Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

   Picked up a damaged Powerlite for $10 this summer.  The dash was rammed with something like a pitchfork damaging the dash and case.  On cleaning and firing it up the revs went off the map.  Whatever pierced it went through the engine cowling and broke the governor vane. 

    The cowling was banged out, holes patched with JB Weld and got a new governor vane.  It went right to very high revs and stuck there.  Opened it up again and gave the arm more clearance but it would still stick at high revs at times.  I’ve been in there about 4 times putzing with the fit but it still gets stuck somehow on high revs and I can’t see in there when it’s running to get at the problem.  I gave up on it.  It’s too ugly to sell with the damaged case and became a time pit so decided to use it as is until it blew up.

   It turns out to be quite the machine and I’m getting used to the screaming of the high revs.  It mostly sticks at 6100 rpm which is a bit to high but loaded it’s probably running around 5000-5500 and handles that fairly well. 

    It nets a pretty good improvement in distance and a bit better at the level of snow it can munch.  It’s fine making long straight runs which keeps the RPMs down.  On turning and no load it’s back to screaming.   

    What would be nice is to have some way to get it off and on high rev reliably.  As is I have to bounce and shake it to get it to calm down to 4100 then wait for it to stick again for high rev.  So far I can’t figure a way make it selectable so the best thing to do might be set it for 5600-5700 max and let it run high and normal on it’s own. 

   Without a governor arm there’s no way to Boratify it so I might look around for a 4.5hp MTD if they have a governor arm.  Anyone got any suggestions for planting a control on a vane type?

Yeah, that would be a cool idea, to set the governor high, and manually drag the RPM's down between runs. I think a way to tie it into the bail for the paddles (squeeze the handle, RPM's climb) would be neat, put probably not worth it.

Just curious, have you checked the compression of yours? Mine read 90 psi, which seemed a bit low. But, from the service manual, it sounds like it may actually have a compression release. So perhaps that's bringing the reading down.

For your governor sticking, have you tried spraying all the connections for the governor & throttle linkages with maybe carb cleaner to clean then off, then a bit of silicone or similar to ensure they're lubed?

>>>have you tried….

 

    I’ve tried everything and spent and embarrassing amount of time on the sticking governor.  It’s very irregular and can go for long periods without sticking like it’s fixed then sticks again.  It might be the hole the spur on the governor arm goes into is out of round.  ???

 

>>>have you checked the compression of yours? Mine read 90 psi, which seemed a bit low.

 

   90 seems ok but I’m not sure.  I only take a reading if they seem like they won’t perform and those are generally less than 50.

 

>>>it may actually have a compression release.

 

    It does.  There’s a plate on the side of the head but I don’t know how it works.  

Personally, I'd make a throttle stop to keep the engine at 4500 minimum rpm the attach a cable to control the throttle butterfly for addition rpms when desired.   Put a return spring on the butterfly to pull it back to lower speed setting and a piece of wire/string on the linkage to pull the throttle open as required.

Hey;

Thank for these ideas for a manual throttle. I have a R*Tek Power Clear 221QR and I like your 2 spring approach.

Here's what I'm thinking :

Attach a flat small bracket to nest next to existing gov spring bracket. New bracket will have a small hole in it at top.

Adjust stock gov bracket to lower rpm for idle (governed) @ ~ 2,200 rpm

Attach second lite spring (need to test out various springs) to throttle arm on carb. this second spring must be slack when throttle is in idle mode.

Attach other end of second spring to 50 lb mono fishing line with a small loop with a crimp-on fitting.

Insert tag end of length of fishing mono through the new bracket small hole.

Devise a max rpm stop on throttle line by crimping on a metal fitting on mono so that is contacts new bracket at max governed rpm desired (mine will be ~4,100)

Route mono line up to handlebar to a fitting that will hold line - maybe using a lawnboy throttle housing that bolts to side of handlebar.

Can't wait to see how that turns out.  Can you post pictures on throttle/governor override linkage?

4100 rpm?

That's milk-toast.  Set max rpm to 5000 and use the rpm range available.   The R-tek should handle 5000 rpm easily.  Particularly if it's only in relatively brief bursts of max throttle.   

Ok, so 5,000 rpm is safe in small doses, man that must sound like something since at 4,100 my power clear is loud   

as Sh*t. .. (love it though).

Does anyone know the HP rating at 4,100? 4 or 5? Thank you.

I enjoy cranking  it up at 10pm, breath in deeply, playing Jimi Hendrix Purple Haze, to get started on the snow, sadly we have exactly ZERO snow this winter so far.

Off-topic ps: my new secret 2 stroke oil trick: Liqui-Moly Racing Bike Oil additive MOS2 (Yes, it works in two strokes) .

http://www.liqui-moly.de/liquimoly/produktdb.nsf/id/en_1580.html?Opendocument&land=GB

The R-tek 141cc engine is rated at 5 h.p. at 4000 rpm.  You'd probably see 6.5 to 7 at 5000 rpm.  You will notice a difference in performance when you crank it up.   That's for sure.   I had mine originally set at 4500 rpm and it was too much to hold back on a steep downhill grade.    Nice to use on level surface or even uphill but too much to handle going downhill. 

Borat, thank you for this info.

On a Toro Powerlite 3hp (might be a 3.5hp).

    Installed a spring in the same hole the governor spring goes in then ran the spring with a string out of the side of the case.  It works much better than connecting string directly to the throttle plate.  Going direct is ok and the pull back comes from the governor vane end but not the best arrangement.  The spring setup should allow better control with gloves on. 

    The governor and spring is set for 5000 baseline and the spring working the boot from 5000 - 6000.   That makes one machine with a spring and three direct connects.  We'll see how things go when snow arrives which is now looking like somewhere past the 20th of the month.