I spent a busy weekend Cubbing, first thing on the list was to mow part of the yard Friday, 3 weeks earlier than I usually have to. The 129 got through it, and once the engine warmed up, it didn't smoke too bad, but the old girl has issues. Saturday morning was rainy, and I spent it replacing the ballast in one of my overhead light fixtures in the garage. Once I could see to work, I took a break and in the afternoon I set about removing the engine from the 125 to rebuild it for the 129, whose engine is on its last legs and its last rebuild. Removing the engine went fairly smoothly, the only surprise was that you can't remove the mule drive without removing the front casting. Since this had to be done anyway, I didn't mind so much, but switching from a plow or snowthrower back to the mower deck would be a chore. Once the motor was out and on the engine stand, I blew out debris that collected in the PTO setscrew holes, and gave each one a shot of PB Blaster before calling it a night.
This morning I was back at it, and after spending time doing general garage cleanup and cleaning up the workbench before I started tearing down the engine. I was pleasantly surprised that the PTO came off fairly easily, but I couldn't say that about the flywheeel. As usual, the PTO bearing needed a little help from a gear puller, I quickly fabricated a support for the gear puller jaws out of a scrap piece of bar stock with my angle grinder and cutter blade. The rest of the engine came apart without too much trouble, and I was happy that both the crankshaft and camshaft appeared to be in good shape (the journals miked at less than a half a thousandth under), and the main bearings were smooth.
The parts all still need to be cleaned up, but the small stuff is safe in ziploc bags and sorted by type, the larger stuff is sitting in baskets waiting to get cleaned up. After a bath with some Simple Green and a garden hose, I should have the block ready to go to the machine shop by Tuesday.
