Troy bilt No Start No Spark Kohler Engine Spark & Carburetor Repair 

Thanks for sharing. I have an old Horse and it began to run only with the choke on. I drained the bowl and sprayed in some carburetor cleaner and now it works. I am no mechanic and would not have thought it possible.

Had to remove and clean out the carb on my 30 yr old T. Bilt. helped to see you do it first. Thanks. One thing I will mention is that after reassembly, but before connecting it, I ran the fuel pump a bit to purge that line of possible contaminants. After it was all put back together, it would not start until I let it sit overnight. Assuming the needle valve/ float had to drip drip drip to fill the bowl. Next morning, it started right up and a small adjustment to the top needle valve has it running like new. Thanks for the video.

JOE, Here are my impressions. The least important, you know what you are talking about. The most important, you are a good man. We most likely will never meet. If we did, I think we would be friends. Good luck always.

Joe, your video gave me the confidence to take on cleaning the carb float bowl, as I found a flick of red paint that wouldn't let the needle valve close. Flooding out problem resolved. Thanks!

This looks like a cast-iron. engine, which to me anyway is one of the best. having the points on the side is nice as it avoids removing the flywheel. yup some call it a carbitr8or. Got a 7 HP Kohler on Dad's Troybilt. ran great up to mid throttle, tjhen ran like sh&(. cleaned out carb replaced, same thing. then remembered it could be a bad mag. since a new one was like 200 and change, I hookt up a regular ignition coil and a hot-shot battery thru the engine's points. engine ran great thru all speeds. so o it proved the magneto was weak at higher speeds or just arced over. I put a new mag in and yes the engine ran great.

Mr. Joe, I seen you having the trouble removing the screw. You may know this but a lot of people out there may not but they make a nice little impact driver tool. It weighs about a pound and comes with two or three different driver bits, Phillips head and Flathead and you can turn it to either tighten or loosen and hit it with a hammer and it will loosen the screw. When the hammer strikes it will turn it clockwise a very fraction of an inch or vice versa. I don't know what I would do without mine. Started to buy another one today because they where in the cheap bin at the auto parts store, some were $4.98 and some were $7.98 and I bought mine and paid $15 for it. But of course the driver was in the $7.98 Bin. Just throwed that out there, good video!

This is super helpful. Excellent video, narration, and editing. Please keep up the great work.

Thanks for the great simple video! Cleaned the points on my K Koehler and BANG THERE IT IS!!!!! Thanks for great vid!!!🤓

Well mr. Joe that was a great video and I hope it's going to help me tomorrow! About an 8 horsepower Kohler Magnum Troy-Bilt about a year-and-a-half ago and it worked fine last year and I keep stabil in my gas and my brother went to crank it off this year and it only runs if you got the choke on. So I think I'm going to have to do some carburetor cleaning! Mine somewhere between the 85 and 88 model I believe. But you just told me something that I didn't know. You said the fuel pump was working. I hadn't looked at the engine that close but I didn't even know it had a fuel pump on it! I assumed it was just gravity-fed just like my 6 horsepower Tecumseh on my other 86 model Troy-Bilt. I'll try to let you know if your stuff is the same as mine and how I turn out on. Till then Joe you have a wonderful day!

Thanks for the video. I just picked up the same model (not running) for cheap off craigslist and your video is a good preview of the steps I'll be taking soon to get it running.

I love the way this guy say Carburata ...lol That and this bolt is 13 Milli Metas Haha

Can you go in depth more in the spark setup? I have a similar Kohler that is pull start I can’t get spark out of. Does it have a condenser?

