I think I read about this last year.....
I'm sure someone else will fill in the demand for small motors.

Wow. Another American icon bites the dust. I know Old Tecumseh was a chief of the Shawnee, but I guess I have one of the 'last of the Mohicans' on my LB 10684. Really too bad. I knew something was up when B&S engines started appearing on LBs last year.

Oh, not to worry--as soon as they find some fly-by-night company in Afghanistan or Iran or China--they'll be back in business, selling that foreign made junk!

I have a lot of lawnmowers and edgers in my garage,with tecumseh engines 4 cycle,and some 2 cycle that needs carbs. kits,should I start stocking up now on the kits,or will they be available,in the near future.

Thanks,
Jerry

Tune up parts should be available through the aftermarket for some time.

Can you post the link?

The only bad thing i could say about Tecumseh, is---the fool who designed those carburetors with the black plastic fuel bowls, should be tarred and feathered and rode out of town on a fence rail! Such junk!
I got a used mower in with one of those carbs on it, and the carb got the heave-ho into the junk pile, and the mower went into the parts department. All i've ever had with them is trouble. Apologies to T-man, but they should of stayed with the old tried and true carbs, with the tin bowl, and regular designs!
I even bought a new bowl for one, which turned out to be wasted cash.

what say you now t man? care to defend your inferiour engine s now?

Thanks,guys for your replies

Jerry

lawnmowerdan,

Funny how Tecumseh was able to dominate the snowblower market for years with its "crappy" snow king engine.

at least briggs is able to offer decent quality for the $ across the board. yes a few tech products are worth having like the snow king and the 2 cyc tvxl80 lawnmower engine but the ONLY thing that keep them afloat was the contract to supply sears w/ engines. once that was gone-it was all but over.

what's your feeling on the L-Head that was used on the Lawn-Boy Line. I've finished my second season with one cutting 1/3 of an acre, sometimes twice a week and there have been zero issues.

i have had several of these and are ok but wear out rapidly and prone to oil leaks. this is usually the kiss of death for these .i am running mobil 1 in the last new one i bought to see if i can extend its life as i like this lawnboy model

lawnmowerdan,

I guess I lucked in with mine, drum tight. I'm running mower specific 30 weight conventional oil and keeping the changes at 25 hours. Am also burning a witches brew of no-ethanol super unleaded, marvel mystery oil, sta-bil, and a splash of small engine tuneup (yup, mechanic in a bottle). I'm hoping the Lawn-Boy 10684 lasts me a long long time. It's phenomenal at turning the fall leaves on my property into dust. Makes it fun watching the neighbours rake. What weight of Mobil are you using in the mower?

I am, however, using 5w30 full synthetic in the snow king and throughout dealing with 14' of snow last winter, I only had to top off once.

What I really DO like about the snow king l-head is that the blower it's mounted on can walk across the garage floor sitting in Neutral and WOT, it idles choppy, and pops and has a very subtle miss when running with no load and WOT. BUT, put it to work and it just digs in and goes.

'I guess I lucked in with mine, drum tight. I'm running mower specific 30 weight conventional oil and keeping the changes at 25 hours. Am also burning a witches brew of no-ethanol super unleaded, marvel mystery oil, sta-bil, and a splash of small engine tuneup (yup, mechanic in a bottle). I'm hoping the Lawn-Boy 10684 lasts me a long long time. It's phenomenal at turning the fall leaves on my property into dust. Makes it fun watching the neighbours rake. What weight of Mobil are you using in the mower?'

