I've had the same experiance. Had a mini tiller and didn't use if for a year. Did the carb clean and rebuild and it just wouldn't run right. Ordered an new carb and all is well. I've rebuilt car carbs with no problems but these small ones can be a pain. I now put Stay-bil in the gas cans before I even fill them up so that way I know it in there. Just moved to the country (57 acres) in Nov so now I have a few gas powered engines to keep up with.
Curt, I have a 74 vintage Troy-Bilt Horse with the Techumseh engine on it. I've owned this tiller since 1980 and has been in and out of storage many times as I was in the AF for 26 years moving around a lot and some places I could use it and others it stayed in storage.
Now that we are in the country again and have a garden out comes the ol Horse. It's been 6 years since it was fired up. I put gas in it and immediatly it leaked out the carb. Pulled the carb apart and it was varnished up pretty good. Took it apart and brought it in to drop in the ultrasonic cleaner I have in my office. In the mean time I head to my buddies lawn mower shop to see about a rebuild kit. Find out Techumseh is no longer in buisness and not kit available. Great! So I take what I have in had, put it back together, fill it with fuel and BAM, starts right up! Couldn't till with is as the belts are too stretched but I was amazed that it fired right up. I will order some new belts and use it between the rows on the field.
Great to see a new board stand up for lawn mowers. Right now I have a NH TC45DA with brush and finnish mowers, Honda push mover and a small White riding mower I traded out for some dirt work. I plan in the future to get a dedicated ZT mowing machine and want to go with a deisel. Latest toy I picked up is a V30 Ditch Witch that guess what.....needed carb work.
Looking forward to reading reviews and thoughts on ZT mowers.
Greg
"Everyday Above Ground is a Good Day"