Aftermarket Briggs engine parts

[maradcliff]

Does anyone know of anywhere that sells aftermarket parts for Briggs engines? I am asking because I have a Murray garden tractor with a 11 HP Briggs engine. Almost every year I have to replace the starter drive, because it has a plastic gear (probably nylon), and after a year of usage the teeth are gone. Not only am I sick of replacing it, but at $24 every year. (and that's just the part, no labor).

After two weeks of rain, it's finally sunny and I went out to mow the lawn that that damn gear is shot again.

I am looking for an aftermarket company that hopefully has a replacement gear that is made out of something sturdy, such as steel. I am not buying another plastic gear, even if I have to get a steel one custom machined. I'd like to find the idiot that made that gear out of plastic, and send the moron back to engineering college, after getting him fired. Hopefully he will learn something this time. Anyone with any brains should know tht it takes a lot of power to turn a 11 HP engine, and only a total idiot would make the gear out of plastic. Of course we all know that it's just another intentional fuckup so they can sell lots of $24 gears that cost them 10 cents to make.

Mark

[Greg O]

I can not help you with after market parts, but if you chew up a starter gear every year you have other problems. You are missing a return spring, or have an alignment problems with the starter. Also if you replace the plastic gear with a steel one, next you will be changing ring gears on the flywheel as they are aluminum and the steel gear will chew up the ring gear. Greg

[Jack]

I can't help you with suppliers, but think carefully before replacing a gear with something much harder, like steel. What does the starter gear turn? You may not need to replace the starter gear again, but if it chews up the crankshaft, that may be a bit more expensive to replace. I'd try to figure out why the starter gear gets destroyed so quickly. Are there pieces of broken gear teeth floating in the oil? Is there a bent tooth on the gear being driven?

[maradcliff]

The starter gear turns a ring gear on the flywheel, so there is noting in oil or direct to the crankshaft. The ring gear on the flywheel was originally plastic too, and the first time I had to replace both the starter gear and the ring gear. That was quite costly and time consuming. The replacement ring gear was aluminum. I guess they realized that the plastic ring gear was pissing off too many people. The new aluminum ring gear is in good condition. I replaced the return spring on the starter, in fact the whole drive assembly the first time, when I had to replace that ring gear because everything was chewed up. There is no alignment of the starter. It just mounts on 2 bolts, and that's it. I really can not see anything out of alignment or any reason there should be wear other than the fact taht the plastic can not withstand the torque and wear. I will say that because I use this tractor to feed livestock (pulling a cart), and because I live on a hill, I turn the tractor on and off at least a dozen times a day. (It dont have much for am emeregency brake, and I am not going to chance it taking off down the hill, since it happened once already). This is probably much more wear and tear on the starter than most people would give it. However, there is still no reason that the gear should just wear away, which is what it does, and after awhile the remains of the teeth just shear off.

I guess I can see where steel would wear away at the aluminum ring gear, but cant see why the starter gear would not at least be also made of aluminum, brass, or some other soft metal.

I plan to contact the manufacturer and state my complaint and see what they say. The fact that I start and stop it more than average should not make the gear fall apart. These tractors are made to be used, and tha is what I do.

Thanks for everyone's replies.

Mark

[Ralph Mowery]

Starting it that much is way more than the gear was designed to be used. Most people will only start the tractor to mow only once or twice a week on the average. Even with a 10 month mowing season that is 80 times a year . You will hit that in less than 2 weeks. That means that every 2 weeks you are getting a years worth of wear on the gear. Each year you are getting about 10 normal years worth of usage. The Murry mowers peobably don't last much longer than that in normal use.

[Duane Bozarth]

...re: wearing out starter gear on Murray(!) lawn tractor...

...

As Ralph pointed out, you're using it in a manner for which it was never designed...basically, you have an inexpensive consumer-quality lawn tractor and are using it in an essentially commercial application. It was designed to be well, "cheap" is the word that comes to mind although I'm sure Murray would say it was "cost-conscious". :)

There's an outside chance you might be able to find a soft metal gear that would fit. I've not looked at the gear on the B&S electric-start engine on the JD mower as I've not had reason to pull it....but, it's pushing 40 years old and hasn't failed yet, but then, again as Ralph says, it starts half a dozen times or so during the mowing days that runs once a week at most for eight months of the year...

Let's see--- 12 /day * 365 day = 4380 /yr minimum by your estimation.

I estimate 5/mowing * 1 mow/wk * 4 wk/mon * 8 mon/yr = 160 /yr

4380/160 -> >27 yr per yr of normal usage, roughly.

So my nearly 40 year old mower has roughly the same ballpark starting cycles as yours after about two....in perspective, that's probably not bad luck on your part considering the (mis)application of the tool to the job.

If it isn't too hard to get to, I'll try to look at the starter on this older system and see what the teeth are made of. What's the dimension of the starter shaft and gear diameter, number of teeth, etc.? I don't recall you mentioning the size of the engine...this is a pretty small mower--I think I recall it being 9 HP, maybe.

The small engine guy here in town is pretty knowledgable/helpful...maybe the similar fella' near you would know of a suitable replacement/swap....

[Stormin Mormon]

With Brigs, I believe the starter engages the flywheel. As to aftermarket replacement, there used to be several parts houses that handled aftermarket. It's been a long time since I have done mower repair, and not sure I can help.

3/4 of the way down)

About two minutes on Google found a couple hits that look like maybe what you need.