'86 Westwood T1200

I ordered up axle bearings and brake pads for the transaxle. 

Also removed the leaky 12hp from the frame for rebuilding (or storage ).


Got this 11.5hp Briggs for £40, including fuel tank, wiring loom, engine pulley and throttle cable, so it will be going on the Westwood at least until the 12hp is rebuilt. I think this engine came from a Countax RER, due to the exhaust and fuel tank placement, and it says 'Countax Rider' on the wiring circuit board.


Unfortunately the engine pulley is stuck on the shaft, it is two parts, the deck pulley and the trans drive pulley. The deck pulley was removed when I got it but the top pulley is really stuck on. I'm going to hopefully get the lend of a hydraulic puller tomorrow and see if it comes off.

Oh god, Good luck with that.

well, most of the time my only luck has been with the angle grinder, same with transaxles. some times PB-Blaster and a touch workes out, but its rare with me.

Yeah, if I can't get it off I might have to cut it. I did try heat, but I will try candle wax too. I could cut a slit vertically down it and prise a chisel in there to force it open a bit and use the puller to get it off.

Letting it stand vertical is a great way to to let penetrating oil soak into it.

that pulley on the new (COOL) Engine looks mean. Hope U can get it off without destroying the Block. Othrwise, I have 2 replacement cranks and 1 replacement sump.

Crazy_Carl wrote:

Letting it stand vertical is a great way to to let penetrating oil soak into it.

Yeah, that is a good idea.

SebastianAlbrecht wrote:

that pulley on the new (COOL) Engine looks mean. Hope U can get it off without destroying the Block. Othrwise, I have 2 replacement cranks and 1 replacement sump.

Yup, I hope so too. I have a replacement sump for a 12hp Briggs, not sure if it's the same as the 11hp.

So even with the hydraulic pulley puller the pulley won't come off, so I'm going to try heat and candle wax tomorrow.

ok place your bets on suscesfull removal method (im putting all my chips on cutting the pully to pices becase thats what i end up doing half the time)

So I got the pulley off, only after I discovered that the shaft sticking out of the end was part of the pulley. I put a long M8 bolt right down into the shaft and after a bit of heat the pulley came off easily with the puller.

Fitted the engine to the Westwood, fuel tank clears the hood but the exhaust doesn't so I'll have to do something about that. The recoil wasn't returning but it turned out the starter clutch had stuck, but some oil fixed that. The recoil spring then popped out and rewound as I was reassembling the shroud, so I replaced it for now with a grey one I had. There is no air cleaner element, and the air cleaner cover seems to leave a gap between it and the shroud, so it could be from a smaller engine. The engine runs quite well, the compression is pretty poor though so I'm not sure how much power it will have. Pretty good for £40.

That air cleaner is off of a newer engine. Looks good

Sweet! Nice that the fuel tank fits under the hood, it'd be cool if you put the stock tank back on the dash tower there and ran dual tanks! Hahaha.

If you ran the exhaust straight out of the block instead of wrapping around by the head, would that clear the hood?

The intake is like the intake on both my 12.5s.  The fading on the intake and the shroud+gas tank are quite different, I bet something happened to the old one and it got swapped out.

That gas tank is pretty cool!  If I were you, I'd pull the head at the very least.  Check the valve seals, clean off the carbon, replace the head gasket, and check the rings while you're in there.  I think this will make this tractor pretty cool!

Maybe hook up the old gas tank and have dual tanks like old Ford trucks.  Just a thought.

CraftsmanQuad19 wrote:

That air cleaner is off of a newer engine. Looks good

Could be, although I have seen these 25 CI's with the rounded shrouds and newer carbs with plastic air cleaners. 

AllisKidD21 wrote:

Sweet! Nice that the fuel tank fits under the hood, it'd be cool  if you put the stock tank back on the dash tower there and ran dual tanks! Hahaha.

If you ran the exhaust straight out of the block instead of wrapping around by the head, would that clear the hood?

Thanks! If I can get the exhaust bolts off the block, then I will bolt the muffler to the bolt. Dual tanks would be cool!

Double W Cross Ranch wrote:

The intake is like the intake on both my 12.5s.  The fading on the intake and the shroud+gas tank are quite different, I bet something happened to the old one and it got swapped out.

That gas tank is pretty cool!  If I were you, I'd pull the head at the very least.  Check the valve seals, clean off the carbon, replace the head gasket, and check the rings while you're in there.  I think this will make this tractor pretty cool!

Maybe hook up the old gas tank and have dual tanks like old Ford trucks.  Just a thought.

