Had a productive weekend.
Saturday, got the starter cleaned, bench tested and reinstalled. Runs good. Placed the M18 back into the frame to test it. Needed one item before I could test the engine, so moved on to the hub caps. Pictures below show the before and after. Used a piece of aluminum foil folded up and a can of Coke. Worked like I wouldn't believe! They don't look new, but I was impressed how they cleaned up.
Sunday afternoon, got the temp gas tank on, plugs in and magneto kill wire ready. Here's what an auction-bought, non-running Kohler M18 sounds like:
http://vid436.photobucket.com/albums...psxfo5nzju.mp4
Was good to know that I may not need to buy a replacement engine (yet) and can proceed to other things. Like pulling the tranny cover. The contents was surprisingly good. Gears appeared good and the lube wasn't a foamy milkshake. Tip for all who have never pulled a tranny cover: Keep the two top bolts in finger tight and then pull the bottom outward just enough to create the opening. Loosen the two top bolts as required to open the bottom more and more until it is drained. Otherwise, you'll end up with a huge mess. Also make sure your tub or container is 2 gallon minimum. I had to retighten the bolts, dump the tub to get all the tranny drained.
I know the wiring is suspect, so will be rewiring the tractor. Now that I feel pretty good about the mechanics of it all, I can move on with some speed (hopefully) to totally disassemble, clean, paint and reassemble.
More to come...