Testing For Crankshaft Seal Leak ?

[MrMarty51]

I know that the transmission side seal can not be tested.
I am wondering about the magneto, Generator side seal.
On most snow mobile engines, while it is running, squirt a little starting fluid in close to the crank shaft seal and if the engine increases in idle, then there is a leaking seal.
The engines air intake has to be isolated to keep from drawing the starting fluid into the engine from that side but just a simple quick burst aimed at the seal should to the trick.
With the problems with the carb on My 125 Hummer that I am having I am wondering if maybe there is a problem with the crank shaft seals.
Might be time to pull the engine and just replace them. They are near 20 years in the machine so maybe they are going bad.

[Mutt]

You can test the seals on your 125 the same way. Just use the red extension tube that comes on the side of the can. You wont hurt the transmission running it with no oil in it for a couple of minutes

[MrMarty51]

You can test the seals on your 125 the same way. Just use the red extension tube that comes on the side of the can. You wont hurt the transmission running it with no oil in it for a couple of minutes

Thank You very much Mutt. I have not changed the transmission lube since I had You rebuild the engine, about time to do that I`d guess. Probably a couple hundred miles since I have fired it up.
I have a simple GPS unit that I am going to build a mount for, set it in the area where the speed would reside, then I can see the speed and keep track of how many miles I`ve gone.
I`ll also be sending You a message to get the price on some clutch release components.

[MrMarty51]

Run the seal test.
Drained the transmission and fired up the engine. Have it set to a very low idle speed.
Give a healthy blast of ether starting fluid into the transmission fill/check plug hole and there was no difference in the way that the engine idles.
Next I removed the points cover, the points do make spark so I was a bit leary of giving a blast of ether into this side, but, with the straw attached I could give it a short blast right in next to the points cam without danger of causing an explosion or a fire. I gave it several short bursts of the ether and there too was no difference in the way that the engine idled.
Conclusion :
I can now say that the cranking shaft seals are in good condition and that the lean burn condition is not coming from those two seals.
Next might be to try the carb off of the Kohler 7 horse engine on the JD rider mower and see how it does with that,