Plastic Gear- Officially Junk

[KE4AVB]

Mek-a-nik,

Never seen one these engines in person but it sounds like very terrible design.

I would lean toward the governor failure theory. If the crank gear key sheared completely and cam stopped turning then engine would have stopped due lack of fuel since the valves would have worked. Plastic parts just don't have a place in engines in my opinion; although Briggs has use nylon oil slinger/governor gears for years but those don't have much of a load on them to start with.

[Deere2me]

Not an expert here but that gear looks like pot metal to me, anybody touch one with a magnet?

Not pot metal...POWDERED METAL/steel. The part is formed in a mold using powdered iron/steel and a lot of pressure and heat. Cheaper than machining a real steel gear!

[bgsengine]

Not an expert here but that gear looks like pot metal to me, anybody touch one with a magnet?

Not pot metal...POWDERED METAL/steel. The part is formed in a mold using powdered iron/steel and a lot of pressure and heat. Cheaper than machining a real steel gear!

Yeah - In other words, the modern version of cast iron , but much lighter and much stronger. There's several Pressed Metals factories in our regional area, some of their workers are customers of ours. Some of them make replacement surgical pins and joints, things like hip and shoulder joints, etc. (My fiance's brother owns one such factory)

(We also have a factory making military body armor in nearby town.)

[jdbark1952]

Not an expert here but that gear looks like pot metal to me, anybody touch one with a magnet?

Not pot metal...POWDERED METAL/steel. The part is formed in a mold using powdered iron/steel and a lot of pressure and heat. Cheaper than machining a real steel gear!

Well that explains why it looks like pot metal then.

I'm old fashioned, even if the engineers say it is stronger I'd rather have cast or forged iron.