Kohler / Walbro Carb...Help Me!

So other than some minor adjustments to 2 cycle carbs over the years, I've never done much.

I have a Kohler CV14T engine (14 horse, vertical) on my lawnmower.

Silly me, I didn't start it earlier in the spring. New it was leaking fuel if the fuel valve was left open last year, and was hard to start. So I figured I'd get a "carb kit" for it this year, and see if that would get it to stop leaking & start easier.

Of course, when I went to start it last week...it won't keep running after the ether is gone. And the local Toro commercial lawnmower shop no longer stocks the parts for my old boy, so I have to order them via the 'net. That was Friday, and I was struggling to find the right kit, but I did find the Kohler service manual for my mower.

It recommended checking a couple things for leaking gas:

Needle & seat. Well, the needle was very rusty. I ran that through the wire brush to clean it up, blew out the seat with compressed air like the manual recommended.

Float. Took the whole carb off, turned it upside down, and the float seems to rest level like the manual said to check to make sure it did.

Float was incredibly grungy in there, so I cleaned it well with carb cleaner. Gasket was shot and out of shape, but I found an O-ring at Napa that was close enough to fit it in there.

Re-assembled. I left the fuel valve open for a while to let the filter fill up, came back...and the whole damn carb was flooded with gas almost up to the level where the air filter goes on!

Guess whatever was leaking before and dripping out...now with the new gasket went up instead!

I absorbed out the visible gasoline with paper toweling.

So now

1) I'm thinking maybe gasoline (lots) would've gotten into the cylinder...what should I do to clean that out? Or is that not a valid concern?

2) Does this sound like I just need a bunch of kits like a carb kit and/or needle kit, and maybe some kind of float kit...or are the costs on these such just go and buy a new carb?

3) What's a good source for the parts and/or new carb?

Thanks,
Matt

The corrosion on the needle and the wire brush cleaning sound like they have done it in. You need to replace the needle and the seat together to give yourself a fighting chance. Make sure that you aren"t putting the bowl on incorrectly. Some of them aren"t symmetrical and if installed wrong they will keep the float from functioning. You should be able see it if you study it a bit. Check the float to assure that is hasn"t failed. I drop them in a small container of kerosene (safer than gas). Floating = good, sinking = bad. Make sure the float swings up and down and doesn"t let the needle slip and hang up.

So far as the overflow, pull the plug and turn it over to flush out whatever may be in the cylinder. Check the oil to see if it"s overfull but better yet, change it. Cheap insurance

I have good luck buying parts from Jack"s Small Engines. They have a good website and can usually give you any part you need. If that fails you may want to contact Kohler directly. I find most manufacturers are pretty good about helping us "little guys"