1)LOSE the starting fluid (ether) - good way to trash your new engine. Use rattlecan carb cleaner instead. 2) Reconfirm all electrical re-hooked back up as original - no shortcuts. 3) verify fuel filter is OEM and installed in correct flow direction. 4) pull ignition wire off plug and disconnect fuel line at carb. use catch container. have assistant crank engine with cl/brake fully depressed, 1/2 throttle, no choke, PTO sw off. If good flow of fuel, hook fuel line and ignition wire back up. 5) Remove air cleaner. Wih assistant cranking engine as above, spray several shots of carb cleaner directly into carb throat. If engine pops and tries to start, you still have a fuel delivery problem., If not, an igntion or mechanical problem. 6) fuel problem - remove carb. disassemble, soak overnite in liquid carb cleaner. using magnifying glass and stiff small dia brass wire, probe all component orifices - blow out with rattlecan carb cleaner and compressed air. Rebuild using rebuild kit - use only new gaskets and float valve seats. 7) ignition/mechanical problems: due to the multiple possible causes involved, best to get the engine model/type numbers; go to the kohler engine website; download the specific engine service manual you will need.

There are thermal fuses which blow at a certain temperature, maybe your husband can hack those in the T5 fixtures. These are 110 degrees but you can get those for other temps too http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=pcs+Microtemp+Thermal+Fuse&_sop=15&LH_BIN=1&LH_FS=1&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xpcs+Microtemp+Thermal+Fuse+.TRS1&_nkw=pcs+Microtemp+Thermal+Fuse+110%C2%B0C+110+Degree+&_sacat=0 By installing these fuses you feel safer even when you are away for only a few hours

Terriks, I’m so glad your mother safely evacuated. Watching the news right now and it’s horrifying. My daughter is in college in southern CA but far far south from any active fires. However, she texted me a couple of hours ago that her roommate’s family was evacuated from their home near the Woolsey Fire. They live near Thousand Oaks. I just was googling info about the fire and found a list of homes that have burned and it specifically mentions that one home is on fire on the street my daughter’s roommate lives! No specific address..just says the name of her street, which does not have many homes. I just texted my daughter but she has not seen her roommate all afternoon and thinks her roommate left to be with her parents. Her other roommate’s sister goes to Pepperdine, which has also been evacuated. After what happened earlier this week, it is just awful they have another tragedy to deal with.

Interesting thread. Our 20 year old Kitchen Aid DW smoked badly 2 weeks ago and probably was a couple minutes from flaming. Had we not been there to turn the breaker switch off out in the garage the acrid smoke from the smoldering PC board with lots of plastic parts would have ruined every bit of carpet, drapes, and upholstery in the entire house. But lucky for us, no house fire, just a small amount of smoke damage. Others not so lucky (search "Whirlpool dishwasher fires" if you want to understand how unsafe their different brands of dishwashers are (includes Kitchen Aid, Maytag, and some Kenmores)). Bought a Bosch 300 replacement. Old installation was hardwired (meaning a 4 foot section of 12 gauge Romex cable was attached to the old Kitchen Aid with wire nuts. The cause of the near fire was the fact that most manufacturer's PC boards that handle 10-15 amps of current cannot reliably OVER TIME handle that high of a current safely-eventually their relatively cheap boards will wear out and start to fail-generally with a small amount of arcing at first. Kind of like a small hole in a dam that leads to a huge flood. I had a circuit board failure on a GE oven-luckily the circuit trace open circuited and did not smoke or flame. Another case of a cheap circuit board being asked to handle large currents. I too added a wall mounted receptacle in a convenient spot under the kitchen sink very close to the Bosch's power cord outlet. Still with me? Sorry, I'm an engineer and don't know how to keep things short-here's the important part: I installed a 20 amp dual function AFCI/GFCI receptacle (Leviton brand, $32 at HD) in hopes of avoiding damage should the Bosch fail sooner or later. AFCI is critical (Arc Fault Circuit Interrupter); it detects very low level arcing that you will never hear-especially if you go to bed and run the dishwasher-and quickly remove power from the failing appliance. This is (as Leviton's lawyers probably demand) to "help" reduce the risk of fire. GFCI (Ground Fault Circuit Interruptor-aka "GFI") performs its age old task of removing power in the event it detects 0.005 Amps of leakage current; it is designed to "help" reduce the risk of shock or electrocution from that leakage current going through you and me. My guess: AFCI was invented to cover a new type of hazard coming from appliances now having electronic control boards that are inadequately designed to handle large currents needed to run heaters in dishwashers and clothes dryers as well as most any appliance having a larger motor. A secondary concern is the small power relays that are mounted on the control boards-they have very little safety margin (the Kitchen Aid used a 10 amp relay to operate a heater that required at least 10 amps)-over time that is a failure guaranteed to happen. Bosch's junction box was a $30 option at HD and I wanted nothing to do with it-and that was before I learned anything at all about all the JB's failures. Good engineering practice told me to do the job right with the best parts I could find. When the Bosch fails-not if, but when-my hope is the Leviton receptacle will do its job. Oh yes, as found at other sites that delve into the Whirlpool/Kitchen Aid control board fires, neither the fusible link on the my control board nor the house circuit breaker tripped to remove power and lessen the damage. My best guess is that the current draw while the board was smoldering was below the trip current for those two devices. Bottom line for me: most "modern" home appliances have a high risk of failure over time. I will make sure that every circuit that powers an appliance in my house has an AFCI/GFCI for protection to life and home. I installed a second one for the garbage disposal and will do the kitchen appliance circuit next. The house is 20 years old and for whatever reason only has GFIs for the bathroom circuits. At $32 bucks a pop that is pretty cheap insurance. Note: dual function AFCI/GFCI circuit breakers are also available and may be a better choice for your house. I did not go that route because our breaker panel is in the garage which gets quite hot in the summer and I don't want to have failures due to the heat (my understanding is there are electronic devices in both types of AFCI/GFCI units). If the breaker panel were inside the house I would put the upgrade in the breaker panel, as that adds extra protection for the wiring from the panel to the appliance-something the receptacle version does not do. The dual function breaker unit typically runs around $70-$80. Back to the Bosch junction box-none of the pictures of damaged boxes shown here surprise me-thanks for showing them. In a way, those poor things are being asked to do a tough job and if anything is wrong-either with their design or their installation-then problems are likely. Kind of like trying to run a marathon every month in 125 degree weather-sooner or later even the best athletes will fail. I designed and built high end factory automation hardware for a company that never took short cuts-I don't think I could live with myself working for an appliance manufacturer, especially after seeing how they try to avoid any responsibility for their unsafe products. Suggestion: never leave any heat generating appliance running with no one at home or with the family asleep. Good luck!