Ariens GT17 garden tractor repower

Got my GT17 repowered with the magnum 18, and upon trying to use the mower, the clutch starts to get hot, then it robs power, then it will reduce the rpm to barely running. We adjusted the gap on the clutch, and it still does this. The clutch seems to engage with no issues. The epoxy on the coil for the clutch is cracked. However the epoxy was cracked when it ran last before the old engine broke a rod. So it's this fixable, or do I need a new clutch? Looking around I see a couple with the double pulleys, for new ones.

I'll try pulling the PTO shaft to the mower and seeing if it still smokes that way. It's possible that we didn't put the clutch back together right, but not probable.

Looking around I see a few with the double pulleys on Amazon. They are harder to find. And have a little different mount, but this one I found is from a simplicity sunstar, and that had a Kohler magnum in it so while the mounting bolts are a tad different, all they have to do it keep the clutch from spinning, and the bore has to fit into the output shaft. Right?

 

Here it is so far

 

Looks great Horkn! Hope you get the clutch figured out soon.

 

Oh yeah, as it is, while the PTO clutch is engaged, it gets hot and smokes.

 

I need to siphon the old fuel out as it sputters from time to time. It ran great on the donor crapsman, so I'm sure it's the old fuel from last August. The fuel cap is cracked and can let water into the tank in rain/ snow. I'll siphon the fuel out. Then put new full in first.

So I'll get a new cap on the tank too, but I'll just ensure its covered and can't get rained on until then.

 

Maybe verify that it is grounded properly...a bad ground would give the coil low voltage in effect...

 

A few things to check. first off any chance you soaked the friction material with penetrating oil, if so try a lot of brake and electrical parts cleaner. Double check the voltage at the clutch wire with the clutch powered up. It's possible that you inadvertently warped the clutch faces when you had the epic removal issues.

 

Since there's only 1 wire, the hot, then the case of the clutch would need to be grounded? That would be simple.

 

Totally probable on the warpage. We used penetrating oil first, but then used a lot of cleaner to get rid of any oil

 

Well......not so fast. The itty bitty coil wire is attached to the inside of the case of the clutch somewhere.

 

Bingo...put your ohm meter on the clutch wire connection, then on the engine block...see what you have. It will not be super low resistance because of the coil windings, but I would think the coil ohm reading itslef should be available on googlefoo...then you can do the math from there as to if there is a connection issue or not. Certainly possible the removal process did it in somehow...

 

I'll have to look. You're right, there had to be another wire to ground it. I swear there was none though....

 

Its very likely internally connected (grounded) where you cant see it...

 

X2

 

So apparently on this clutch, the other of the electromagnet is attached to the housing. That's the ground.

 

I'll be removing the driveshaft from the PTO and seeing if it still overheats and smokes. That way the mower deck will not be in the equation. If it still smokes and overheats, then the clutch is warped and will need replacing.

 

If it doesn't smoke, that isn't necessarily a guarantee of good health...just means it doesn't smoke with no load on it.

 

Well... It smoked alright.


I took off the driveshaft for the PTO to the deck and tried it. Smoke show with some sparks.


I then saw plastic melt from the epoxy around the electromagnet.

So, yeah. I need a new clutch. The ariens exact replacement is $700. So that's not happening.

Digging in the Google wormhole, I found this..


It's a pretty standard warner replacement clutch. warner: 5215-62. There's tons of these, and quite a few with 2 pulleys. I've found a few for ~$100 that have 1-2 yr warranties.
This warner part # is really just a way to not use the proprietary ariens part, which is expensive.

Essentially this will mount just like the clutch that was on the craftsman donor tractor I bought, but the proper 1-1/8" bore and the 2 pulleys. I just need to verify the pulley size on the ariens, I think it is 5" diameter. The clutch is cool now, so I'll measure. I'll need to buy some 1-1/8" spacers to keep the pieces inline, although the 2 belts should keep it in line.

 

Well that solves that mystery!

 

Yeah, we reefed ton the clutch too much, apparently. Hey this one and all the others have 2 wires and the standard connector as well.