1988 PONY Troy Bilt troubles

My tiller leaks gas from underneith the air cleaner. If it runs 5 minutes it will stop. It will
start right up, but EVERY time I start it, I have to spray it with starter fluid. It has the
origional engine, that I dont think is very powerful

Rectangle plate on the carb below the air filter is a fuel pump. Probably needs a new diaphragm. Easy and cheap.

The screws were loose on that but I tightened them up. Where would I get parts for it??

I'm assuming that your tiller has a 5HP Briggs and Stratton Engine. You should look on the engine for a model number. My Pony tiller is about the same vintage. The model number of the engine is stamped on side of the recoil starter shroud. It is a model 130292. I believe that the electric start models were 130297. The diaphragm for model 130292 is part 270026. The more complete carb kit is part 494624. Parts are available nearly everywhere that sell small engine parts. You can buy a new "made in China" carburetor on Ebay for $15 to $25

Outa courisity, Whats the chances those 2 rubber elbows on the gas line have deterioted enough over 30+yrs to be having gas leak around them?

Found out that line is an air line, so I guess its back to the carb

One other thing to check......make sure the carb attaching bolts aren't loose. I had a Briggs on a log splitter that did exactly the same thing and that was the problem.
Once started, it ran pretty good....amazing!

My number is, I think, 130262 301801 98022221

Looking at the Briggs and Stratton website, I can't find a model number 130262 engine. You may want to look at the numbers again.

The Briggs website https://www.briggsandstratton.com/na/en_us/support/manuals.html# has a section where you can get manuals for their engines. You can either get a pdf copy on your computer screen or they will email you a copy. It is a three step process. First you have to enter whether you are looking for Briggs product, or some other company's product that uses a Briggs engine. Next you have to choose the type of equipment. Finally, you have to enter the model number. You state that yours is 130262 301801. That number would be entered as 130262-3018-01 (and would get no results). My Pony has an model 130232-3018-01.

It's hard to say where you are leaking gas from. The air cleaner is sits on top of the carburetor, so "under the air cleaner" would seem to mean the carburetor or fuel tank. On a 30+ year old engine, one would suspect a leaky gasket or O-ring. It is a Pulsa Jet carburetor. You can find many YouTube videos showing how the carburetors work and how to repair them. With a 30+ year old engine I would expect that cleaning the carburetor and replacing the diaphragm would be in order. It all depends on how much time and money you wish to spend. It looks like you may find a diaphragm for about $2. A complete rebuild kit would cost $15 to $20 which is the same price range as a brand new aftermarket carburetor. A new genuine Briggs carburetor will be over $100. Your gas tank is likely to have some dirt/rust in it. The engine may quit after a few minutes because some of this dirt/rust is sucked up into the carb and blocks the intake screen or some passage.

Ill go out and look at it again with my glasses lol. When it last quit and I saw gas IN BACK and below the gas tank, I took flex seal and coated the air pipr rnds and the insides of the rubber gaskets. Now it wont start at all other than when I spray it and it runs for a few seconds. Was that the wrong thing to do??

Ill go out and look at it again with my glasses lol. When it last quit and I saw gas IN BACK and below the gas tank, I took flex seal and coated the air pipr rnds and the insides of the rubber gaskets. Now it wont start at all other than when I spray it and it runs for a few seconds. Was that the wrong thing to do??
OK I went back out and checked the numbers again. MODEL-130292, TYPE=3016-01, Code=88022227

eteplacementparts.com has parts diagrams for your engine

https://www.ereplacementparts.com/briggs-and-stratton-130292301601-engine-parts-c-16758_17347_20034_270252.html

I'm not familiar with "air pipr rnds" that you coated. I don't know what the effect would be.

It runs from the bottom of the filter by a rubber elbow to a 6in therebouts metal pipe that angles down and across deep into the engine to another rubber elbos. The pipe is held in place by one kind of clamp with one screw beneith the filter.

Your seem to be talking about the crankcase breather pipe. The purpose of this "tube" is to route crankcase fumes back to the carburetor so that the engine will burn them. (otherwise, they would just spray a little oily mist onto the side of the engine and into the air.) Anything you do or don't do to this tube should have no affect on starting or running of the engine UNLESS you knocked a small piece of crud loose and it blocked some passage in the carburetor. The "elbows" to which you refer are called breather tube grommets with Briggs part numbers 692187 and 692189.

You need to understand that the gas tank and carburetor on Pulsa Jet carburetors function as one unit. The main part of the gas tank hold gasoline for further use. Within the gas tank, there is a small "bowl" just underneath the carburetor. There are two tubes extending below the carburetor. The longest tube picks up gas from the main part of the tank and carries it to the "fuel pump" part of the carburetor. This fuel pump pushes the gas into the "bowl" part of the gas tank. From there, it is sucked into the carburetor.

People have mentioned changing the diaphragm in the "fuel pump" part of the carburetor because it will not pump the gas if there is a tear in the diaphragm, if it has hardened too much with age, or if it has stretched too much. Even if the diaphragm is in perfect shape, the carburetor will not function properly if the screen on the end of the pick up tube is blocked, any passages in the carburetor are blocked, if there are any air leaks (because of loose screws, bad gaskets or orings etc.) The cap on the gas tank needs to be vented. If the vent is blocked, it will create a vacuum in the tank and not allow the gas to be picked up by the fuel pump. You could have a problem with rust in the gas tank. This rust will break free and clog things up.

Thanks Tom for sticking with me. All thats way past my doing anything with. I cant find a diaphram on E Bay. I could replace that. other than that, Ill let somebody who knows what there doing handle it. Thanks again.

When I search Ebay for 270026 (the part number of the diaphragm) it shows 347 results. Several are under $2 including free shipping. You might consider spending a dollar or so more to get the kit which contains a new spring and whatever they call the thing that goes over the spring. The old ones can get rusty after 30+ years.

Tom, I bought the diaphram last night. Supposed to be here the 22 of May. Guess there walking it over here to NE Okla.