Hey Guys, I'm a new member from Wisconsin, I used to run front end loaders, and off road forklifts at a stone quarry in high school. I picked up my first skid steer the other day for some projects around my property. It's a early 80's OMC Mustang 345 which has only 880 hours on it. It has the 1.6L Ford Kent crossflow engine. Unfortunately the previous owners (A Automotive repair shop) specialized in bubba repairs and I'm trying to undo what they've done and get the machine sorted out. Right now it starts but only runs for a minute or so before it shuts off. The engine starts easily, has good compression, and sounds good until it dies after about 30 seconds to a minute of running. I'm thinking it's some junk in the needle and seat as the longer you let it sit, the longer it will run when you restart it. I replaced the condenser last night thinking that might be the culprit, but it didn't change anything. Anyways they bought it off the original owner who had the machine sitting unused in his barn for 10 years. At that point the original carb had corroded tight in the throttle shaft and plate. They pulled the carb to rebuild it and the new owner never got around to ordering the kit and one day cobbled on a forklift cab with a lack luster fabricated steel adapter because he needed it running to move it. I guess it worked good enough for him to leave it like that. Over the next 5 years it was used from time to time, but during that use the governor went out and it was parked and rarely started up. Fast forward another couple years and I bought it. They ended up losing the original carb, air horn, and intake hose. I'd like to put everything back to factory configuration or at least make it a bit more professional looking. I did find a used functional governor off a 6 cylinder ford on eBay which is the same parent model but has a different linkage configuration and I'm going to order a rebuild kit. Hopefully I can combine the two governors and the rebuild kit to get one properly working in the configuration I need. The local dealership gave me a parts manual, but they didn't have the service or operators manual on file. Does anybody have one lying around they don't need? Has anybody done an electronic ignition conversion on these old kent engines? I found a petronix distributor but it doesn't appear to have vacuum advance. There is a company called "Hot Spark" that sells conversions as well for a reasonable amount. I'm not sure if I have a Lucas, Motorcraft, or Bosch distributor. I'll have to pull it to read the numbers on the back. I was hoping somebody might know where I could find used parts. I'm not seeing what I need on ebay right now for the carb. I'm looking for the following parts if you have a parts machine or have done a repower and no longer need the parts. Zenith Model 33 Carburetor Air Horn (Right elbow piece that sits on top of the carb) The hose that goes from the carb to the intake. An engine cover for the gas engines. A functioning governor (it would be a nice backup to my experimental rebuild) Thank you! Scott
In a skid steer this might be tough, but can you get me some pictures of all sides of the engine?
Scott; Try these guys for the carb and/or kit. Good luck. https://www.carbsonly.com/carbs/indfarm.htm SimS
Here are pictures of some I found online. This is how it should look. Carbsonly does have a new carb, but I don't know if I can justify paying more for a single barrel skid steer carb than a brand new high performance 4 barrel costs. I'd like to find a used carb and put a rebuild kit in it.
OK. That looks like the 1.1/1.3 Fords we work on, just a little bigger. Try Powertech engines in Fresno for engine parts and ignition help. Ask about the governor with them too. They are old school. But those governors are getting like hens' teeth. There is a guy named Gene Bender in Arkansas that rebuilds them. I lost his phone number but his ebay user name is gravelyg. If you want to convert it to electronic then call David Pearson 562-926-9500.
Thanks for the info. I'll contact both of them and see what I find out. I got the skid steer running last night. I just had to gravity feed the carb, barely anything was coming out of the fuel pump, and only at first startup. I'll have to look into that more to see if it's the fuel pump, the check valve, or the pickup. The hydraulics seemed strong which is good, but it definitely needs the right carb, a functioning governor, and a tune-up to be usable.
You probably did this but If you search Google for "Zenith Model 33 Carburetor" there's a ton of stuff but it's big bux.
Yup, I saw that. I guess the Weber 34 ICH was designed as a universal replacement for for the Zenith Model 33. I might go that route as it's only about $160 new and jetted for 1.5-1.6L engines out of the box. I was also thinking about going with a 71 pinto autolite/motorcraft carb, but I can't seem to find much info on how they were. I can get a reman from the autoparts store for $125 plus a $25 core charge. Typically the OEM carbs are a bit better at metering fuel than the aftermarket units, but they're more complex to tune. I can't find any markings on the forklift carb they cobbled on there so I have no idea what size engine it was on. It starts and idles well, but that's about it. I'm thinking it was a larger engine as the plugs look like the engine has been running rich.