OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Restoring, Customising and Modifying Other Walk-Behind Rotary Mowers Rover 560 Pro Cut

I must be getting old because this thing takes a big heave to pull it over, nearly pulls my arm out of the socket. It has an 8hp Kohler motor on it. If ever a mower needed a starter motor or kick starter this would be one

G'day Norm

As I understand it, the 560 is a big beast at 22 inches.

The engine is the interesting thing.
The Kohler is the optioned bit, but I don't think it is 8hp.

I'm hoping engineer Gadge can help here, but the trend has been to
rate modern small engine by torque, rather than hp.

In Australia, I guess our mindsets needs to adjust to Newton Metres.
This Kohler produces 8 foot pounds of torque (10.8 Nm).
I have no idea how that translates to old school hp...?

Thanks Jack, it sure is a big mower, I just assumed the 8 on the cowl signified 8hp, but boy you need a strong right arm to turn it over It has the XT8 engine fitted. Now reading the chart says it is only 173cc so I wonder why it is so hard to pull over, should have been fitted with a decomp valve like the zip start Victas were fitted with over 40 years ago

Hi Norm

I feel you have raised an important question here.

This issue is compounded by America's love with old school measurements.
They think in foot pounds of torque; whereas we should be thinking in
Newton metres.

I am 'old school' - so 173cc equates to about 4hp (side valve) 4-stroke,
but more likely, about 5hp for an ohv like this Kohler.

I am 'new school' in wanting to adjust to metric understandings.
I am interested to know how we should correlate hp to torque, expressed
in Nm rather than foot pounds.

The reason the Kohler is hard to pull over is simple:-
engine decompressors have little to offer for large flywheels.
The size of a large bladeholder requires a certain starting technique...
You just lean back and pull slowly. Let the bladeholder inertia do the work.

Cheers
-------------------
Jack

Good call Jack, but I feel the woman this mower is going to is going to struggle with it

the timing is out .this will make it hard to start or impossible.
lining up the two timing dots on the crankshaft and the govener thingy in the crankcase.this makes the exhaust valve opening for about 1/4 start of the pull( to make it easy)then it will start no prob. as it is new you should not have any other problems unless you did not go the 6 mm over tdc before you set the tappets. oil out, crankcase off. line up dots. they are designed to start easy.
just my 40 dollars worth.
sean

Thanks seawn, I'll see how it goes, they sure know how to make a 173cc motor look and feel like a monster motor

Ok so end result was there was not a hope in hell she was ever going to be able to start this mower. I'll have to wait till I get a chance to look at the timing as sean suggested, I'm not sure that this is the problem but I will give it a try