JD 345 stumbles and dies

[woodmeistera1]

I recently purchased a nice used JD 345 with an 18hp Kawasaki LQ v-twin motor. Only used a couple times for 10 minutes or so each time and it ran great. But a couple days ago I ran it and then let it idle for about a minute and it suddenly stumbled and died. It restarted but blew out a puff of gray smoke and smelled like raw gas. I pulled the spark plugs and noticed they were black and also smelled like gas. The piston was also wet when viewed with a flashlight. I pulled off the carb and took off the float bowl to see if the needle and seat were marred or clogged and found no noticeable problems. Cleaned everthing up and put it back together. It seemed to run fine but then stumbled, sputtered and died. Could the float level be too high or could the needle and seat have microscopic imperfections causing the excess fuel flow? What else could cause the over-rich mixture after idling a while? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Zebrafive]

Dirty air filter, misadjusted choke. Sorry I can't be more help.