2012 Kohler Courage powered RZT50 starting issues

WanhedaNC

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Apr 16, 2021
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I have been having issues with getting my mower started lately. 2-3 years ago, I basically did a full engine teardown because both head gaskets were leaking and needed to be replaced so since I was going that far, I went ahead and replaced all the gaskets and cleaned out all the sludge and gunk and whatnot. Got everything reassembled (no extra bolts or pieces either rofl) and it ran great up until this year. It still runs great and doesn’t have any problems with overheating, leaking or burning oil, or anything except one little annoying bit…. In order to get it to cold fire, it needs a short hit of ether. Now if I start it in the morning, mow some, and the. come back to it in the evening to finish (my health doesn’t let me do the heat of the day anymore) it’ll start back up no problem but if it’s like more than 12h later, it’s gonna need a little nip to get going. I put in a new fuel line/filter from the pickup thru to the return at the beginning of the season along with a new bowl gasket after dropping the carb and throughly cleaning that because I thought there might have been a speck of some deteriorated rubber or crud along the path causing to not want to run at first. Keep in mind that the ether came out about 2/3rd of the way through last season. The carb solenoid was checked and is strong, nothing blocking up the pathways through the Venturi or carb, and the carb fuel flow stops and starts with the solenoid like it’s supposed to. It just has an attitude about wanting to get started (like its owner). Any ideas?
 

Rivets

Lawn Royalty
Joined
Mar 11, 2012
Threads
55
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14,769
Check to see if the choke is fully closing on cold startup. Cable may have slid back slightly and needs to be readjusted.
 
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