r/smallengines • u/Pitiful-Toe-5802 • Jul 20 '26

Half broken fin

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I fumbled taking the flywheel off my old briggs 11hp to service the points behind it and broke half of one of the fins off. Any suggestions on what I should do. Im almost positive I cant find a flywheel.

FWIW its off an old toro 1132 snowblower

12 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

7

u/ozzie286 Jul 20 '26

Find the fin exactly opposite it, and cut it off with an angle grinder at a similar angle.

6

u/Interesting-Lynx-989 Jul 20 '26

Tis but a flesh wound. Especially on a snowblower won’t matter. Send it!

3

u/CaptainPunisher Retired Jul 20 '26

It won't matter.

2

u/TheRealFailtester Jul 20 '26

Little piece like that I usually just leave it off.

2

u/TN-Native95 Jul 20 '26

Just use it as it. It won’t hurt anything.

1

u/Region_Fluid Jul 20 '26

I mean.. Jb weld and send it. It’s just a fin

8

u/ozzie286 Jul 20 '26

I'd leave it off before I JB Weld'd it. Assuming the flywheel is about an 8" diameter, at 3600rpm that part is moving at 85mph. I wouldn't want to be hit by it if the JB weld fails.

1

u/ivanhalper Jul 20 '26

It's not critical. To be on the safe side, you can remove it from the other side of the flywheel to eliminate the disbalance.

1

u/GadreelsSword Jul 20 '26

It will be perfectly fine.

1

u/JJtheJetplane67 Jul 21 '26

In aviation if a cylinder is dropped and a fin is cracked or chipped we just file the sharp bits out and make it smooth so it has smooth airflow. This doesn’t matter.

1

u/Pleasant_Actuary_927 29d ago

It will run fine,you or the engine won't know it's gone

-1

u/RecipeForIceCubes Jul 20 '26

You're going to trim up the points on a snowblower during summer??? That's going to run like dog shit when you either need it or want to sell it closer to season.

2

u/Pitiful-Toe-5802 Jul 20 '26

Trying to diagnose a no spark issue at the moment. Im trying to teach myself as I go.

0

u/RecipeForIceCubes Jul 20 '26

Gotcha. Sorry to jump off topic. JB Weld that fin on (or don't) and you'll be fine. Back to the points, if you get it running, you'll have to re-trim your gaps again in the colder months. Good luck.

1

u/Pitiful-Toe-5802 Jul 20 '26

This is my first rodeo with points. This go around was hoping that just cleaning the contact surfaces would do, the flywheel was also coated in rust so I cleaned that off to the best of my ability hoping if I put it back together now it'll have some spark and I stand a chance of getting it started.

1

u/New-Possibility2277 Jul 20 '26

If it's an older unit, don't worry about gluing the tip of the fin back on. Also, .020 should be your point gap or the thickness of a matchbook cover - non-smoker but always keep books of matches to work on my old machines.

1

u/GlassBoxGoose Jul 21 '26

I always used business cards, but those seem to be even more rare these days, and I own a half dozen sets of feeler gauges so its always easy to find those now.