Cub 2284 Kohler CH23 Swap???
 

Hi guys,

My Cub 2284 is a great tractor and I love these Supers/Cyclops tractors. Mine has a 60" Haban deck that I mow with and sometimes it seems like the engine doesn't have as much power as my 2072 when running the same 60" Haban deck.

I thought, since I have a brand new Kohler CH23 (which has quite a bit more displacement than the CH22), I'd swap it in my 2284. Well it's not that easy because of one big problem. The CH23 has a 1-1/8" shaft and the CH22 has a 1" shaft. Please give me your advice as to what direction I should go on this.

If I put the CH23 in, along with a GT2550 electric PTO (that I have sitting around) to fit the 1-1/8" shaft, will everything be fine? The pulleys on the electric PTO shaft for both tractors is 6" in diameter, so I should be fine in that respect. I'm pretty sure that the clutches are slightly different, but I don't know if this swap would work or not, but if you guys could give me some pointers, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks in advance!

First, I am going to say that I have never done the swap you are talking about,

If this were me, my focus would be on the PTO geometry and alignment, IF..... front driven implements are going to be used. That would be a big factor.

How you modify and alter the drive line, linkages, electrical, mounting, and etc, is less critical...in my opinion.

What you are proposing to do should work just fine. It's odd that your CH22 has a 1" shaft. I have not seen a 1" shaft on a factory engine in a Cub. I wonder if the original engine was replaced. I did a repower on a 2284 a couple years ago with a CH22 with a 1" shaft but I used a bushing to go from 1" to 1-1/8". Original engines in the 2284's had SAM ignition so you may need to do a little wiring.

Thanks guys! And Sam, I actually didn't measure the shaft size on my CH22 yet. I was just reading about your Kohler Command swap in your 1882 and I noticed you got an engine with a 1" shaft. I thought you used a 1" shaft engine because the electric PTO was a 1" size. It looks like all of my worrying was for nothing, because the electric PTO shaft size is 1-1/8" on my 2284, so this will be a simple bolt on and go swap. Thanks again!

OK but pay attention to the wiring, the SAM engines have 12 volts going to the SAM box and you need to make sure you don't hook that up to the Mags on the CH23 or you'll be buying 2 new mags.

This is how the 2284 was wired from the factory. You should see a red wire on the original engine that goes to the SAM box, after looking at the diagram pretty sure you can just plug it the factory harness to the new engine but I suggest that you take some time and check first with a meter. It was 2012 I did the CH swap on the 2284.

I never even knew about the SAM, spark advance module on these engines. This forum is a wealth of knowledge and this is a HUGE help. Thank you, Sam! I'm going to take a look at my newer replacement CH23 Kohler and see if it has a SAM box. It's a relatively newer engine that I bought brand new from a store on ebay selling them off back in 2011 or 2012 and it actually says Cub Cadet on the air filter cover.

How can I tell if it has the SAM box?

Also, the attachment you uploaded showed up too small......when you get a spare minute or two (no rush at all), could you PM it to me? Again, thank you very much for all your assistance!

SAM box is on the right side of the engine as you sit on the tractor on the blower housing

I e-mailed the diagram to you.

Thanks for pointing that out. I never noticed the SAM box on the Kohler engines before. If the CH22 in the Cub has it, I could probably just swap the SAM box components over to the CH23 engine that I'm swapping in and everything would be a simple plug and play swap.

You don't want to do that, the SAM ignition was nothing but trouble.

The spark advance module actually retards the timing on start up with the other necessary parts of the system being the flywheel (with the key slot actually offset to advance the timing), both mags, and necessary wiring. Most of the time they work fine, although occasionally some do act up, usually causing a hard start due to the timing being advanced during start up. Now the good part! The spark advance system (module, flywheel, mags & wiring) will actually increase the engine 2 horse power from a 20 to a 22 hp (small bore) and a 23 to a 25 hp (medium bore) and 25 to 27 hp (large bore). Back in my pulling days I ran the flywheel only advancing the timing all the time, so to prevent hard starting I also had a kill switch on the dash allowing the engine to crank over before I threw the spark to it.

Thank you for the education on this, gentlemen. I never knew about any of the SAM box stuff or how it worked.

Now, here's a strange twist in all of this.......the CH22 engine in my Cub "2284" didn't have a SAM box on it. There were 4 screws on the blower housing where the SAM box would be mounted, but no SAM box was present. I bought the tractor and the plastics were destroyed from the previous owner and there was no grille, hood, or side panels. Luckily I had a nice set of plastics from a 1641 that I parted out, but anyway, I assumed that it was a 2284 because of the engine. I started checking the numbers on the tractor and it's actually a 2084, but why it had a CH22 with no SAM box is a mystery to me. My theory is that someone replaced the original CH20 engine with the CH22 and then they swapped the CH20 ignition components on the CH22 engine, eliminating the SAM box.

Here's the good news, since my CH23 doesn't have a SAM box and this tractor is a 2084, this should be a direct, bolt-on and go swap. Would you guys agree? Thanks again for all the help.