Got hosed today.

Drove 75 miles to buy a used troy-bilt pony tiller. Motor missed a little, but ran. Thought it need carb cleaned. What a surprise I got. Cost me $325.

I bought a wide front for MH 44. Owner said just a little slop in the gear box. I got it home and found out gearbox was cracked, had been patched.

I know how you feel.

JB Weld? What do you have to loose?...

Time for an upgrade! New OHV Briggs and you"ve got something that"ll probably outlast you! You got all winter to find a replacement motor, maybe one from Harbor Freight. Just picked up a TB Horse for $100, new hd gskt & carb kit needed. Sometimes you get lucky, other times no.

good advice here

Know anybody good with a tig welder, in your Locale??

Some days you da pigeon, some days you da statue

If you're out the money, you got nothing to lose, right?
In that case, I would try to find a thin metal pipe/sleeve the right size to fit in the inlet, use JB weld, epoxy or some of the high heat metal repair goop as glue inside the housing (outside the sleeve) and on the back of the housing where it is broke, then bolt the carb or a plate on as a clamp until good and dry.
Vibration may crack it again, but I just can't see what it would hurt at this point other than a slight hit on the intake air/fuel.
Best of luck!

JB Weld and if you are really patient you can drill a couple of holes in the right places and use screws to hold it together. Something about the size of a #4 screw the appropriate length might do it. It has worked for me a couple of times but it takes a lot of time planning out the route of the screw and a ton of patience. Good luck. I think you can make lemonade out of a lemon here. Jim (how do you think I came up with my handle?)

my grandma did that to her's , she drove it into the side of the garage dooropening, broke the carb right off taking the block with it.

I'd look around for another engine. Never know what you'll find if you are patient. I found a brand new 10hp for my old Massey Ferguson for $150, but it took about 6 months of searching.

I feel that Fixerupper. Royse, and DiyDave, all have ideas with possibilities. Like Fixerupper said, time and patience. If all else fails, look for another engine, and just look at the experience you have gained, (and all the FUN you've had.) LOL

up JB will work just make sure ya sand the gasket surface smooth maybe put a little soft Permatex™ on the bolt, and just run it up snug to keep from breaking again.

Make a nice steel plate and drill a couple of extra holes into the good area of each piece,then thread them and counter sink the new plate. Bolt the plate on with countersunk head bolts so they are flush or slightly below the surface, use plenty of JB weld or similar and screw on your carb and it should be good for a very long time.
Sam

(quoted from post at 17:17:00 07/17/12) Drove 75 miles to buy a used troy-bilt pony tiller. Motor missed a little, but ran. Thought it need carb cleaned. What a surprise I got. Cost me $325.

Click to expand...

Had an almost identicle break on a nearly identicle engine from one of my spliters.

JB Weld will work fine. Just make sure you buff it clean first.

Rod

I remember the commercials about a low temp aluminum welding stick that should work to hold carb together.

durafix.com

I purchased the low temp al rods, JUNK!

I'll post later my band-aid approach, if it works. Did use JB weld and made a metal plate, however, JB is only good for temps up to 230 degrees. Hope it holds up.

Thanks to all. I'm looking for a used motor. Did check out harbor freight, their motors look like subaru clones. I have a Subaru on kids go-cart and it works great.
George

I saw a Pony at a garage sale last weekend in Spokane. It looked like it was in very good shape, with little wear on the tines, but I thought it was a bit high priced at $350. I really didn"t need it, and I didn"t think I could make money buying and reselling it, so I didn"t get it. Maybe I was wrong! I am surprised a used engine alone would be worth $325.

It might be possible to fix the cracked engine. I would try epoxy, like JB Weld, but I would not bet a whole lot on it working good long term. Bummer.

I have not ever worked on a Pony, but I found that it was pretty easy to re-engine a Troy-Bilt Horse with an OHV motor I bought at Harbor Freight for about $100 on sale. It replaced an 8 hp Briggs & Stratton flathead that had the rod through the crankcase, which caused my neighbor to give it to me. The only things I had to add were the correct bolts, as the new engine uses metric fasteners. With the HF engine, the Horse has plenty of power, starts great and in general works just fine. The only thing I have found to be a problem is if the unit is stored normally, the engine is pointed up quite a bit rather than level, and over time some of the engine oil leaks out. I also had to disable the low oil cutoff switch, since most of the time the engine operates in an unlevel position.

Before I bought the HF engine, I searched for a new direct replacement B&S flathead engine, and could not find any for sale on the internet. There were similar OHV engines, but I was hesitant to try them, since they cost over $400 and I wasn"t sure they would fit right. Then I found the HF engine for a quarter of the price, and as it happened, it fit fine, with even the bumper going back on without modification.

So if I was in your position, I would try to patch the engine I had, but if that would not work, I would see if there was a chance a HF engine could be made to work. HTH, and Good luck!