Bent the crankshaft on my lawnmower

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This ZTR time

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We first took the engine off the wagon and set It on the concrete floor beneath the loading dock door. A flat steel plate was placed on top of the bearing and a four-by-four timber was cut and driven tight between the flat plate on the bearing and the concrete lintel over the door. Everything was locked in place now.

Next, the dial indicator was attached to its magnetic base and stuck on the side of the water hopper. Now with the indicator tip touching the inside edge of the flywheel, the wheel was rolled around and the location where the wheel was deflected in the most was identified and marked with chalk on the face and outside. This chalk mark was then rolled down to the floor, a six-ton jack was placed under the end of the crankshaft, and Jacking began.

Leo encouraged us to take it slowly at this point, as I tend most often to get in a hurry to fix things. So, we had to jack the shaft until the wheel appeared vertically straight, and then jack just a bit more. The shaft would spring back some anyway. Next, we released the jack pressure, rolled the wheel around and checked the indicator again to see how much more we needed to jack.

By Jacking and rechecking the indicator we were able to bring the shaft back in alignment within several thousandths, certainly acceptable by the naked eye when running. I think my shaft was brought to within eight thousandths and we left it there.

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