Hi AVB,
Thanks for your informative response. Good to hear of and learn from your experience.
It's good to know that Kohler responded to the requests with a repair kit. It is such a waste of resources to replace the entire component rather than repair it. We sadly live in a throwaway society.
Yes, nearly all the small engines here have manual fuel shut off valves except for some ride on mowers. However, most owners don't shut off the fuel after use nor store their engines without draining the fuel out of the carby.
Briggs & Stratton are marketing the Vanguard horizontal shaft engines with 'Transport Guard'. The ignition switch and the fuel tap has been combined together to prevent the engine flooding when the engine is transported.
Also, the carbies fitted on the newer Briggs & Stratton engines look suspiciously similar to the Keihin carbies used on the Honda GX's.
The new Chinese made Briggs & Stratton CR series engine even uses the Honda GX ignition switch!
You no doubt know even more about such copies and exchanges. Some outsourced engines & components are of course well made. I recently was asked to rebuild a Daihatsu (subsidiary of Toyota) built B&S Vanguard V-twin that had done over 8,000 engine hours and the cross hatch was still visible and only needed new piston rings & valves. It is powering a 240V industrial generator operating a heavy duty wool press in a shearing shed & is still doing a great job.
