Hello all,

I have been browsing the site for about a week now (just picked up the tractor yesterday). I have the above mentioned craftsman 2 with a Briggs 422437-0750-01 and the starter wont turn over even if i bypass all safeties and connect the battery right to the starter (engine spins freely with plugs out and a wrench on the pulley). After tapping it with a mallet and spraying it with lube for a few hours to try and free it up I finally gave up and tried to remove it. The problem is it looks like i wont be able to get it out with out removing the engine. Anyone have any tricks to share so i dont have to spend my weekend pulling the engine?


thanks you for your time
Dan

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First of all can you turn the starter over by hand? More then likely if it won't turn you have a broken magnet inside or water got into it causing it to rust. I've worked on many Craftsmen tractors but have never had to remove an engine to get to a starter. Is this a Rear engine rider or a front engine mower/tractor?

You don't have to remove the engine, but it's still not the easiest starter to remove. The easiest way to remove this starter is to take the blower housing off the engine. Remove the battery cable from the starter and remove the baffler from the rear of the engine. Take the cover off of the cylinder head next to the starter and you will have access to the mounting bolts that hold the starter on. If you have a flywheel puller then take the flywheel off as access to the mounting bolts is very easy with the flywheel off. If you don't want to or can't get the flywheel off you can get to the bolts with it on, it just not the easiest thing to do. With the flywheel on you will have to use an open end wrench to get the bolts out 1/2 inch I believe.

There is no reason to remove the engine as you will still have to go through all the above to remove the starter even with the engine off the tractor.

Best of Luck...

I managed to get it working by removing the end cap from the starter and pulling off the housing. This allowed me access to both bushings for relubing and the com for cleaning.

It was rather challenging to get the cap back on though since it has 4 brushes. What i ended up doing was inserting 4 finishing nails through the holes in the end cap to hold the brushes out of the way while i slipped it over the com. :thumbsup:

Now i just have to figure out all the wiring issues and how much oil it takes (i tried looking at the oil chart in the sticky but it wouldnt open) :confused:

Dan

I use tootpicks to hold brushes. Your engine holds 1 1/2 qts.

Thank you all for the info. Ive managed to get the wiring sorted and it will turn over from the key and fire if i spare a little cleaner do the carb. Now i need to figure out while its not getting fuel (all ready have a bunch of thing to try that i have seen here and was wondering, it looks like my fuel pump isnt on the back of the carb but behind the firewall, is this common or am i mistaking the park for a pump and its something else? Im pretty sure there is not pump on the back of the carb though).

Happy Easter all
Dan

on those motors, the fuel pump is part of the carb. its built onto the front of it