Hi all,

This weekend we had races in Princeton BC.  It was a whole lot of fun.  All of the races were super close with just about everybody competing evenly with others in the field.  It was pretty sweet.  This was the first time I have got to chase my dad and his 8hp with my new briggs 12.5 IC.  His machine is set up really nice for corners, and the light machine combined with his 140-150lbs makes him an 8 that can give most 12 hp's a run for their money.  I weigh in at about 200lbs, and my machine is a good 100lbs heavier when compared to his due to the fact I run a tranny (He is just a belt and jackshaft) and the heavy opposed.  But the opposed proved to have the torque to give my dad a run for his money.  We are pretty evenly matched now.  We run pretty evenly now, and the only passing happens on mistakes, or when my dad lets me past because he figures I have a better chance of catching the guy in front.

Anyways, one of the things I have been fighting with is our club seems to have forgotten the fact we run classes .  Because we only have 3 guys that run the above 12hp class, it always ends up that I run with them.  I am just fast enough that I bump up to the B-main and miss the C-main.  The problem is I am just fast enough to give the guys running 16hp a difficulty passing (not that I am blocking, but I definetly cant let them get the inside line), but once they are past, I just don't have the power to keep up.

One of the problems I am having is that the thing coughs and sputters when you hit bad bumps.  Does anybody have any idea why it would do this?  I put a vent in the side of the float bowl, but I haven't had any luck on getting the thing to not cough.  If anybody has any ideas of what else it could be I would appreciate it.  Any advantage I can get to help me compete against these larger mowers is a big benifit.  Thanks

Grant Wright

Hi all,

I run a 700 series Peerless on my mower.  After reading the 700 series build thread, I got the input bearing seal so that I could run gear oil.  Then I took my tranny apart to install the seal.  My problem is though, my input bearings are two long bearings that are sandwiched together.  If I press the bearing either way, it will either come out the inside, or out the outside.  I don't know if any of this makes sense, but the deal is, I cannot fit the seal in there.  I looked at Tom Fox's 700 race prep thread and it looks like he has two smaller bearings that are spaced apart.

Is my best bet to go with short bearings like Tom had in that transmission, or is there a bearing that will just fit with my seal in place?  I like the way my current bearing runs the whole length of the bearing bore, because it should be very tough, but it doesn't even have an o-ring or room for one, and I do want to be able to run gear lube.  Actually last race I did run gear lube, I just drilled holes in my pulley so as it leaked past the input bearing it would just drain out the center of the pulley.

Thanks
Grant

Hi all,

Just new to the website.  I have been racing lawnmowers for a year now here in British Columbia.  I have been running a mower with a 10hp Briggs Syncro-Balanced engine.  I have never been happy with the performance that I have gotten out of the 10hp and the worst thing about it is that my dad smokes me with his 8 horse.  It is true that his mower and him are lighter than I am, but we originally thought that it would be compensated if I had 2 more hp than he.  Its not so so I am looking for a new engine. 

The other day my dad came home with a 12.5 I/C opposed twin.  It seems like an interesting possibility, as I am sure that the twin would give me a lot more low end torque than the single cylinder.  However looking at the model number I noticed that the engine is 40cid.  It seems weird that it is so large a displacement.  Even the 16hp I/C twins don't seem to be a whole lot larger.  So basically is this a good motor choice, or am I just getting a bit heavy slug of a motor that wont rev out nice at all.  The motor specs are

12.5 I/C opposed twin
Model # 404707 type 0115
code 85120612

Any suggestions or ideas are appreciated.  Thanks

Grant