a 5hp Briggs from the 70-80s, and ran it on a go kart / centrifugal clutch. No mechanical problems after 2 years.

 

[pete]

I removed mine off of a 3 HP Briggs and Stratton with no problem. The motor is on a Bird Drover mini bike.

pete108

 

[crazycart]

i took the governer off of a 5.5 hp briggs,but after a while the valve siezed(now fixed and runs fine),then i got a older 8hp the goverener actually broke,but i can run it forever wide open andnot a problem yet,they sure dont make engines like they used to

 

[Jblankster]

now that im thinking about it, i think i bypassed my governor on my friends kart. i sold him an engine that had no remote throttle mount, i attached it to the thottle directly on the carb. the gov. is still there and connected. but i think the way i have it connected over rides the gov. any one know this?

 

[kibble]

*raises hand*

I have removed the governor off of my 9 horsie Subaru Robin ohc engine. I've run it with no problems for certain periods of time with open throttle, but I have not finished my kart yet (soon) so I have nothing more to say about it.

 

[Jblankster]

u got a scooby ohc eh? i cant wait to see that!

 

[RobertD]

I've never heard anything particularly bad happening... Anyone with a bad story involving the governor? (hoping not, obviously!)

 

[Jblankster]

ive heard some, never witnessed any though. some ive heard are like, the flywheel breaking loose and going into someones back, and other body parts, piston getting shot out of the engine block, blowing the head clean off... lotsa bad things lol.

 

[Ryan H]

I had an old Briggs 5 HP, the serial number dated it back to the 60's from a tiller machine. I bypassed the governor when I was about 12 and still ragged that thing out when I was 15, it just kept on running! This is a great website by the way. I'm just getting into school for master welding and wanna build my siblings a go-kart for a first time project.

 

[Russ2251]

Governors do 4 things.
1.) Protect the engine
2.) Protect equipment
2.) Protect inexperienced operators
3.) Prevents me from having some REAL fun.

I never use them and, so far, have not had a governor related failure. When converting a mower, tiller, edger, snow thrower or any other governed engine for kart or minibike use, the first thing I do is remove anything that restricts engine speed and/or horsepower. This includes removing governor and (usually) an undersized carburetor. Only time I had failures (not governor related) was when I converted weed eater engines for use on bicycles. 2 different flywheels blew apart at about 9500 to 10,000 rpm. I have a hole in my garage floor to prove it. In both cases, key sheared (no load) and split flywheel. Scary stuff.

 

[RobertD]

damn I bet that was scary. what was the weedeater rated at you think?

 

[Jerryburger]

A kid down the street trashed his 6hp tecumseh running it wide open, but this thing was really singing when it happened. Put a hole through the front of the case. (Snapped the rod.) I've had a 3hp Briggs in the 5000rpm range and haven't had too much problem, but it's just for occasional top-speed runs.

 

[Russ2251]

damn I bet that was scary. what was the weedeater rated at you think?

Don't know what they are rated at but model airplane builders run them at 7000 rpm.

 

[2or3wheels]

But those are 2 stroke engines made to RPM UP

 

[Russ2251]

Used to get 20,000 rpm out of COX .049 cu.in. model airplane engines. They ran on methanol/nitromethane/castor oil. Good stuff.