The clip is a retainer designed to be pressed into a round hole to hold some thing in place. I recognize it but at the moment its' exact use escapes me. Unfortunately I am about 500 miles away from my 4 digit tractors for the weekend so I can't just go look at them for reference at the moment. (I am up in Illinois playing with my 130 this weekend)

 

Thanks D. McQuaid, I thought the same thing. Closest thing I can remember was on cover/shield on an Intek engine. This one clearly got mangled. Hope to get into that tonight. Mystery to me...enjoy the weekend!

 

where to start looking for leak.

It's a stupid question but I will ask it anyway - is your oil filter leaking? This happened to me and there was oil everywhere including the places you have described. Seeping oil can follow along the hoses hoses and the cooling fan will splatter it in every direction thus making the source of the leak difficult to trace.

 

Looks like some kind of push pin retainer, any push pins on the cover?

 

Looks like some kind of push pin retainer, any push pins on the cover?

I don't see any push pins on the covers....hex head bolts only...nothing appears loose.

It's a stupid question but I will ask it anyway - is your oil filter leaking? This happened to me and there was oil everywhere including the places you have described. Seeping oil can follow along the hoses hoses and the cooling fan will splatter it in every direction thus making the source of the leak difficult to trace.

kOjdd...After removing all three tower panels and the hood,cleaning the area up a bit and better lighting it looks like maybe worm clamp which I kidded Bob Meyers that I tighen down during the winter while drinking a beer.....may have loosend up and been lealking from Pump inlet hose C33423 where attached to the bottom of the reservoir. Bob posted a picture of a better clamp type in that post. I agree with you air movement has likely been splattering a little bit oil for a long time and only was evident after some time. Lot of oil on the frame & deck but when I measured Rotella level in the reservoir, it really had not dropped much.
Tightened up those two hose clamps. Going to run it a while with no deck, put cardboard underneath and monitor. Maybe this was an easy fix🤞
Still looking for source of shrapnel.....

 

Thanks for any ideas on what the hardware

It appears to be some sort of push-in retainer clip. I have been through the 4016 parts manual and the Vanguard manual, twice each, and can't locate anything like this. It is possible that it is a foreign object from another source.

It is not threaded, so that suggests that it either holds something in place, or provides a 'socket/receptacle/hole' to seat a moveable pin/rod. Is it as heavy duty as it looks? It's hard to tell from the photos, but there seems to be no signs of wear on the inner surfaces which helps rule out the pin/rod theory.

I am stumped... But someone knows....

 

kOjdd...I like "But someone knows" is like our go to when spouse and I lose something....."well..it's somewhere". If "heavy duty" means about the same grade as a molly bolt or wall anchor then yeah it's about that grade. On the upside, after tightening the pump inlet hose, there appears to be no more leaking but the tractor was not run today as a washed out driveway needed tending to. Thanks for looking throught the parts manuals.....I could not find anything either. Unit was bought used in 2003 and I can't recall me dropping anything.....mystery remains.....Your probably right on about a "spray" of oil and I'm gonna keep looking for a pin hole in the heat exchanger.

 

MYSTERY SOLVED!

Pinion spring retainer. Part of Pinion Spring Kit B&S part # 696539. Guess I'm lucky it got thrown out by flywheel. Have no idea where spring and plastic kick out shroud is.
Closes this one out for me....some of you fellas were on the right track. Thanks

 

Thought it was over...it ain't over. Replaced all of start drive components, clutch, pinion etc. Still hanging in flywheel so thought maybe ignition switch had gone bad which happens in this and other tractors in our extremely foggy climes (Smokey mountains). Had a B & S ignition switch so figured I'd swap. Pulled the battery and discovered the source of the hydro oil mentioned in the first post. The right front corner of the battery box (as well as all others) had become chaffed. THERE IS A PIN-HOLE LEAK IN THE RIGHT FRONT CORNER FROM THE bottom BATTERY CORNER. Seem to recall a post by Mackie about this. Back to the forums....

 

Guessing that your tractor has never been updated with the metal shield that goes between the battery and the reservoir.

C48415 Rev A Shield - Battery/ Resvero

Bob

 

You are correct Bob.