I have a 5.5 hp briggs and stratton i'm rebuilding for fun. after struggling with the flywheel and doing a quick google search I found that i need a special tool to do this right. One sight said it would be easy to make your own flywheel puller with some extra metal and a drill press. I have acess to my highschool auto shop so it would be easy for me. How exactly do these tools work? It might help to have an understanding before I try to make one. Some directions on how to use one would be great.
Wacking the end of the crankshaft didn't loosen it? I don't know what a 5.5hp B&S is like, but for older ones, all I had to do to remove the flywheel was remove the retaining nut and wack the end of the crankshaft with a big hammer (I protect the end of the crankshaft with a piece of very hard oak). I've never had one yet that didn't pop loose. They were on a taper and the shock always caused them to move up the taper. The 5.5 Hp might be different though.
Ive seen some that needed the puller torqued up and still had to have a sharp rap to break them.
The OP can buy a gear puller for a few bucks which will work fine on this application. When I can buy a tool for a few bucks, I dont waste time trying to build one. Harbor Freight might have a cheap unit.
I heard about that. I was afraid of messing up something so i didn't hit very hard. I have some blocks of wood and a large metal hammer. I'll try that.
ok, good news and bad news. The good news is the flywheel came off with one sharp wack protected bay a few inches of 2X4. Bad news, does anyone know to remagnetize a flywheel?
Unlikely that your flywheel became unmagnetized. I have never seen it happen. Use fine sandpaper to dress the magnetic insert in the flywheel. Use new points (if this applies) and carefully set the gap and index. Should come up firing.
If it is REALLY demagnetized, I have no idea what to tell you. Buy a new one, or find a company that can reenergize your old one.
I doubt the one whack did it, i had tapped it a few times but something happened. the magnets can't even hold a paper clip now that its off the engine.
On the older engines with breaker point magneto ignition, you had to remove the flywheel to get access to the breaker box to service the contacts and....
I have hit literally thousands of these flywheels with a regular ball peen hammer, either on the end of the crank or, (the way they pop off the best), by hitting them one sharp blow on the counterweight (opposite the magnet) and NEVER ever destroyed the magnetism. Thinking back over the years, I have never even seen a Briggs flywheel with dead magnets. Something was radically wrong with your flyweel before you hit the end of the crankshaft..
These engines are unfortunately made to be thrown away, and the time required to set up a puller to do such a basic job would actually exceed the value of most of the engines.. (tongue in cheek here).
All of the newer ones are solid state ignition anyway, and usually the cylinder block wears out before there is any ignition problem and being solid state, servicing the ignition does not require the flywheel to be removed anyway. (It is all in the coil.. nothing underneath the flywheel to be serviced except the crankase seal.)
Go to your local mower shop, and ask them to let you look in their scrap pile for another flywheel or whole engine for that matter, I used to get them by the dozen for my small engine classes that way. Most all will run after minor repairs, although with Briggs aluminum bore engines, most will smoke due to bore wear and they are not economically rebuildable. On the plus side, they are not very expensive to replace with new complete engines either.
Bottom line, you did not harm your flywheel by removing it in the way that you did...
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