Very similar to my formula - I wondered if anybody was paying attention! I am using E10 regular gas - we have to use E10 in my area. I use the new Sta-Bil marine super concentrate for ethanol. I use this same additive (including the MMO) in everything, including cars and truck. 1 oz Sta-Bil + 4 oz MMO every fill-up. My oil for the Tecumseh is Opti-4 SAE 30. In the 22271 w/Honda GSV, I use 10W30. The fall change will be Royal Purple 10W30 'Max-Cycle' synthetic designed for air-cooled service. No problems or oil leaks with the Tecumseh LEV195, except they all 'ooze' a little oil behind the air filter from the governor rod that goes into the block. The Honda also 'oozes' a little oil from the governor rod but neither one is enough to actually drip. Just makes a fuzzy mess that I clean up about twice a year. I have no reason to believe the Tecumseh won't last for many years. I also like the 10684 and use it for all my 'dirty work' like going up into the wooded areas and grinding up the leaves and controlling undergrowth. The 22271 is also capable of that since it has the same great rear wheel inside covers that prevent debris from jamming the gears. With the LB 10550, I couldn't use it for this because it would get sticks in the wheel gear and jam the wheel. The Tecumseh is a real work horse and does the job, either on the lawn or in the woods.

I have a few of their 25 hp V-twins and they were made in Eastern Europe! So, it looks like they already tried the el-cheapo labor route and they still went under!

I hope someone at least buys the tooling and starts making the V-twins again. They are great engines.

RIP Tecumseh, you will be missed.

Was at the local small engine shop/dealer today picking up some parts and asked the owner (two man show) if he'd heard about the impending demise.

"oh ya, that was last year, they were bought out by someone"

no...no more tecumseh engines after the end of the year, there's a dealer memo floating around on the net.

"I was on the phone with them yesterday and it was business as usual. And I haven't seen that memo."

I guess unless someone buys the leftovers, he's in for a surprise.

I have an HM 100 10 Hp commercial grade engine that I got about 10 years ago that has run strong. I believe it is one of their best motors. It has been run very hard in a chipper/shredder. I have run mobil 10w30 1 in it since new. Starts on the first/second pull every time.

Oh darn, no more Junkumseh engines to take to the scrapper... HAH. The loss of a US company does suck, but their product has been utter CRAP for years, so it helps me not feel as bad.

My local TV news ran a story about the shortage of engines for snow blowers and how much the prices will rise for the available snow blowers. I suppose that this is because of the Tecumseh shutdown.

I don't know why anyone would buy a Tecumseh engine if they had a choice of just about ANYTHING else. I never had a good one, always had to get rid of the machines that had them fitted. For the last 20 years or so, even the dealers have been apologising for them.

I don't know how so many of you folks have been having so much trouble with Tecumseh engines! That piece i wrote about the carburetor, was about the only trouble i have had with Tecumseh engines! I have used them a lot, and have installed used ones in some of my equipment. A lot of the troubles are caused by owner treatment and neglect.
A lot of the lawn mowers, i get in, can usually be fixed by cleaning the carb bowl bolt, or a new plug, or something else that is rather simple.
I think that there are a lot of folks who like to kick somebody to see how they will react! So, they pick on Tecumseh engines! Easy thing to do! But, just wait until B&S shifts their production to some off-shore company, because of the labor costs! How many of you will quit buying B&S? HMMM?? You'll have to get a billy goat to keep yer grass mowed down! Oh, i forgot--billy goats don't like lawn grass! No, they prefer weeds, briars, and the like for their meals!
This engine brou-ha-ha will end up just like the presidential election. Be careful what ya hope for--ya might just get it! Such as cheaply made engines, etc!

I agree with you. Tecumseh had some less than memorable models but overall they were as good as any.Briggs will not be able to meet demand so guess where the shortfall will come from, especially in the entry level market.

Agree with Rusty and ditto on the carbs lacking in certain areas!

And to add, these are great engines if properly maintained and I always use quality oil, usually synthetic Mobil 1 in them. A couple of the most successful tractor racing guys run Tecumsehs. They have been dead reliable and provide more torque than the Briggs engines and with less preparation and mods than the comparable sized Briggs engines.

People who don't like them usually are either partial to something they are more familiar with or don't fully understand "Brand X".

