# Another Tecumseh 5HP no power thread



## York v45 (Dec 27, 2014)

I’ve had this 1992 MTD 5/24 with a Tecumseh HSK50 for about 18 months now. I bought it because it looked barely used, all the paint and wear bars looked like the machine has very low hours. Everything was just like it came from the factory.

Last winter we had very little snow. The engine would start, run & idle fine, but it had to be nursed through the snow. Any load would kill the engine and when hot it was very hard to restart.

I removed the carb and found it very clean. I ran some spray cleaner through it while it was apart, but I don’t think I really accomplished much. After re-installing the carb I tried adjusting it and found it was very sensitive to adjustments. If it wasn’t perfect the engine wouldn’t run at all.

After some time with Google (which led mostly to old threads on this site) the consensus seemed to be that there were two problems with the HSK50…….the typical carb issues or tight valves. I wasn’t looking forward to tearing down to the valves but I knew it wasn’t running right and if we got a deep snow I’d be hosed.

So back around Thanksgiving I tore into it. With the head removed the factory cross hatch on the cylinder walls confirmed that this motor was very low hours, it looked like new. I removed the valve cover and checked the clearance. The exhaust valve was at .000” clearance…..no wonder it wouldn’t start when it got hot.

I popped the ex. valve out and ground the stem down to provide some clearance. Last night we had our first snow and my chance to give it a real workout. Now when I run it into a pile of snow it will grunt and pull the way you would expect. Of course a 5hp Tecumseh will never win any stump pulling awards, but at least it runs like it should.

It’s surprising that this low hour machine would be in this condition. I don’t think it ever ran right, probably one of the reasons it has so few hours. Poor quality control, probably why Tecumseh isn’t around anymore.

Anyway, the posts I found here were very helpful in figuring out what the problem was. I just wanted to provide another data point and to say thanks to those who have contributed in the past.


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## Normex (Feb 21, 2014)

Welcome to the forum York, It is amazing you managed to get it back into operation without interaction from here but it proves it is a gold mine of information. Good Luck


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## York v45 (Dec 27, 2014)

Thanks for the welcome Normex. 

I normally am more comfortable just lurking and learning, but when I run across something new that proved to be so helpful in this case I think it deserves a mention so others can benefit like I did.

Even after 20 years of this internet thing the knowledge of the collective still amazes me.


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## UNDERTAKER (Dec 30, 2013)

ALOHA from the refrozen TUNDRA.


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## micah68kj (Oct 8, 2011)

Welcome to the forum and thank you for the insight on the hs50.


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## Grunt (Nov 11, 2013)

Hello and welcome to the forum York v45. Nice work on diagnosing and repairing the old Tecumseh. Periodic maintenance and common sense will keep it going for many years to come.


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## classiccat (Mar 1, 2014)

Awesome! 

She's in good hands...you'll have it running like a top for a lifetime!


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## GustoGuy (Nov 19, 2012)

I had a 5hp Tecumseh which was difficult to keep running well. It would seemingly go out of tune while it was running. Hopefully it will continue to run well for you from now on.


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## York v45 (Dec 27, 2014)

Thanks to all for the warm welcome.

I measure internet forum quality by the signal to noise ratio. In other words....the information/entertainment gained has to outweight the noise created by the trolls and noobs. This forum is one of the best I've run across. Thanks for making this a great resource.


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