More Mower Talk (troubleshooting tractor)

I am having an issue with one of my lawn tractors, it is an Ariens GT17 with the Kohler KT17 twin cylinder engine.

I bought it non running, the seller said it had an issue with the engine revving up and down and he thought it was a governor issue. I got it running and adjusted the governor shaft. Now it runs fine under no load but with load (moving) the governor does not increase the throttle and the engine slows.

When it is started up the governor moves and decreases throttle so it is not overspeeding with no load. If I manually move the governor arm while it is running under load the engine speeds up and runs fine. I have tried every spring combination possible on the governor arm with little change (if I have the spring at the point where it has the most leverage it will increase throttle for an instant then drop back down).

The governor shaft coming out of the engine has some up/down play (maybe 1/8" or so) could this be an issue?

I have no idea what to try next.

How much is the governor? I'd try replacing it.

On small engines, I've found it is usually easier to replace the part than to fix it--especially since they are so cheap anyways (usually)

Try a new governor spring. It may be stretched, or may have broken the past and then reconnected with what was left. With the new spring you may need to put the arm back in his original position.

Should be cheap enough to try, and if it fixes it it's a bargain.

mtn wrote: How much is the governor? I'd try replacing it. On small engines, I've found it is usually easier to replace the part than to fix it--especially since they are so cheap anyways (usually)

The gorvernor is NLA I believe, and requires complete disassembly of the engine to replace the components.