I've been working on small engines for years, and Tecumseh's are by far the worst. Some people may defend them, but the fact is they were some of the most cheaply made engines ever. That's a fact, like it or not. Why do you think they were always the first choice for Craftsman and other makers of bargain basement equiptment? Because their engines are the cheapest on the market.

I've had plenty that ran ok, but when you get down to it, I've never had a brand of engine that gave more problems than Tecumseh.

Briggs' quality has gone down sharply in the past decade too, don't get me wrong. But Tecumseh's quality was never there to begin with :-)

I just found a statement from the Tecumseh Power Company web site with the following announcement:

-- For Immediate Release --
PLATINUM EQUITY COMPLETES ACQUISITION OF TECUMSEH POWER COMPANY
LOS ANGELES (November 12, 2007) Platinum Equity announced today that it has completed the acquisition of Tecumseh Power Company, which provides powertrain solutions to the Global Outdoor Power Equipment Industry. The acquisition includes facilities in Wisconsin, Indiana, Tennessee, the United Kingdom, and the Czech Republic.

If this is true, and it certainly looks like it is, this should resolve the future parts problem for us that have equipment powered with Tecumseh engines. Charles Ranheim

That was last year.

Platinum has been busy breaking up Tecumseh since then.

No more Junkumseh? I guess your only choices for a snow blower now will be to spend 3 times as much for a Honda over all the other makes that will now have nothing but super-cheap Chinese sourced engines on them. If Briggs Inteks and Kohler Courages were so great, why did most of the top end snow blower makers with the best warranties like Toro and Ariens use Tecumseh Snow Kings?

-Uncletruck-

Right,I agree;When a top shelf manufacturer with the BEST warranties uses tecumseh engines,that pretty much sums up the quality right there!!Anybody that claims that Tecumseh is crap,is no better than a $%$#@#@#!! They are better than honda's,as good as briggs,and good enough to be a GREAT engine!! I've seen tecumseh's ,as well as briggs,that are 20+ yrs. old,used regularly ,and still running great!!! any engine that lasts that long HAS to be a great engine Period.

I've had my 10684 for 4 full years, and this last year I had to use the "wire brass bolt carb clean" fix almost weekly for it to work. I love the mower design (mmmm - chubbies), and have always used clean gas with a little seafoam, changed oil, cleaned air filter, etc. But I sure as heck got sick and tired of the engine dying on me all the time. Who cares about warranties - any cheapo POS Walmart crap will outlast a 2 year warranty with NO maintenence. I will have it professionally tuned this spring, and if it happens again I am tossing it...but I need to find a bale drive, as I don't like personal pace...

"...if it happens again I am tossing it..."

Please toss it my way.

You should be glad it ran at all;If that was a Honda,you couldn't even get it started...... it would cost you a fortune,in time and money just to get it to run as good as that tecumseh LOL

FROM: http://www.tecumsehpower.com/

TecumsehPower Company Sells Assets
from Engine Business to Certified Parts Corporation

Transaction Provides Customers Long-Term Parts, Service and
Warranty Support

Grafton, WI (February 10, 2009) TecumsehPower Company, provider of powertrain solutions to the global outdoor power equipment industry, announced today it has sold
certain assets of its Engine Business to Certified Parts Corporation (CPC).

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The transaction announced today includes the sale of existing and unfinished engine parts inventory, tools to make finished product and certain intellectual property assets.

CPC will also assume the warranty obligations of the Engine Business.

"We have again sought and found a solution that preserves the commitment we made to our customers,"
said TecumsehPower Company President and CEO Rudolf Strobl.
"We are proud to have found a way forward that ensures all warranty obligations are met and provides long-term parts and service support into the future."

TecumsehPower will continue to own certain real estate and other assets, and will provide some services to CPC under a transition services agreement for a limited period of time.

On February 5, 2009 TecumsehPower announced the divestiture of its Peerless transmissions business to Husqvarna Outdoor Products.

