Any body know why this happens? I have an older 2 cycle mantis rototiller , It starts ok ,runs strong ,but wont start again when its hot. Also it wont idle. I cleaned the carb with spray cleaner.Run gas to oil ratio,40:1. Thanks!

Thanks Dave.

If its like a weed eater carb, be very gentle inside there. Those little plastic things with U shaped slots are actually the reed valves.

I had ( operative word, HAD) a 4 stroke tiller/weed eater from Sears. I was weed eating & forgot it was a 4 stroke & held it at an odd angle, killed the oil flow & lopped the cam lobes off some,, still runs, but its gutless.. I dont need the tiller any more, got a Real One,, & replacing the weed eater cost me a lot less than parts for fixin this thing & the time to do it,, I dont have the time,,

rl if it stays running until you shut it down I doubt it's the carb. More likely it's crank seals drawing air like WD's thinking. Remember that a 2-smoke engine has no true intake or valve system to draw fuel into the cylinder.

The fuel/air mix flows from the carb into the crankcase,allowing the oil in the mix to lube the bottom end,before being drawn into the combustion chamber.

I had an old two-stroke before and I had similar problems. On that bike the gasket was bad at the connection of the intake between the cylinder and the carbureator and the rubber intake was cracked at the same place.
I made new gasket from the hard cover page of a copybook and covered the crack on the rubber connecting-part with insulation tape and these have fixed the problem.

Have a 5 foot tiller hanging off the back of a gray market Kubota L1510... not willing to get in a fight with the black widow or the copperhead that call the Mantis home right now. Replaced the engine (Kohler) on the Garden Way-Troybuilt Horse model with a Yamaha engine last year, and still have a running Garden Way-Troybuilt Pony model tiller. No hurry on the Mantis, it has an electric back up anyway for the tighter sections of the gardens and flower beds.

Do things a mite oversized on our place, the "small" riding mower has a 60" cut, a diesel engine, and on demand all wheel drive. The rough mower is a 12 or 14 foot cut, the finish mower the same. Pull them with a 65 horse power 1960s Massey Ferguson diesel farm tractor that got a full rebuild last year...

Just shy of 60 acres total, have a lot of toys... even a utility company surplus bucket truck.

Main house was built in 1841. To replace the one that burned down in 1836, which was itself a replacement for the cabin built in the 1790s. Land grant for the farm was issued in 1793 as payment for services rendered during the American Revolution... have a copy of it around here somewhere... This land has been farmed since TN was part of North Carolina.

Keep digging up oddball junk from previous residents. Including tons of War of Northern Aggression era musket-Minie-pistol rounds. Worth a whopping $1.25 each to the tourists.