[HD-JD110Fan]

Being fairly new to the group I don't know how many of you may already be familiar with Brian Miller and his website gardentractorpullingtips.com but if you haven't seen it be sure to check it out. Brian has put together a fantastic wealth of information regarding Kohler and Tecumseh engine rebuilding and repair, technical specs and info, hop up and upgrade suggestions and info, machining services he offers, practically any parts for these engines that you'll ever need, and a great deal of info to help you create a winner for garden tractor pulling. He also has hard to find parts for Ross steering assemblies like replacement ball thrust bearing kits, tapered studs for the worm gear, and grease seals at very reasonable prices. While his site is primarily focused on garden tractor pulling with Cub Cadets in particular, a great deal of his information and parts can be directly applied to regular lawn and garden tractor use whether you need just stock parts, wish to do upgrades on your engine to produce more horsepower, or just plain get it running better and leak less oil.
I came across this site when looking for parts for rebuilding my '66 110 Kohler K181 and have found that many of his parts are less than similar parts selling on Ebay, in some cases OEM Kohler and many of his after market parts. The wealth of knowledge, honesty, and wide range of topics on his website are amazing and cover almost any needed info on engines and especially garden tractor pulling. Brian comments that what attracted him to the sport of garden tractor pulling is how he's witnessed a great deal of family involvement and how the sport can provide a vehicle, if you will, toward bringing families together in a good way. He's definitely committed to this sport and engine improvements. There's many innovative upgrades and improvements he's developed on his own along the way and is no doubt a highly skilled machinist and engine rebuilder. He stands ready and willing to answer questions and offer advice. Check out his website, I'm sure you'll find it interesting and time well spent.

 

[Chaser]

I am very familiar with Brian Miller's site. Never ordered anything from him, but since we have 3 pullers I frequent his site looking for tips.

 

[HD-JD110Fan]

I am very familiar with Brian Miller's site. Never ordered anything from him, but since we have 3 pullers I frequent his site looking for tips.

Glad to hear that you have pullers and know about Brian's site and info. I've gained several tips that will upgrade my engine rebuild and will be ordering parts from him soon..

 

[Kster526]

HAVE LOOKED THRU THERE SEVERAL TIMES MYSELF. A WEALTH OF INFO TO BE HAD THERE.
HOW IS THE RESTORATION COMING ALONG THERE ON THE 110

 

[HD-JD110Fan]

Some Special Tools machined for my '66 110 restoration

Not having all of the right tools I needed to do disassembly the right way I took the time needed to machine these; a muffler removal wrench, variator pulley spanner wrench, steering wheel puller, and flywheel puller. Having the needed materials on hand, a well equipped work shop and being retired I really have no excuse for being too lazy to make the right tools.

After trying to remove the muffler with a strap wrench on the pipe nipple, trying to avoid tearing it up too much with a pipe wrench and having no luck, I tried the strap wrench on the muffler body, Not a good decision. I only managed to make a dent in the muffler body since it's hard to detect it happening under the strap wrench. I think I may have a plan for the dent removal but I'll attempt that much later on. After applying AeroKroil spray solvent the muffler came off easily with no further damage since the wrench clamps tightly on the pipe nipple.

My variator pulley bearing was a bit noisy so I decided to replace the needle bearing. Not wanting to damage the holes in the pulley with a punch which would likely happen if using a hammer and punch as shown in the JD service manual, I made a spanner wrench. This was easy to make and made the disassembly fairly easy. I made it in my milling machine but one of these can be made in a drill press after some careful hole layout and drilling holes for 3/8" bolts. I drilled and reamed mine and press fitted 3/8" dowel pins.

The steering wheel pulley I'll admit is kind of an over kill since one can be made using muffler clamps like one of our members cleverly made and posted a while back, sorry I can't recall who to give proper credit for that great post. I had aluminum round stock large enough on hand so I made a puller on my lathe. The steering wheel came off with no problem and fortunately had hardly any rust on the splines of the steering post.

The flywheel puller was another simple tool to make only requiring drilling 3 holes and tapping the hole in the center. The gear puller I had was far too small for pulling a flywheel but did come in handy for pulling the bearing off of my Kohler crankshaft after I made some longer strap/extension/brackets for the puller claws.

I've gotten my Kohler K181 disassembled and I'm now in the engine parts inspection phase of the project for the rebuild. I'll post an update on my findings soon in another post. Hats off to our moderators and anyone who assisted in getting our site free of all of the extraneous posts that we've had to deal with lately, we can all breathe again... Thanks much.

 

[Chaser]

Dang, great work, I just wish you lived closer to me!

 

[HD-JD110Fan]

Dang, great work, I just wish you lived closer to me!

Thanks much for the complement, yeah I wish I lived closer to you fellas back east too. From all of the posts I've read I can tell you're all a great bunch of guys and all good friends. I'm glad we can all exchange ideas and photos through this great site. Thanks.

 

[Kster526]

Then I could borrow those fancy tools

 

[HD-JD110Fan]

Then I could borrow those fancy tools

Ahaaaa, yes. I could loan (rent?) these to you guys I guess if you'd cover shipping & maybe a refundable security deposit, might be an idea to help fund my resto costs, lol. Thanks.