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Simplicity Sovereign Garden Tractor - $550 (De Forest)
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The engine is an almost new Briggs & Stratton Vanguard 18 hp engine. But.... I have not been able to get the governor to work properly.
First a little history. I had installed an identical engine in this tractor about 10 years early and it worked fine. I finally had issues with that engine (a very long story) and that was right when Covid hit. I could not find an identical spec engine as a replacement but, after comparing a lot of part numbers, I thought I found one that would work. I figured all I had to do was swap some of the parts, like air cleaner, governor, exhaust, and more from the old engine. I thought the blocks were identical.
The issue is I could never get the governor to work properly. The engine would run fine but the governor would not respond to a load. At first the throttle cable was lose and that was giving me a lot of trouble. But once that was fixed the governor still would not work. To this day I'm not sure why, it could be as simple as I never could get it set up correctly. Or there is something internal to the engine that I missed when comparing parts that is the issue.
I finally gave up and parked it. The tractor has been sitting for several years now, collecting dust. I'm guessing the carb and fuel pump will need cleaned (I can throw in a new fuel pump if you want). I did drain the gas tank and run the engine dry when I parked it.
I bought and installed this engine around 2020. I bought it new (it was initially setup for stationary operation). I used it to blow snow but did not put many hours on it (I'm guessing less then 20 hours).
These Sovereigns are getting hard to find and you can lookup how much these new engines cost. Hopefully someone is smarter then me and this is an easy fix. I know I have a 2nd project sitting here so time to sell one.
Asking $550 obo (cash of course).
Email or text is best, phone calls OK but leave a message because I won't pick it up if I don't recognize the phone number.
If you are reading this then the items are still available. I delete my listings as soon as the item(s) have been picked up.