MINI-DOZER® MD196K Assembly Part 4: Engine and Electrical

This step of assembling your MINI-DOZER MD196K involves installing the engine and electrical system. Note: You can purchase the MD196K without an engine, and use your own. In this case, the term electrical is a bit of a misnomer since the supplied engine doesn’t have any alternator or coil to generate electricity. The wiring harness only has the two safety switches for the seat and the parking brake, together with the switch that you can use to kill the engine.

(Note: The information is provided by a Struck customer. Please follow all official Struck manuals when installing your equipment.)

Here is the small Briggs and Stratton engine that you will be working with during this phase of the assembly.

To get started, turn the engine and access the wire panel at the back of that engine. You will be connecting one of the wires on the safety switches to an existing wire in the engine. This image shows how you can access the wire panel;

The wiring harness connects to the wiring system on the engine using one of the connectors available in your kit. Connect the wires held together by zip ties so that those wires lead out to the engine as shown in this image below;

Once all the wires are in place, gradually tighten all the zip ties so that everything is neat and tidy.

Next up, install the engine mount. Place the mount on one side of the bottom of the chassis as shown in the image below;

Tighten all the nuts holding the mount in place so that the engine will be held firmly in place. This image shows me trying to tighten the nuts at the bottom of the chassis;

It is a bit hard to access the nuts at the bottom of the chassis, so I brought out my hydraulic jack and raised the assembly as indicated in the image below. You can see that I placed a pallet underneath the assembly, even if Struck warns people not to do this if the assembly is on concrete blocks.

You see in the image below, that once the assembly was raised on a pallet, it was now easier to access the nuts underneath the chassis.

With the engine mount secured, carry the MINI-DOZER MD196K engine and place it on that mount as shown below;

Carefully screw all the nuts holding the engine onto the engine mount, so that the engine will not shift and sustain damage. This image below shows how to tighten the nuts under the engine mount;

Before you proceed, align the sprocket on the engine with the sprocket found on the drive shaft as shown in the image below;

Next up, install the chain to all the sprockets and tension it with the tensioner. This image below illustrates that process.

The “pull start” cord passes through the dash so that you can start up the engine while you are sitting on the machine. The image below shows how you can get this cord positioned and tensioned properly.

You also need to get the throttle cable in place so that you can adjust the throttle from the control on the dash. This image depicts the installation of that throttle cable;

This image below shows the choke cable after it has been installed.

With the choke cable in place, that concludes the engine and electrical installation phase of putting together your MINI-DOZER MD196K . If you would like to get some clarification on any of the steps described above, click the video link below and get the guidance you need!