Points have to be adjusted after you put them in. I thought I was about the only guy on here that still has tractors with points. I have a Kohler K 14&16 hp and I believe yours uses the same points as my two motors. Install the points but only tighten the hold-down screw finger tight, at the top of the points mounting bracket is a little v, with a screw driver the proper width move the bracket till the points open. Now rotate the crankshaft by hand-KEY OFF- till the points are at the widest apart and adjust to .020". Should have a very slight drag on the feeler gauge when it's moved back and forth. You're done, put the cover back on.

Just to add to Butch's advice.
Use a CLEAN feeler gauge. You don't want ANY oil on the contacts.

And if you don't have a feeler gauge,use the corner of a nice new business card.
Mike

or a new hacksaw blade...

Boy do I miss points... My first car (a vw golf) had points. No o2 sensors, no air flow meters, no pressure sensors, no injectors, no computers, nothing complex at all.
Didnt need a laptop and a degree to keep her running sweet...

to Butchs Hobby-by hold down screw do you mean the screw that tightens to hold the 'v' adjuster? I have loosened the bracket but the points don't open. Bear with me. Do the points open because of the bracket movement or by turning the flywheel?

With the screw loosened, move the bracket toward the engine until the points start to open. Then follow Butch's procedure.

Hopefully I will be able to post the link to the Kohler service manual. See page 72 in manual. Read paragraphs: "Magneto Ignition timing" and "Static timing". Because the points gap also affects ignition timing, these 2 paragraphs are relevant and may help you to get the engine rotated to the correct position to set the points gap. I wish Kohler had been a little better with pictures. That is probably what you need. Pay attention to locating the "sight hole" where you can look for the mark "S" or "SP".

Here is a link that might be useful: Kohler manual

Hey Butch, you're not the only one. I've got 2 Cub Cadets, a 70 and a 72. Somebody (not me!) left the key on the 72 all winter so this spring there was some serious points filing going on. I should probably replace those in the fall.
This fall I'm going to pick up my great Uncle's old Snapper RER from my research is between '62 and '65 but I don't know for sure. It needs serious work but the structure is solid.

Good Information and NICE job. Running perfectly. Removed and re-installed points and cranked and fired immediately. Thanks to all.

Thanks for the update. Solution/closure always appreciated.

My 1964 has points, but my 1969 has an original pointless electronic ignition system! My 1976 had points.

Not sure how many years Kohler used the pointless system. The engine manual does talk about a mod to prevent frequent failure of a certain component. I figure if it lasted 38 years I'll leave it alone.

Just got the 1964 and she runs nicely so I have not yet looked at the points.

Cheers

WHOC, I too have owned some vehicles with a "pointless" ignition system......the rest of the car was such a disaster it was pointless to have an ignition system! :^)

Mownie, LOL.

Did you ever get the pointless brakes on your hydro fixed?

WHOC, that particular project is "on hold" for the moment. I've been trying to work in some "honey do" items, and some mother-in-law items and take time for a couple other issues. It is not forgotten, just got pushed back a ways. I have decided that the issue with the parking brake is probably adjustment of the actuator that operates the pucks (or worn pucks) because if you really STAND on the brake pedal like you were trying to bend something, you have brake application, but if you engage the parking brake lock knob, as soon as you let off the brake pedal, the tractor will begin to "creep" if on a grade. And that is with the engine off. So hopefully I will be able to adjust the actuator to restore the park brake function where it will hold steady when set.

C ool, so you might not need to replace the pucks :)

Good luck with the other stuff.

Thank you Sir WHOC! I especially might need some luck with the MIL projects. :^)

Monwnie, if your tractor has the little disc brake on the side of the tranny like my old MF's, there is an adjustment for the brake pad actuator. On mine it's a slotted end bolt with lock nut, the adjustment on mine are touchy, 1/4 turn makes a pretty good difference. Lot of different older garden tractors used the same brake set-up. Colm, thanks for letting us know it worked, that's what this forumn is all about. Lots of guys on here with newer lawn and garden tractors, makes me feel better to know I'm not the only one that prefers the older garden tractors. Almost forgot that on two of my tractors the pins that actually press the brake puks together had frozen up, had to take the brake apart and clean heck out of it. I put a touch of antiseize hi-temp on the pins when I put them back together and they work great.

butchs hobby, on my trans, the brake disc & pucks are situated on the right top front, directly below the cooling fan. My trans is a Hydro-gear 718-0241. In a few days or so I will be getting back to that project. That 1994 White GT 185 is not my "mowing machine" (I have 3 other machines for that). This GT 185 was a "gift" (non-running engine at the time) that I tentatively plan to use for towing my lawn cart and spreader. Who knows, it could someday have a micro sized FEL and BH on it. I've been salivating over some of the work I see on a website that has plans for DIY building of them. Anyhow, when I get back to the issue of restoring the parking brake function on this GT, I will start a new thread to share info/ask questions about my findings. Thanks

C ool, so you might not need to replace the pucks :)

Good luck with the other stuff.

Monwie, I've got a FEL and BH plus a lot of other stuff for my old 1855MF. The BH was a metal and parts kit I had to lay out and weld up myself, lot of work but it's sure a diggin son-of-a-gun. Been useing it to take out tree stumps, dug up the blacktop driveway at the back of my shop when I had to get to a leaking waterline. I'll have to go look to see what rearend is in my tractors, they've got Sunstrand HT90 hydros with dual range rearends. Those manuel disc brakes are pretty simple assemblies, if you're mechanically inclined at all I'm sure you'll fix it.

To get a little more basic for people like me who have seen points before (when my father was working on them 20+ years ago), but don't remember a thing about how to work on them. This thread was useful, but it really didn't tell me HOW to gap the points. The key that I didn't get was that I needed to loosen the "fixed" point and move that one in relation to the moving point. Once I figured that out the rest of this stuff made sense. It seems stupid that it took me as long as it did to figure this out, but once I did I decided I was going to post back to this thread, in case anyone else was as confused as I was.