Thanks, I think the valves need ground, it doesn't burn any oil so the low compression shouldn't be caused by bad rings.

Well, between working over the summer and now back at school, I've had almost no time for this build and sorta ran out of motivation. But I had a bit of time tonight and decided to deal with the exhaust. I believe this engine was from an RER, and had the exhaust wrap around the head, presumably to direct it away from the metal work on the back of the RER. But this wasn't gonna work on the Westwood as the hood wouldn't close all the way. The problem was, the bolts were pretty seized into the block and the allen heads were so rusty that they wouldn't grip. 


So I welded an M6 bolt onto each bolt head, and used a 10mm socket to turn the bolts. The welding trick allows you to get more grip on the bolt, and also the heat of the welding helps break the bolt loose. The first one came off okay after welding the M6 bolt on, but the bolt snapped off the second one. So I welded on an M10 nut to it and got it off.


Then I had to get the muffler off the mounting bracket that is bolted to the head. First bolt came out fine but I can't get the bottom one off. Tried some oil but didn't work so going to try some heat tomorrow.

I used that welding trick on some exhaust bolts a week or two ago! Worked great for me too

Mechanics have to do that a lot for exhaust manifold studs.  It's a great method.

Yeah, it's the best way to get them off. Just have to make sure you remove the carb or any heat sensitive parts or fuel lines before you weld.

Finally got the exhaust off that bracket by cutting the bolt. Reinstalled it directly to the block. Fuel line is running quite close to the muffler though but it should be okay.


Straightened out the steering arm and rod as best I can, I will replace it with something stronger but for now it'll do.


Bought some M20 washers to use as spacers for the front wheels to make them evenly spaced and not rubbing on anything.


Also installed the engine pulley and the belt and got it driving. The 11 horse has more torque than the 12, doesn't stall when starting off in 5th. Next thing to do is to put the new brake pads in and see if I can drill out the holes on the front axle spindles to put a bigger split pin in as the stock size ones bend when doing hard turns at high speed. I also plan on fitting a battery and wiring this thing up so I don't have to open the hood to pull start it every time I want to drive.

Nice to see it running again. I highly recommend moving the fuel line. I love electrical I’m looking forward to you wiring this rig.

Thanks Carl! That is the stock routing of the fuel line, but there is meant to be a steel sleeve go over the line to protect it but I the old fuel line was rotten and cracked so I replaced it with some I had laying around and the O.D is too big for the sleeve to fit on. I will buy the proper size line and reinstall the sleeve soon.

Drilled a 5mm hole for the bigger split pins. These should last much better than the 3mm ones.

Nice job Matt! Having the recoil along with the electric start should be cool once you get it all wired up. Odd that the steering arm for the drag link is right over top of the wheel like that, would it prevent you from putting larger tires on the front?

Thanks Allis! I plan on using the pull start as a back up once I get the electric start going. I need to check if the starter motor and alternator are working first though. Yeah, the steering arm position does limit the size of front tyres you can put on it. 15x6.50x6 are about the biggest you can fit on.

Took off the brake caliper to install the brake pad, but I found out that the actuating dowel pins had also fallen out with the pads, so I will either have to make or buy some of those.


This is where I'm planning on putting the battery since the fuel tank is now mounted to the engine.


I'm also planning on fabbing a storage box to go in here or under the seat, and maybe connect the deck engagement lever to the brakes, instead of having a combined clutch/brake pedal. The cutouts will allow it to function as a parking brake as well.


For the electrical, I'm gonna go for a heavy duty push button starter switch like this one:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/12-Volt-DC-Heavy-Duty-Momentary-Push-Button-Starter-Ignition-Switch-50-Amps/183259370732?epid=28020156902&hash=item2aab1c14ec:g:01QAAOSwhztbFmLc
And for batteries, what do you recommend? I'm thinking something like a 40-50ah battery.

IDK we don't buy batteries by the amp hour for tractor applications.  We buy by the CCA(cold cranking amps)  I'd recomend about 300 CCA.  It doesn't take too much to turn over the 12hp flatties.

Push button switch looks good.

I like the deck lever as the hand brake idea a lot.  I do not like combined clutch/brake pedals.

Oh ok, I found a 360 CCA battery for £58, and one at £53 but it just says 360A. I'm supposing that it takes more amps when cranking at a lower temperature.

Yeah, my understanding is the colder the less % the battery can deliver.  On the flip side also, the colder it gets the more the engine will need to turn it over. That is why cold cranking amps are important.