# 1985 Troy Bilt Horse



## NB_Newbie (Aug 12, 2015)

Hello All, 

I now have in my possession, my father-in-law's 1985 Troy Bilt Horse with the 7 Hp Kholer engine. It hasn't run for a few years but has always been kept inside. I checked to make sure there was oil in it and put in some fresh gas. I don't appear to be getting any spark at the plug at all. I know the plug is good because I tried it in my mower. 

Any thoughts from those of you with some experience with these tillers?

Thanks.


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## BigT (Sep 15, 2014)

Hello NB Newbie,

It's good to have you visit the tractor forum.

I often have trouble seeing spark in normal light. Check for spark in a shaded or dark area. Just pull the spark plug and see that its resting on a good ground. Should be a bluish spark jumping the gap. A yellow-orange spark is often not good enough. 

Make sure that your throttle lever is away from the off/"kill" position. You won't get spark with lever in the off/kill position

If you have no spark, pull the cover that surrounds the flywheel. The ignition coil should be under the cover. Pull the small wire (kill/ground wire) off the coil and see if you have spark. If so, you have a short to ground somewhere in your kill system. I clean the faces of the laminated coil cores and also the magnets on the flywheel with emery paper. But I noticed that u-tube tutorials that they do not do this. Reset the gap between the laminated coil and magnets using a business card as a spacer. If you still can't get spark, your coil is bad. Replace it.

Leaving gas sit in the carb is a NO-NO. Especially with this modern ethanol gas, and the fact that tillers are left sitting idle for months between usage (at least in my case). It plugs up the jets and orifices. You can try cleaning the carb. You may have to replace the carb. 

When you are finished using the tiller, let it run it out of gas. Siphon off most of gas, so it doesn't run for a long time.


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## NB_Newbie (Aug 12, 2015)

*Thanks*

Thanks for the tips... I will spend some time with the tiller next week and keep you posted on my progress.


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## Ggriffi (Sep 28, 2015)

*Older Troy-bilt horse.*

A year ago we lost our 8.5 hp PTO unit and the Chipper attachment to a fire that destroyed my shop.

Recently I was given an even older horse (sorry no name plate). Working on the old unit I discovered serious transmission problem. It locks into slow or fast and will not come out. This unit does not have a PTO drive

I was wondering if any one has a transmission with pto and no attachments. I still have my orginal pto tiller attachment.


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