Do you have a video on a coil replacement on that kohler

I have the same tiller. It starts but it usually takes about ten to fifteen minutes with about 8 - 10 pulls and pausing a a couple minutes between pulls, choke on. Any Idea how to get it starting on the first, second, or third pull?

quality pal cheers helpful to me 😉

Jim D I recently came into a "barn find" Troy-bilt Horse Model tiller Serial Nr (83 50 68 stamped in the right side of the transmission case above the wheel axle) with a battery start Kohler 8 hp engine (Model M8ST), Spec Nr 301513, Serial Nr 161200?167. (The ? is an unreadable number). It initially ran for 20 minutes or so, but after I added gas, it quit. I have spark and compression, so I suspect that a carburetor cleaning is in order. Your video is much appreciated and I'm about to follow your instructions on cleaning the carb. Thanks much for your post! Is there any way to tell the year of manufacture of this unit from the info above? Somebody on the net indicated that you can do so by adding 70 to the first two numbers in the Kohler serial number to get the year. For my serial number that would make it an 86 (16 + 70) and the next three digits (120) indicate the day of the year it was manufactured. Internet sources for Kohler parts refer to K161, K181, and M8. Are such parts interchangeable with the M8ST engine? I'm having a hard time finding anybody that knows anything for sure about these machines.

When checking for spark, remove the spark plug, reattach the spark plug wire, place the plug on the sheet metal of the engine, then pull the rope & observe if there's spark. If the spark is blue, the plug is good. If it's red or white, plug is fouled. If no spark, try a new spark plug. If still no spark, check the points. Go here for more info: gardentractorpullingtips.com/ignelect.htm

Can you teach me how to repair the oil leak where the blades are?

Hey joe z I just bought a tiller with same motor it has spark and I cleaned the carb but it still won't run when I suppose my hand over the carb it sputters and spits gas out the carb

I am shipping my Tory Bilt Horse 8 hp tiller overseas. Drained the oil, Gear oil, Tiller belt. Just wanted to know if you know the spark plug gap on my Kohler 8hp engine?

I picked up the same one however mine has no points at all and I’m a little confused can anyone help me ?

We're looking for a pull start for a 7 horsepower Troy-Bilt rototiller old model of an has 5 bolts holding the pull start on if anybody can help us for sure appreciate it

As a partial payback for the help and guidance in your video, while doing some further research I stumbled onto a catalog that provides information on the date of manufacture for Troy-Bilt tillers. The catalog is fairly long and will likely take some time to download. The link is: mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/15d484fc73e4d81e?projector=1 Section 3 of this catalog refers to tillers. My Troy-Bilt serial number is 83 50 68. If you scroll to the very bottom of the pages in Section 3 you will see page numbers. On page 40 (covering in part 1986 Horse III) you will find that the S/N column covers serial numbers in the range of 806595 to 841755, and this includes the platform for my machine. However, when you look in engine column you will find that the only Kohler engine for that range of serial numbers is rated at 7 hp. The first apparent use of the Kohler M8ST engine (the ST suffix identifies Battery Start) occurs in 1987, where they appear in relation to the O.P.C. PTO Horse. (O.P.C. stands for Operator Presence Controls, whatever that means.) It appears that Troy-Bilt manufactured my tiller platform in 1986 and in 1987 completed the unit when the Kohler M8ST engines first became available. Or as an alternative, my 1986 platform was completed with a 7 horsepower Kohler engine that may have developed problems later that made replacing it with an M8ST a desirable option. I hope you can find your machine in the list and that knowing its origins will help you to find correct parts for it. In the way of additional information, I communicated with somebody who had a Troy-Bilt Horse model with an engine that went bad. He took that engine off and replaced it with a 6.5 horsepower horizontal drive engine from Harbor Freight ($99.95) that mounted on the Troy-Bilt platform and mated up with the Troy-Built pulleys without modification. He claims that it works like a champ and the horsepower is sufficient to churn through Texas dry clay -- which is saying something if you haven't ever tested a tiller that way. In conclusion, following your video instructions, I thoroughly cleaned the carburetor and got my machine running smoothly. Just a few more mechanical details to address and it'll be off to the races.

Where to get parts

Jim D

You talk about doing something but you asume your audience knows what your talking about, so you dont show key points on camera.