Harbor Freight Engines

Porkchop

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I was at Harbor Freight within the past hour. They have a gasoline engine powered water pump for about $130.00.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=66585

It looked at it and it appears to be the very same engine that's on their auger that sells for about $200.00, just a different color. There are a few sites that sell the same engine starting at about $120.00 and most of them are sold out. Not plugging HF, just posting a heads up for anyone that might be considering this engine. Don't forget about the 20% discount coupons you can get on line. That'll bring the price down to about $104.00
 
I was at the local HF last week, and of course they are sold out company wide of that auger.

I did see that on the shelf there for that price, but being attached to a water pump, I can almost guanentee that that pump is direct shaft driven from the engine and there is no clutch at all in there.

I was almost tempted to buy one, take it home and pull it apart and see for sure though...

Anyone else feel the same as I do, being shaft driven, not clutch driven?
 
Thanks for the heads up. I didn't think about that. but if you can get the whole deal for $80.00 I think it would worth it and buy a clutch to go on it. I'm fixing to look and see if they have posted another 20% coupon. If so, I'm going to buy one today. If I do, I'll certainally post the results on it. If I'm not mistaken, it did have a a finger/thumb throttle lever on it. If I'm correct, then I think it would most likely have a clutch. Who knows ?
 
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Owners manual...

Engine breakdown part #33 is a transmission shaft

No clutch in this engine at all it looks like!
 
Steve, Wilbur and the rest of you, I'm trying to help us all here. This is my latest observation on the Harbor Freight water pump engine. For those that don't know, I bought one of those pumps late yesterday afternoon for a few pennies less than $85.00 out the door. There was doubt in my mind and others that the engine would work. At least with the friction drive kit from BMP. I'm about 99% sure it will. I just got through taking the pump assembley off the engine. Easy task. A few of us looked at an on line owner's manual at the parts break down and parts list. I personaly compared the two engines, one from the auger and the other from the pump and the parts descriptions and parts numbers are identical as far as I can see. We were concerend at part #33 which is labled as a transmission shaft if I recall correctly. I thought it might actually be part of the crankshaft. It is not ! It bolts to the fly wheel with 2 bolts. The 2 holes in the fly wheel are the same 2 holes where a clutch bolts to it. Check out the photos I have attached. It's obvious which ones are of the back side of the engine and which ones are the transmission shaft assembley. Compare photo s4 to fw3 and you'll see the 2 holes I refered to. I stopped short on my verification only by not removing the auger engine I have on my bike already and comparing notes. As far as the outside of the 2 engines, they are I dentical in every way that I can see, other than te color of the shroud. I'm going to call HF parts line later today and see if I can get part numbers on some of this stuff for verifitatiohn. For instance, if the fly wheel comes up in their computer system to be the same number/part, I think that's a dead give away that the clutch will be a direct bolt on. I did take a dial indicater and measure the bolt hole patterns and they came up the same. Hey ! Like I said, I'm only about 99% convinced this is the same engine and will work. So....don't crucify me if it turns out for the worst. But I'm trying. I'll keep you all posted later today as soon as I found out more info. I hope it works. It'll save some folks some money. And I might even buy another one the go on my auger that I never used ! Ha ! Ha ! Also, bikemotorparts.com rates the auger engine at 2 horse power, not 1.5 like HF does.

..... PC ....
ps
I almost took the engine off my bike to compare. It's late, I got tired lazy and didn't want to fool with cutting and resplicing the wiring on my existing bike.
 

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HF 20% discount

HF just realeased a 20% discount coupon good from 6/5 - 6/8 four days only.
Here's the link to it.

http://www.harborfreightusa.com/usa...ml&r=0000_00000&cust=00000000000&keycode=0000
When I bought the pump, I did not have a current to date coupon. The manager was kind enough to give me a 15% discount which was about $5.00 difference on te price of the pump. Sorry for you guys that have bad managers in your local stores that won't even aknowledge any coupons, let alon do you a favor !
 
Hey PC,

Checked the pics and they look alike!

Let us know what happens when you call the parts line, see if they list a clutch for that engine and if so, how much do they charge for it?

Good work PC, you may have just found a powerful and very low priced engine for us all here!
 
Latest update

HF parts line could not verify the auger engine and the water pump engine were indeed the very same engines. For the sake of us all, I went to the trouble of removing the auger engine from my bike to compare the two. Also see attached photos. And keep in mind, the red engine is form the auger and the blue one from the water pump. The centrifigal clutch from the auger is a direct bolt on for the pump engine. I swaped it out. you'll see in the photos. The pump engine with the clutch installed bolts up to the mounting bracket on the bicycle, no problem there. The only differences I see in the two engines are these, the rotor/fly wheel on the blue pump engine is a little different and the kill switch on the pump engine is a single wire rather than a 2 wire like the red auger engne. The rotor on the pump engine sits further back inside the crank case than the auger engine. When the clutch is bolted on the blue engine, the outside edge of it is about flush with the outsdie face of the engine caes/block. On the red auger engine the clutch protrudes out fomr the face of the block by about 1/4". I didn't bother to measure. Again, pay close attention to the photos. Sorry for a few crappy out of focus photos. I had dirty hands and did not want to handle my camera any more than I had to and didn't realize I had bad photos until I down loaded them. Anyway, on the auger engine I've been using, the clutch seems to go only about half way into the clutch drum. That's obvious from the wear on them. When the blue engine is bolted on, the motor will not turn because the mounting screws that holds the engine on to the mounting bracket are to long and get into the rotor. That's as far as I went. But....my personal opinion is use shorter screws and spacers to mount the engine to the mounting bracket and it will work. I don't have screws or spacers readily available or I would have done this to make sure. After going through all this, I might install shorter screws and spacers on my red/auger engine anyway so the clutch will fit further up inside the drum. I don't guess it really maters how far in the drum it goes as long as the total surface area of the clutch shoes are making good contact with the drum.
All this nformation is my own non professional observations and based solely on the friction drive kit from bikemotorparts.com. I think it will work provided that you get proper length mounting screws and spacers. Again, I did not take measurements, but I think screws and spacers between 1/4" - 1/2" shorter than the ones that came with the kit (BMP) will make this thing work. If anyone goes for this, do yourslef a favor.disconnect the plug wire and carefully pull the starter cord and make sure the rotor is not hitting the screws. That would be a costly mistake to start an engine for about 2 seconds and it be ruined !
One more bad thing. According to the parts people, the clutches cost whopping $2.34, but they said 6-8 weeks for delivery. S_Beaudry and I have kind of been working together on this and comparing notes with each other. I think he's in pursuit of finding a clutch localy that will work. One of us will keep you posted ! Hope this help ! If anyone has question, get in touch !
Thanks !

..... PC .....
 

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Very nice work Porkchop....

So you are saying that the "entire" bolt on clutch unit for the engine would be the cost of $2.34??

I am searching scooter sites to see if I can find these clutch units online.

Would anyone know judging by the units if they are readily available online somewhere?

Any help is much appreciated!
 
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