Very cool!! I have a K295 on my Go Joe and also bought a NOS never-been-fired K309 a couple of years ago. I haven't been able to find a decent manual, so THANK YOU! Also, I didn't know Rupp put Kohlers on the Ruppsters. I thought those were all JLOs. Not so? Would like to know more. I'd like to score a Ruppster someday.
Glad you found it helpful. I'm not even sure that ours is a K295- it could be a 309 or 335, I guess. There is no ID tag and no numbers stamped into it anywhere that I can see. My understanding is that they're all the same except the stroke, so maybe I'll measure the stroke and try to figure out what it is. My son (16) and I are trying to fix this Ruppster and get it in decent condition. I won't say "restore" because we're not going for all-original, more of a resto-mod. We've never even heard the engine run. I figure if we can get the motor to fire up then that will give us some enthusiasm to keep rolling with everything else.
After pulling the flywheel and messing around with the points, tracing wires, and addressing the coil grounding, we finally got spark the other day. The coil looks like a japanese motorcycle item, not the correct kohler one. The piston and cylinder walls look pretty good and compression feels right to me although I haven't tested it yet.
I have a bunch of new parts coming- new coil, starter solenoid, regulator/rectifier. The wiring harness was a complete train wreck. I counted 4 splices between the magneto and the ignition coil! We'll have to make a whole new harness, luckily it's pretty simple. I also have a rebuild kit for the Tillotson HR125 coming from EC Carbs in TN, they were very helpful. I should probably replace the crank seals, just because.
I think you are correct that the Ruppsters came with a JLO-230, and this Kohler is probably not the original engine. I removed the engine mount from the crankcase last night to clean it and I could tell someone drilled new holes in it for the Kohler. This engine was on it when we bought it so we're keeping it. It does have a Rupp clutch though. Once it's running I'm hoping to rework an expansion chamber from a 250cc MX bike to replace the agricultural looking exhaust system it has now.