Small Engine Repair Help?

[Lyaec350]

I have a 5.0hp Honda GC160 engine for a pressure washer that has been leaking oil recently. I tracked one leak down to the breather cover, ordered a new cover and gasket and it seems to have fixed that leak, but now I found another somewhere on the front under the flywheel. It is a big pain to find leaks because you have to wipe it clean then run the washer for ~20 mins to get the oil to drip from where you can see it, however with a pressure washer this involves all the hose connections etc.

What I am really wondering is whether I can just take the pressure washer pump off the engine and run the engine with no load (as long as I keep from touching the crank spinning around exposed). Will this hurt the engine in any way?

Does anyone know any good small engine forums? I have a bunch of different small engines that seem to be running less than optimally in one respect or another it'd be great to find a knowledgable group to bounce stuff off like I can w/ garage stuff here.

 

[jhn9840]

www.perr.com

Or go to Yahoo groups and search small engines. There are alot of them.

jhn9840
John

 

[Benchloader]

http://perr.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=2

http://www.handymanwire.com/ubbthreads/postlist.php?Cat=0&Board=UBB10


Hope they work for.

 

[Merkava_4]

If it's leaking by the flywheel then it's probably one of the crankshaft seals. The crankshaft seal is in the side cover on the flywheel side and then in the crankcase itself on the PTO side. They're sometimes called "oil seals" because they seal around the rotating crankshaft to prevent oil from getting out.

 

[Lyaec350]

Is it similar to the front/rear main seals on a car? Does it take a lot of disassembly to replace these seals? I don't know much about small engines if you cant tell...

 

[10.5 outlaw]

All these guys are correct,Yes you can start it up w/o the pump to check it.
I encourage u to fix it yourself this is how you learn,Parts are cheap.

 

[Lyaec350]

I should probably just order the shop manual and go from there... I am scared to take things apart without the manual

 

[Merkava_4]

Sometimes scared is smart; I never work on anything mechanical the first time without service instructions. If I've done the job before and feel confident enough to go it alone from memory, then sure, I'll work without the service manual then.

Some things you won't find in a service manual, like cleaning out carburetor passages with a wire tip cleaner used for cleaning torch tips; I learned that trick from talking to the guy who owns the repair shop. In that case, I had some white corrosion blocking fuel from going to where it needed to go and so the wire tip cleaners were indispensable.