motor swap on a brave 26ton

[newoldschool2]

well now that the weather is getting cooler. it is time to split some wood. I went out to the shed yesterday to start the old splitter and no dice. While it was sitting parked in the shed the rubber fuel line worked its way off the plastic gas tank(no barb on the tank nipple) so I corrected that problem. I put fuel in it and no gas is getting to the carb but runs on starting fluid( prob a blocked line/needs carb kit)

now most are going to say just fix what you got. which I have been dealing with one thing or another on this motor every darn season. my free time is also very limited so when I get a moment to knock something out like splitting wood I just need it to work. I am strongly considering just replacing it with a predator 301 cc from harbor freight for $230 and selling the 8hp to someone who wants to tinker. I'm just sick of this darn Tecumseh. has anyone done this on a brave 26ton? I have been doing research to see if the bracket ect will just bolt up but I'm not finding much. I have attached the model number for the motor below. I only have $200 in this splitter so I am already money ahead in that department.

 

[newoldschool2]

well I have decided to go ahead and do the motor swap. there is a guy at work that loves the Tecumseh motors so ill sell it to him to cover the cost of the Harbor Freight 301cc. I figure ill document the process so if anyone needs to do this in the future they will have a look at what is involved.

Yesterday after too much turkey. I started by pulling to motor off to take some measurements. on my particular 26ton brave splitter there are 2 sets of holes on the motor mount. My old 8hp was using the smaller set of holes. I took some quick measurements being that time was limited and it looks like the outer set of mount holes will work for the HF motor.

the lovejoy coupler does not have a rubber cushion and is strait metal on metal. which I thought was interesting. the shaft on the Tecumseh is 1inx 31/4. The specs on the HF is 1x3.48 if I remember correctly. I originally thought I was going to have to space the pump bracket but it is starting to look like it might just work out. I will be sure to post pictures as I go to help others as this site has been a big help to me on my other projects

 

[milkman]

Interested in seeing how it works out, heard a lot of good thing about the Predator engines.

 

[NSMaple1]

I would think you would want rubber in there - add in during the swap?

 

[kevin j]

I would read vibration isolators under the motor mounts to the frame while you have the engine off just involves drilling a three-quarter inch hole

also if you keep the same pump and you have more motor you can crank up the unloading pressure so that it stays on high-speed a lot longer. you have more engine torque

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

That's an engine, not a motor.

Crazy to replace over a $20 carb BTW.

 

[newoldschool2]

That's an engine, not a motor.

Crazy to replace over a $20 carb BTW.

Hey ChoppyChoppy, Yeah its a little nutty to be swapping the whole thing out over a carb issue. I am honestly just not a fan of the Tecumseh. I have rebuilt this carb once and the next year I had to replace it. I look at is as a fun "mini" project and it might be helpful to someone else down the line that has a blown motor on a brave 26ton. I also have been wanting to give the predator engines a shot for awhile now and before I pick up one of the predator generators I can use this as a test dummy.

I appreciate all the reply's so far in this thread, I am looking into some rubber engine mounts like they use on generators and pressure washers. from this factory this unit did not appear to have anything other than some rubber in the holes where the engine mount bolts go through the base plate. Santa has been bugging me for a list so I might throw them and a new lovejoy bushing on the list and send it off to the north pole

 

[newoldschool2]

well I did not have much time to work on the splitter project this weekend but I did pick up the motor from Harbor freight. I am going to try and get it bolted up and atleast broken in this weekend. some nice features that I noticed while I briefly had it out of the box are as follows. I will have to rotate the recoil start(in its current location ill be pulling strait into the beam)

1: I was not expecting for it to come with a shaft key if you look in the photos below it is zip tied to the shaft.
2: the ambi dip stick is nice it will be interesting to see which one will be easiest to get to once mounted
3: built in fuel shut off below the choke( I like to shut the fuel off and run them dry for storage)
4:gas cap is tethered and there is a removable screen to strain fuel while filling

 

[cantoo]

I picked one up for a conveyor engine. $129 Can before taxes. I'm bidding on a couple more at an online auction right now to have around.

 

[Newoldschool]

Well today I got some time to work on the splitter. I am bad about taking photos as I go but I did snap afew. The outer holes on the engine mount plate were a perfect fit for the predator 301cc. After that got bolted down I added oil and fuel and it fired on the first pull it was a very light pull which was pretty cool

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[Newoldschool]

I still have about two more hours on the “break in under no load 1/4 throttle” so in the meantime I swapped out the very warn lovejoy on the pump. I had bought a new one for the motor Incase I could not get the old one off and I had one that would fit the pump on an old project laying around so no trips to the store. I flipped the bracket over so I could see how everything is going to line up. It will be flipped the proper way before running. The shaft and love joy on the old motor was 3 1/4 and the shaft on the predator is 3 1/2 long. By moving the coupler on the pump back I was able to compensate for the difference because the rubber part of the lovejoy is dished in that side faces the pump. The love joy also clears the housing and does not have to be removed to take the pump off the bracket which is nice. All holes lined up on the engine and the bolts are the same thread pitch so no hardware change needed.

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[Newoldschool]

A side bonus no messy oil changes the right side drain plug clears the mount so it won’t go all over the place

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[newoldschool2]

So it turns out my old screen name is still tied to Tapatalk but newoldschool and newoldschool2 are one in the same I apologize for the double profile can’t log into the old one so I made a new one. I look forward to hopefully getting more done tomorrow but no promises

 

[milkman]

Nice when a plan comes together, clean install.

 

[newoldschool2]

Thank you for the complement Milkman, I did finish the break in yesterday and got it all put back together. really the only adjustment that I had to do was with the lovejoy coupler everything else was a simple matter of plug and play. My next goal on the splitter is to make a removable table for use in the horizontal position. I am 6'4 and I try to keep the bending and lifting to a minimum when splitting.

 

[rancher2]

You will like that predator motor I have installed them on a wide verity of equipment form buzz saws to air compressors to every thing between . I have several with a lot of hours on them and have had zero problems.

 

[milkman]

They're real popular with the go cart speedsters, getting 20hp+ out of the 6.5 hp 212cc.