I bought this mower used. It was one year old [a 2011] and had been used maybe 25 hours. It provided me a summer of good use while I was deciding what zero turn I wanted to replace my Gravely ZT with. I knew it would not be another Gravely. The second summer I used it for rough area mowing and towing the yard trailer around. It began to hesitate while starting and I took to tapping the starter lightly to get it started. Finally would not start at all. This winter I brought it inside the shop for servicing and a new starter. The new starter was no better than the old one when it first began to hesitate. I checked all electrical connections and battery cables, all good. I went to Oreilly Auto and bought the largest cranking power battery they had. No improvement. I checked the valve adjustment and found them to be at factory settings, 05 on int and 07 on exh. I reset exhaust to 05 as was suggested on another site. No change. I pulled the head and looked for anything but all was as new. I pulled the case cover and looked at cam gears and ACR, all as new as far as I can tell. I have ordered a new exhaust cam assembly because it is the only thing I can think of to do. Anyone have any suggestions otherwise? Thanks.
Engine 20 hp Kohler Courage hard to start.
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OK guys. Here is the deal. The valve adjustment. The specks call for .003-.005 Intake. Adjust at .004. The Exhaust calls
for .005-.007, adjust for .006. This is the middle range. It works, for I just did two B&B engines that had the exact same problem you have. After adjusting, connect to battery on the mower( a charged one) no jumper cables.You have to be sure you have the adjustment right on money though. Double check. If you do not know how to do the setup for adjusting go to website by asking how to adjust valves on your model and read how to do it. After I adjusted valves the mower started just like it did when new. Hope this helps.
roger72645
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I had a similar issue with a Kohler Courage 22. My problem was the anti backfire solenoid was not functioning and allowing fuel to get down in the engine when it wasn't running. Two things solved the problem. 1)Installed an inline fuel shutoff valve and 2) removed the innards from the anti backfire solenoid (unplugging the solenoid will not help).
The engine starts like it should now and when I get ready to stop, I reach down and shut the fuel off and let the engine die from lack of fuel. When I get ready to restart, turn the fuel back on and start normally.
The engine starts like it should now and when I get ready to stop, I reach down and shut the fuel off and let the engine die from lack of fuel. When I get ready to restart, turn the fuel back on and start normally.
The fuel solenoid has absolutely nothing to do with fuel flow into the carb, it only shuts off fuel to the main jet to help prevent afterfire. In your case you have a leaking float valve, and if you leave the gas on will cause it to overfill the carb, and dump fuel into the crankcase. The fuel shutoff valve is just a bandaid fix but doesn't solve the problem.