Thanks for that Blue, I recalled that the solution to the mystery required removing the oil seal, but that was as far as my recollection went. I knew the specific answer was in Mr Bonnar's thread, and should have referenced it.
Yes Michoolie, the K in HK is for Kirby. James N. Kirby "manufactured" the engines in Australia under licence from Tecumseh/Lauson, importing most of the parts, back in the days of the stupendous tariff barriers which largely kept Briggs engines out of Australia. Hence you will not find the HK numbers to have any counterpart in US documents or US parts suppliers. Also, Kirby did something of a mix and match with the feature selection, so their engines are mongrel models and therefore slightly difficult to track in US workshop manuals: they may have some bits from one Lauson model and other bits from another Lauson model.