I wrote to Ariens twice to see if they had any information about parts and service on their snowblowers using the Tecumseh Snow King engines. Both times I received the automated response saying they will respond to my question within two days. That never happened. It looks like they don't want to get involved with anyone with a possible Tecumseh engine problem on their Ariens equipment. Yet, they keep advertising their snow blowers with Tecumseh engines like nothing ever happened to the Tecumseh engine support. I would think that would hurt them in the long run. Charles Ranheim

I have had quite a few Tecumsehs over the years and only one was a problem child. This was on a 1988 Ariens 8 horse snowblower model 824. It sucked oil, pinged if you didnt use premium in it and didnt really have a lot of power. Nobody did anything about it. But the rest were and are real good. They arent the most refined small engines out there. The Snow Kings have that pop when they are idling and may surge a bit but a good one like the one I have now will go through snow VERY well.

All of us are entitled to ones opinion of their preferred engines. What should be noted I think is Honda, Tecumseh, Briggs and Kohler ALL have some duds in their lineups. All four have some fantastic engines as well. I hate to hear some guy that got one no more than two bad engines passing strongly worded advice on to someone with questions. Sure, I would probably dodge that brand myself if I didnt know what I know. Let me tell you what I knowIve been working on and using small engines daily for 38 years. As I said EVERY one of the four above mentioned outfits have some serious junk to their credit. I could list every dud and tell you what models tend to fail very early if requested. Here is a fact that may stir many up around here though its not intended toOf the 4 makes above Briggs by far has the most models with VERY poor records. I hate this because as most of us did I learned on B&S, my first parts dealership was B&S, my first mower was B&S powered. Now, would I state across the board to not buy B&S.of course not. What I would do is present what I have seen over and over and over with a particular line of engines and suggest that they try something else be that B&S or other.

mike

"All of us are entitled to ones opinion of their preferred engines. What should be noted I think is Honda, Tecumseh, Briggs and Kohler ALL have some duds in their lineups. All four have some fantastic engines as well."

RB> Those companies are probably best classified as having produced a lot more good engines than ones that might have had problems. Otherwise their stay in he business would have been very short indeed. I'm not aware of any engines from those companies that just out and out fail from poor design.

"I hate to hear some guy that got one no more than two bad engines passing strongly worded advice on to someone with questions."

RB> I agree completely. And an equal peeve of mine on this forum is how stunningly fixated some members are on the engine when picking a lawn mower. The engine is but one part of a system that is designed to cut grass. Yet few here focus on how well a mower does the job of cutting and bagging. Most adulation seems to be reserved for brand name motors like Honda and Kawasaki.

"Sure, I would probably dodge that brand myself if I didnt know what I know. Let me tell you what I knowIve been working on and using small engines daily for 38 years."

RB> Which brand????

" As I said EVERY one of the four above mentioned outfits have some serious junk to their credit. I could list every dud and tell you what models tend to fail very early if requested. Here is a fact that may stir many up around here though its not intended toOf the 4 makes above Briggs by far has the most models with VERY poor records. I hate this because as most of us did I learned on B&S, my first parts dealership was B&S, my first mower was B&S powered. Now, would I state across the board to not buy B&S.of course not. What I would do is present what I have seen over and over and over with a particular line of engines and suggest that they try something else be that B&S or other. "

RB> If it is true that a greater proportion the total number of Brigs motors manufacturered are defective than for other manufacturers then how did Briggs become the dominant producer of lawn mower motors? If they had such a reputation for producing shoddy products I would have thought mower companies would have abandoned them decades ago. From what i've seen Briggs has been and continues to be the single most popular brand of lawn mower motor.

Briggs is the largest manufacturer of small engines because they are willing to make cheap engines. The equipment manufacturers along with many consumers always look for the cheapest price.

Probably the worse Briggs was the old 3.5 horsepower mower engine that featured the automatic choke and the mechanical compression release. This engine was very difficult to start.

