Cold Starting Kohler

[Paul D. 26]

I have a C141 with the 14 horse Kohler. It does NOT like cold weather. Being that I run a snow blower on it in the winter this is somewhat problematic. I recently rebuild the engine, replaced the fuel line and the fuel pump seems to be in good shape(inspected it when rebuilding the motor). I am looking for any advise as to how to get this old horse starting a little faster. I always disengage the trans. so thats not a factor. I am considering upping my battery size if I can't get anything else to work. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

[can whlvr 994]

is it after it sits for a while,like a week or so,mine do that as if the fuel pump needs to be bled,ive often thought of a squeeze bulb to prime the pump

[Paul D. 26]

I ran it this past Friday and then Saturday during the day I went out to clean up some of the edges and it was still starting cold. Now it was only 7 deg. so I am sure that didn't help but it just doesn't want to start in the cold. It will kick over enough for the starter to disengage and the quit. and then when it finally does start it blows a lot of smoke like its flooded but I really don't think its flooded. Maybe the battery isn't getting the engine turning fast enough? I did try hooking up some jumper cables to my truck and that seemed to help, it just cranked faster.

[tunahead72 2,546]

How's your battery? Check the voltage before you try to start it -- if you're not reading about 12.6 volts or so, that may be part of your problem.

What weight oil are you using? 7 degrees is just plain cold, Kohler recommends 5W-20 or 5W-30 below 32 degrees. 10W-30 and 10W-40 are okay between 0 and 32 degrees.

[meadowfield 2,756]

Paul,

a lead acid battery loses around 1% of it's capacity for every 2 degree drop from 70 deg F. So if your battery is not in that good a shape - i.e. 33Ah when new, but 20% down now through ageing thats 27Ah, and at 7 deg thats another chunk of the capacity gone, so now say 19Ah. Then the battery chemistry does not work anywhere near as well when below freezing, and you will find even a good 12V battery can easily drop to sub 8V whilst cranking in cold weather.

Mix that in with a weak earth, poor connections, old starter, old plug (though you say you have rebuilt so could be all new parts and connections) and the fact you are trying to turn 20lbs+ of crank through treacle and a compression stroke, it's a wonder they ever start !!! oh and if it's anything like all 3 of my C series, then the fuel will have drained back to the tank and it takes 20 revolutions just to get fuel to the carb...

I'd certainly try jumping from something else a few times to see if thats what makes the difference, if it does see if you can get a bigger battery to fit. Otherwise you might need to look at cleaning up the starter/solenoid, replacing the starter/battery cables.

mark

(in the UK where yesterday morning it was -4C [25F] and today 10C [50F] )

[bitten 134]

When you rebuilt the engine did you do the carburetor also? How is your spark? Do you have a good spark plug and coil and all that?

[Ken B 3,189]

What is the condition of your cables and connections? Make sure you have a good clean ground. Make sure your battery has plenty of cold cranking amps, I like to have a battery with a minimum of 350 CCA's.

[Paul D. 26]

Well i did a little checking tonight and here is what I have found. The cables, ground, plug and all that stuff are all good and when I rebuilt the engine I took the starter apart and inspected it, also took the carb off and cleaned and inspected it. On a side note, I could not believe how clean that carb was after 30 years. What I did find is that I think the previous owner(My Dad) went the cheap route when he put in a new battery. It only has 250 cold cranking amps. So while Today is a balmy 20 deg. Much warmer than the 7 deg. the other day but still pretty darn cold. I hooked up some jumper cables to my truck and had the tractor started in less than 30 sec. So I guess I will be looking into a new Battery. Anyone here have any input on battery tenders? I don't really see a down side on them (other than accidentally driving away with them still plugged in )

[tunahead72 2,546]

Paul,

Sounds like you're pretty close to a solution here....

There've been a couple of threads recently about Battery Tenders and other brand chargers. Here's the most recent one, the second is linked by Scott (smoreau) there:

There's also a more general discussion about batteries here:

I don't have any personal experience with any of the newer chargers, but I do have several friends who use Battery Tenders on their motorcycles, and they love 'em. There's also a company called Yuasa that makes a lot of batteries, and also markets a line of similar chargers, they seem to be very good quality as well. One of those two companies (can't remember which right now) also has a lot of educational information on batteries and how they get weak, might be worth a read if you have some spare time.

[edur1710 0]

i use a battery tender on my bike and my wheel horse love it never had any problem with either of them i would buy one ya cant really go wrong with it

[wheelhorse656 20]

another thing you can do to help add more power to the starter is putting the ground cable on one of the bolts that hold on the starter. and not the frame or block of the engine. as far as a battrie tender i just hook up the battery charger and set it to 2 amps and charge for 20 mins every 1.5 weeks to 2 weeks. since I have started doing that i have gotten alot longer life from my batterys.

[Paul D. 26]

Thanks for all the input folks. I think I may have to try that ground to the starter but I still think there will be a new battery before next winter. I see TSC has one with 360 cold cranking amps and that's the best I've seen. I also was looking on the battery's plus website they have gel battery's that they recommend for tractors. Has anyone tried these or know anything about them? Here is a link to there site if ya want to take a gander

http://www.batteriesplus.com/products/556-SLI/6427-Lawn-and-Garden-Battery/146754-Wheel-Horse/C141-Riding-Mower/C141-Riding-Mower/1.aspx

[Paul D. 26]

I also see that Interstate Battery's has one with 575cca . Thats what I'm talkin about! We may have found a winner. As long as it fits... I'll check in the Morning

Weight: 41 Width: 6.88 Length: 10.25 Height: 8.63