School me on Kohler electronic ignition

[ZXT 2,394]

This isn't on a WH (yet), but I figured I'd ask since I'd never seen this system before.

 

Yesterday, I bought a K301 from my neighbor off of a Lincoln Roughneck welder. It has some sort of magneto ignition on it. He had been running it with a traditional coil and points setup for testing, and hadn't tried the magneto ingition.

 

I hooked the original ignition system back up to the points and condenser, and it fired right up. It is electric start, but has a pull rope pulley and doesn't appear to have a stator, unless the wires are tucked away somewhere. I'm assuming the generator on the welder charged the battery? Seems odd that a welder would put out 12v DC, but then again I'm not familiar with them.

 

If any of you have come across such a system and can share any info, I'd appreciate it!

[ebinmaine 63,370]

 

 

[Pullstart 59,944]

If you have a spare side plate and stator flywheel combo, you could easily swap it out!

[953 nut 52,046]

In the early '80s I had a Lincoln powered by a Kohler 12 HP and the welder did have a battery charger built in. It was so dependable that I never had to work on the ignition with the exception of spark plugs.

Have you removed the engine from the welder yet? Most engines that are directly coupled have a tapered crank shaft.

[ZXT 2,394]

8 hours ago, pullstart said:

If you have a spare side plate and stator flywheel combo, you could easily swap it out!

Would that require converting to battery ignition? I haven't pulled the shroud off to see what the ignition setup is like, but I suspect that it is under the flywheel in place of the stator. If that's the case, I'm just going to leave it alone. I plan on putting it on the 800 special I picked up a while back. I don't plan on having anything on it to draw power.

46 minutes ago, 953 nut said:

In the early '80s I had a Lincoln powered by a Kohler 12 HP and the welder did have a battery charger built in. It was so dependable that I never had to work on the ignition with the exception of spark plugs.

Have you removed the engine from the welder yet? Most engines that are directly coupled have a tapered crank shaft.

That's probably the case with this one then. Engine has been removed from the welder for a while. It does have a tapered shaft, so I'll have to get creative to make it work or swap the crank out.

[ebinmaine 63,370]

7 minutes ago, ZXT said:

make it work

There are adapters available.

@Achto or @Shynon maybe? I've seen one used by them?

 

[Pullstart 59,944]

6 minutes ago, ebinmaine said:

There are adapters available.

@Achto or @Shynon maybe? I've seen one used by them?

 

the adapter by @Achto looks very similar to a 4.5” disc grinder if I recall.  How he made that funny shape fit on a crankshaft taper is beyond me!

[oliver2-44 8,899]

11 hours ago, ZXT said:

 Seems odd that a welder would put out 12v DC, but then again I'm not familiar with them.

They probable just tap the welder stator part way through to get 12v.

At the dams we had some old 1940 vintage generator exciters that a multitude of taps connected to a sliding contact bar.  all the wires from the taps connected to a "Frankenstine looking "black ebony asbestos insulator board that had verticle rows of fixed contacts with a sliding  bar of contacts to provide varying generator excitation. 

[Achto 26,624]

12 hours ago, pullstart said:

the adapter by @Achto looks very similar to a 4.5” disc grinder if I recall.  How he made that funny shape fit on a crankshaft taper is beyond me!

 

The tapered shaft on the engine that I had needed an extra step taken off in order to make the adapter fit.

 

I started with this.

 

Ground the shaft down to this.

 

Then installed the adapter.

 

The adapter that I used was taper to 1 1/8" keyed shaft. Here is a link to the taper to 1" and a link for taper to 1 1/8".

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Crank-shaft-Adapter-Taper-to-1-Inch-Generator-Pressure-Washer-Engine-bushing-/132083677591

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Crank-shaft-Adapter-Taper-to-1-1-8-Inch-Generator-Pressure-Washer-Engine/111797583847?hash=item1a07a7bfe7:g:wOYAAOSwA4dWHr9t

 

As for the electronic ignition with a charging stator. Normally most of the stator is wound for charging the battery, 2 or 3 of the posts on the stator will be used to run the ignition.

 

 

[ZXT 2,394]

Thanks guys. This engine has a fairly stubby output shaft, that is like 1.5" diameter. I'll have to get exact measurements and get to looking for an adapter.