Installing Kohler K341 carb on Tecumseh OH160

[trevorb]

Hello everyone. I just bought an early 80's Argo 6x6. It has a Tecumseh OH160 engine. I replaced the carb with a K341. I have it running decent, but the governor seems to to be hunting a lot when above idle. For those of you who have done this before, I have a few questions:

1. Did you have to adjust or change the governor linkage? If I hold the throttle linkage with my hand it runs smooth. As soon I let the governor work, it starts hunting. This is running it in neutral with the belt off.

2. What are the high and low speed needle settings? I adjusted the high speed to about 2.5 to 3.5 turns out, and the low speed to 1 turn out. It seems to run good. The low speed doesn't seem to make a difference. Am I way off on this?

3. What did you do to mount the old air cleaner housing to the K341 carb?

4. How did you connect the choke cable to the carb?

5. Is there anything else that needs to be modified?

Thanks.

[Laird]

Sounds more like a dirty carb. Did you clean it before installation? Surging is a classic example of a dirty carb. Lots of tutorials on carb cleaning on utube if you aren't familiar with the process. I use an ultrasonic cleaner which I realize not everyone has one, but they do work very well. Another clue is "the low speed doesn't seem to make any difference". A carburator has a multitude of tiny passages that only one needs to plugged to really mess with your mind. As far as the rest goes I have never swapped carbs like that so hopefull someone can help you out.

[trevorb]

Thanks. It’s a brand new carb so I assumed it would be clean. I’ll try cleaning it to see if that helps. When I manually hold the throttle lever steady on the carb it doesn’t surge. That’s why I was thinking it was due to the governor. It seems like the governor is overshooting when it opens and closes the carb, causing the surging. I realize this isn’t the same carb that came with the engine, but it sounded like many others have had good success using the K341 carb on the OH160 engine.

[Laird]

Have you tried setting up the governor to the new carb? I know enough about carbs and governors to get me into trouble. Settings and spring tension all seem to work hand in hand along with the needle settings. I fumble thru this stuff with the help of this forum and utube. Lot of very smart people here. Sometimes have to wait for the right person to read about the problem.

[Laird]

Quick second thought. Is the new carb offshore? While I have had very few problems with them, I have had one that was a dud. I have also had to clean a couple because of debris from manufacturer not cleaning them properly.

[jpswift1]

Quick second thought. Is the new carb offshore? While I have had very few problems with them, I have had one that was a dud. I have also had to clean a couple because of debris from manufacturer not cleaning them properly.

That's what I'm thinking. I had very good luck with most, but every now and then you get one that's flawed and doesn't work.

[trevorb]

So I ended up returning the carb and putting the original Tecumseh back on. It’s running pretty good, just seems to need a lot of choke to start it. I might try a different manufacturer of the K341 carb.