My 5 horsepower pony tiller just shuts off with no warning after about 20-30 minutes of tilling and will not restart again until it cools down to the touch I have changed the spark plug, drained and refilled the gas tank twice and can not see anything physically wrong. Please help.

Hey John!
Have you check the OIL some of these engine have a low oil shut-off sensor feature built-in ?
Check also that the fuel is not contaminated (Fresh Gas, please!)
Good Luck,
JP

will it restart immediately or do you have to wait for awhile? if it restarts then check the fuel flow from the fuel tank to the carburetor. if it doesn't and you have to wait then check the ignition module. as the unit gets hot the module heats it stops working and as it cools off it works until it heats up again

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ck. the gas cap vent, it should be free to prevent vacuum in tank.

When the engine overheats, a thermocouple sensor will shut the engine off to protect it from damage. After cooling for a period, you can restart it and run until it overheats again. Check your cooling system ports for clogs and water pump impeller and function.

you might want to check for spark when it stops running

Slowly lower your tilling depth regulator a little at a time. Make a pass or two with it set almost as high as it will go then drop it a couple of notches and keep making more passes over the same ground. If you lower the tines to far down on hard ground it will just take off like you are describing. Just take it slow until you get your ground worked up and then it will work great.

Frank

Could be any of several problems. Since you indicate you just bought it, I'd suggest you return it. Troy-Bilt is pretty good at making customers happy and should repair or replace it right away.

have you gotten something stuck in the throat of the carb where the throttle butterfly opens and closes to control speed? check this,then check all moving parts on the carb and especially the governor spring that its not caught on something

after it has shut down check for gas at the fuel rail with the key on their should be gas squirting out constantly it sounds like the fuel pump is going out

Your question doesn't give enough detail to properly answer. Do you know if the tiller is a Horse model or a Pony model? Troy Bilt made both models back in the timeframe you noted. The Horse model had tires that required air to inflate. The Pony model likely had hard rubber tires in that era. The Horse models had a reverse disc, no belt. The Pony had a belt.

Once you know which model you have - look for your closest Troy Bilt dealer and see if they can track down the part for you. They might appreciate it if you could provide the serial number - which is located on the pipe connecting the tiller transmission front half to the back half, where the tines are located. It's stamped right into the metal tube on both models.