bro-in-law calls and tells me his mower stopped. puff of smoke and shut down. said it was running fine until it quit. he did start it again and it sounded fine but quit again. he checked the oil and foung gas.

its a 13 hp vert koller. i havent looked at it yet but he said it has a fuel pump. this is what im thinkin, but what else could it be?

maybe ck the needle and seat ?.