I've done something wrong during disassembly/reassembly because now when I pull the recoil, it gets to a stiff point then after pulling harder, it recoils itself and seriously wants to break my wrist from the very strong recoil. Story...My Water pump got flooded today with some serious heavy rainfall. I decided to disassemble to make sure/remove any water ingress into engine. I took off the main parts to be cleaned i.e. exhaust, carb, manual recoil, recoil cover, cylinder head and valves cover. When I took the head off the two valve rods came out loose. Anyway, after reassembly I now have this problem. If I take out the spark plug, the engine turns smoothly and the valves seem to rock normally although inspecting the the valves with its cover off, the left valve does appear loose to me, certainly looser than the right. Have I disturbed the timing somehow or are the rods not inserted correctly or is there a certain position the recoil fits back on? PS During reassembly, all looked clean i.e. no bad water in old oil although some did enter onto the top of the piston through the exhaust I suspect. Any help appreciated as otherwise I think its a damn good engine and not too old to be ruined.

Thank you for the advice on my carb problem i pulled it gave it a bath and my 1oo dollar tiller purrs. now im having problems with the throttle spring i cant get it to work properly and have a feeling its not hooked up properly. i looked on the troy bilt site for a diagram but it isnt a very user friendly site. can you point me as to how i can find a diagram for a pony mod #1520-s:cool: