Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

Hello everyone.  I'm hoping you can help me with a problem.

I've got a roughly 11 year old Cub Cadet with an 18 hp, Kohler, 2 cylinder motor.  I need to sell it, but it's been sitting for almost a year.  I can't get it to start now.  I purchased the tune up kit and have replaced the plugs and fuel filter so far. 

The starter churns away but it won't start.  The fuel pump is OK - It's shooting gas when I hit the starter.   I've put a small amount of gas directly into the carb and it runs for 2 to 3 seconds but that's all.  I've done that about ten times now and it won't run on it's own.    So.......I'm concluding that the carb is gunked up.  Do you agree?

If that is a good assumption, then is that carb something that the average person could take off and possibly clean the jets or replace the jets.  I'm torn between, "this could be a cool project" and "this could be a real bag of worms".   What do you think?

Thanks for any help or suggestions.

Well, I took the top half of the carb off yesterday and cleaned it up. The tiny pinholes in what I assume was a jet, looked OK. I could see light through them. I reassembled and still won't start.  

The online manual describes a fuel shut-off solenoid.  I may try to test that today.

I have tested the fuel shut-off solenoid and it works fine.  I cleaned up the bottom half of the carb and will reinstall and see what happens.

BINGO!!!!  I put the carb back together, reinstalled, and fed it some gas into the top of the carb.  The third time I tried to start it that way it kept running.  So whatever I did worked.
Thanks again for your help, Michael.