The current Quantum series has been a very good engine and a good value for consumers.

"All of us are entitled to ones opinion of their preferred engines. What should be noted I think is Honda, Tecumseh, Briggs and Kohler ALL have some duds in their lineups. All four have some fantastic engines as well."

RB> Those companies are probably best classified as having produced a lot more good engines than ones that might have had problems. Otherwise their stay in he business would have been very short indeed. I'm not aware of any engines from those companies that just out and out fail from poor design.

NW> Obviously these mainline engine builders have more good to their credit than bad. My comments are by and large directed at engines from the OHV era forward. I have pulled and replaced something like 25-30 B&S Intek twins of all HPs in the last year or two. These engines come in smoking if they will still run, completely seized or a rod having blown a hole in the side of the block. I wont attempt to make a call as to poor design but these engines fail far too often. These are not warranty repairs, most of these engines failed fairly shortly after the warranty period causing me to wonder how many others failed and were taken care of by factory warranty. Another very weak engine is the horizontal 6.75 HP OHV. This engine is just prone to smoking and losing rods. I see it over and over and over be it on a tiller, pressure washer or go kart. What I hate about that is there is not really an alternative in that price range so we re-power with the same engine and hope for the best. Pretty much the same story line on the newer AVS high HP single cylinder engines. One word sums up the problem with itsmoker. Unlike the previous version of the engine its smoke is almost never caused by a blown head gasket. Its the real deal, oil getting by the rings. Add to this the AVS and the previous generation engine almost will not hold valve clearance settings. This small problem leads to way to many trips to the shop and no telling how many burned up starters. On a positive note the 3.75 Sprint or Classic and the Quantum seem to hold up very well but they are for the most part proven L head designs. So, out of the 5 most used engines in my area B&S has 3 that seem to be very weak and 2 that could be expected to give some service.

"Sure, I would probably dodge that brand myself if I didnt know what I know. Let me tell you what I knowIve been working on and using small engines daily for 38 years."

RB> Which brand????

NW> Like every mechanic here I have to work on all of them. Honda, Kawasaki, B&S, Kohler, Tecumseh and some Robin and Onan.

" As I said EVERY one of the four above mentioned outfits have some serious junk to their credit. I could list every dud and tell you what models tend to fail very early if requested. Here is a fact that may stir many up around here though its not intended toOf the 4 makes above Briggs by far has the most models with VERY poor records. I hate this because as most of us did I learned on B&S, my first parts dealership was B&S, my first mower was B&S powered. Now, would I state across the board to not buy B&S.of course not. What I would do is present what I have seen over and over and over with a particular line of engines and suggest that they try something else be that B&S or other. "

RB> If it is true that a greater proportion the total number of Brigs motors manufacturered are defective than for other manufacturers then how did Briggs become the dominant producer of lawn mower motors? If they had such a reputation for producing shoddy products I would have thought mower companies would have abandoned them decades ago. From what i've seen Briggs has been and continues to be the single most popular brand of lawn mower motor.

NW> I hope I have somewhat explained what I meant about B&S having a greater proportion of problems compared to the others at this time. Note I did clarify that I am referring to the OHV era which is not what B&S built their great rep on. The fact is this.If B&S doesnt address these problems soon and continues to turn out the stuff they are today you will see their market share fall. MTD has already pulled them off of their equipment for 2009 but I think that was business politics more so than a quality issue. That is a serious blow to Briggs and should cause them to think hard about getting back where they once were.

Mike Merritt

Are you seeing more briggs motors in for repair because briggs makes a whole lot more motors than the other manufacturers? 5% defective motors of 10,000,000 made is a much biggger number than 5% defective of 10,000 made and yet the rate of defective units is the same.

No doubt there is something to that line of thought. It seems that Briggs has more problems now than say at the end of the L head era. They are really struggling to perfect the OHV engines and I keep thinking as good as they once were they will get a handle on it soon.

mike