Craftsman GT 5000 Tractor

Averie

Member
I recently bought a Craftsman GT 5000 tractor with with a twin cyl Briggs & Stratton engine, once warmed up it begins to smoke. Eventually it will miss on one cyl. is that the reason it is smoking because it is misfiring?? any ideas as to why it smokes or is the misfiring causing the smoking any help appreciated on what to do. or what to check
 
Very good chance it has a bad head gasket on the cylinder that is missing/smoking
GB in MN
 
I used to have one of those. It was given to me by a guy that got totally sick of working on it and all the breakdowns. It ran beautifully and mowed great! Really thought I got something... until I used it a while.

My advise is to park it out back far away from anything, pour 10 gallons of gasoline on it and set that piece of crap on fire!
It'll never again make you mad and your quality of life will return.
 
when it starts acting up pull plugs, you have black wet one on that side. see if you have fire on that side bet you don't coil bad on that side. they do that when things get warm usually. otherwise that should be a good unit, several those in my area still going strong
 
Most likely you have 2 problems, unless its fouling sparkplugs and that is why it is missing.
For smoking:

Can you smell gas in the oil? Is the oil over full? (Gas in the oil will thin it to the point it goes through the crankcase breather and then you see it in the exhaust as smoke.) Is there any oil in the tube between the crankcase breather and the intake elbow before the carburetor?
Some of those engines had a poor seal on the air filter. Can you see any dust in the intake elbow after you remove the air filter cover? If so, rings are probably done.

A technician would probably also perform a compression test, a leakdown test, and a crankcase vacuum test.

'Missing' problem:

Like the other guy said, run it until it starts missing, then check for spark on each cylinder. The no power on one side could be a bad coil. It could also be a blown head gasket. The twin cylinder Briggs engines don't have near the problems with blown head gaskets the single cylinder engines do. It could also be a sticking valve, or valves out of adjustment.

Like
 
I would lean towards head gasket. If it were a Kohler twin I would virtually guarantee it.

Get the model number on the engine and do a Google search for cylinder misfire and/or cylinder smoking.

I have had Briggs twins and really had no show stopper problems. Had a Kohler twin that had a bad head gasket (common) and after $20.00 in parts and about 2 hours time it was back running fine.

Best of luck.
 
Sorry to say it, But the Craftsman 5000 (especially with 25 hp Briggs engines) were never known for quality.

To your problem. Start simple and check the valve clearance.
 
This has been gone over multiple times. I would bet you have a messed up carb. Take the hood off. Take the air filter cover off and the filter. Get a pump can and fill it with gasoline. With the engine running and warmed up. When the problem starts happening squirt some gas down the left side of the ventura. Then try the other side. If the engine suddenly straightens out, bingo. Go on Ebay and spend $60.oo for a new carb. This is the quick and easy test. Yes you can have all of the other problems that everyone else is saying. But give the pump can a shot. One plug will be clean and the other really dirty. What happens is those little NIKI carbs go out of ballace internally. Not worth repairing. You actually are getting 1 1/2 gas to one cylinder and 1/2 to the other cylinder. Bet the carb fixes it. Also it is a third revision and they work great. Also check for leaks between the back of the carb and the plastic manifold. A dab of blue silicone. P.S. follow the the direction sheet! That little mixer plate must be correct.
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Nuts there is one more thing. Inside of the muffler there is a seal ring that comes loose for each pipe and messes up your exhaust. Will partially block it off. Go to the trouble and carefully take the muffler off. Squirt some oil around the pipes and wiggle it loose. When you get the muffler off there should be two little collars where the pipes go in. If one is busted loose and rattling around you need to hold them up with a claw tool and drill a couple of little holes through where the spot welds were and put in a couple of sheet metal screws. Those rings need to be there.
 
Jeffcat, I believe you are very knowledgeable about these tractors, When I bought the tractor back in mid-summer first thing I done was check the spark plugs and the one on the right (sitting on the seat) was fouled really bad a lot of crap on the plug, installed the correct plugs but by the time mowing season was just about over it was missing again never checked the plug again as for was done with it but could it be that the carb is screwed up and has maybe foulded that plug again??? whats your thoughts???? Thanks for all the replies
 
Sounds like it. My two Husqvarna machines have these engines on them. The correct plugs are NGK BPR6ES. The engines love these plugs. Now both of my engines I went whole hog and installed the Iridium plugs. Cost more but are forever. Both of my engines REALLY like these plugs. In summer the engine doesn't even spin two revoluthions and it is running. Put NGK plugs in and try the sqwirt can test. Bet you are running rich on one cylinder and lean on the other. Inside the Niki carb there is a gasket with four little holes. Two of those holes swell and close up. Then the carb is thrown out of ballance. That is why I keep telling folks to just pop for a new $60.oo carb. Ain't worth fixing. The new carbs work like a little Pixie bonked the engine with a wand. You should also check the valve lash. Not that hard to do but you need to know what you are doing. The photo is from a couple of days ago. The front machine is a 46 inch hydro and the one behind it is my big baby. That is a 22hp. 54 inch with a six speed manual tranny. I just got done taking them for a little drive to exercise them. Put a battery maintainer on them with little jumper wires and cover with a big tarp. Any more questions jusy ask us.
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Yes. Get a NEW carburetor for it. I fought mine for 12 or more years. The new carburetor actually carburates! Starts, idles, doesn't foul the plugs and runs wonderful under load. Next be ready for a cracked fuel tank that is no longer made.
 

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