[The Dark Side of Will]

Originally Posted by ol'George

First,
welcome to OCC
Take that kirker/jerker lectronic bullshit thingy off and put it in the trash.
Clean the points that have been on there for 40 years and they will be good for another 40 years.

I'll take it under advisement.
My prior experience with converting small engines to electronic ignition includes a Tecumseh that was a SOB to start. I always took multiple priming cycles and several pulls. I replaced the original system with an electronic ignition utilizing the original flying magnet trigger. It started, first pull, EVERY TIME.
I have similar experience converting cars to EFI... Electronics are ALWAYS more reliable.
The reason the points only last 40 years with the original ignition is that they have to pass >2 Amps of coil current. The electronic ignition is nothing but a solid state relay that reduces coil current to ~50 mA. Points will absolutely last forever with that current. Done.

If there were an EFI kit for these engines, I'd probably buy it.

Originally Posted by ol'George

Down load the service manual from kohler,
available free here on OCC.

From here: http://www.kohlerengines.com/engines...df/tp_2379.pdf

Downloaded. Will review

Originally Posted by ol'George

The timing marks are there I guarantee, just not easily seen.
Use a bright light and look when the piston is near TDC.
There will be 2 marks, one before TDC and one on TDC.
Search "static timing method" here on OCC and follow it,--it is simple and fool proof.

I'll review the manual and have another look.

Originally Posted by ol'George

Then set the carb to factory settings initally.
Idle air first, then high speed mixture.
After that adjust to fine tune, error to richer on main jet not leaner.

I played with the mixture screws today. The previous owner may have been tuning it to start in winter in order to use the snow plow. I leaned each mixture screw a full turn and it's much more tractable now, thought still not where it should be. I have not yet undertaken a factory mixture setting procedure, but will.

Originally Posted by ol'George

As far as motor mounts:
Remove deck & mule drive.
Then remove engine as it is strongly suggested to modify the cradle that mounts engine to frame, after all these years they are usually beat pretty bad,
Chances are you are going to find stripped motor to cradle bolt holes in the aluminum oil pan.
That has to be addressed,either repair the threads/resurface or replace the pan with a cast iron one from various sources
Again,search "cradle mod" on here.
That should keep you busy for a while.

That's going to be fun. I've helicoiled plenty of parts to date. :-/
I can see the engine dancing around on the "cradle" plates. Yes, it will need a day of work to be right again. Sigh.