K series oil seals and ignition timing questions

[Cubcadet_107]

One of my Cubs blew an oil seal yesterday, I can't tell you which one or specifically what engine because I haven't made a thread about it yet and I can't spoil anything. So I will explain this as best as I can.

I replaced this seal back in the winter, so it's new. It's the crankshaft oil seal on the PTO side of the Kohler K series engine, and yes it's from a narrow frame unit. When I installed the seal, I remember it seeming a bit of a loose fit, unlike the seal on the flywheel side, which went in really tight. I guess it was loose, and it wiggled its way further inward until it fell past the wall of the engine block, and into a little space behind the crank bearing. This caused oil to sling out onto the muffler and burn, causing quite the smoke show

So my question here is, how should I go about properly securing the seal so that it won't move again? The seal is unharmed and I can reuse it if I can remove it successfully. Perhaps like some loctite around the outer edge? I'm at
a loss here with this.


My timing question is more simple. I timed this engine after the seal blew, and I timed it so that the points just open when the flywheel timing mark is lined up. Just making sure here, at the timing mark the points should just be opening up, correct? Simply double checking to make sure I set it right.

[Ambush]

Maybe not applicable to you, but: I bought an "Amazon" seal kit for my K321 and the seals were a very close metric sizes. One being too loose in the block bore and one being too loose on the crankshaft, if I recall. I went and bought the proper inch size seals.

[West Valley G]

It seems to me that if the seal was loose going in, the seal was wrong.
Seals are cheap, kinda. I would replace it with a new one. Should go in
snug for sure, not beat it in snug but tight for sure.
The nice folks on this forum taught me to: Lube the inside lip on the seal.
Put a bit of gasket sealer on the outside lip and watch very carefully as you
tap it in to so you don' roll any edges of the seal. Have had great success
with quite a few since I started doing them this way. Good luck

Ken

[Ambush]

I’ve installed several thousand seals in my career and WV is correct. You should fill the space between the two lips with a light grease. You can use Loctite on rubber seals, but the steel bodied, “painted” seals should have no grease or sealant on the OD. Bare metal can use Loctite.

[darkminion_17]

I agree with your answer, some seals have a red or green sealant on them.
I see that you mention 3 animals in your post. A seal a geese and a bear.

[athomas]

As for the timing ,there is an S and a T stamped on the flywheel,when the points break you should be seeing the S mark in the flywheel housing window,this is done using a ohm meter .

[Ambush]

^^^ Makes me feal reel smart when I half two correct the Otto-correct.

[Cubcadet_107]

Well, you guys were definitely right. The seal came from a Chinese gasket kit, and I bet it is indeed metric. Still a bit confused on how the flywheel side seal from the kit works fine, but the PTO side seal doesn't.

Either way, I quickly solved the problem temporarily until I can buy a new seal, I stole the seal off the 107's k241, which is just sitting on the work bench waiting for a rebuild. Definitely not ideal but the seal fits much better, and it's still a good seal that doesn't leak..

I will reveal what machine this is soon, I have a very large thread to write about it

[ol'George]

Hope the seal works for you.
Most times reinstalling a seal does not go well, as they conform to the bore by
being squeezed just a bit and during a reinstall, they are just a bit smaller/looser.
----sometimes one gets lucky tho'
ya win some, loose some.

Remembering we lost a Mars probe because we made a math error as we were transmitting English measurements and it was expecting metric.
or something similar.
How did that go?
Pie R square.
naw that can't be right,
I tole dat teacher, Pie are round, cake are square.
When I grad ewe ate from grade skool, I was old enough to vote and drink.

[twoton]

Originally Posted by Cubcadet_107

.....I will reveal what machine this is soon, I have a very large thread to write about it

...