Small Engines (Lawn Mowers, etc.): riding mower hard to get started, john deere 165, kawasaki engine

Question
I have a 1987 john deere 165 hydro riding mower with a kawasaki engine in it. engine serial FB460-157950 i aquired this mower 3 months ago from my brother who bought it new but kept it in the garage out of the weather. the problem i am having is that it is hard to get started when the engine is cold, i have to crank on it for several minutes,and deplete the battery before it slowly begins to fire up.once it starts it runs and idles fine.if you kill after its warmed up,it will restart just fine.I have replaced the oil,fuel,and air filters,new spark plug and have drained the fuel tank and replaced the gas. I also have taken apart and cleaned the carb.The choke is working fine,and the battery is new.could it be the carb,or maybe the valves causing this? my brother said he experienced the same problem with it but never had it worked on. any advice or anwsers would be greatly appreciated thanks,bryan

Answer
Hey Bryan,
What you should do is re-clean the carb and fuel lines. Then check out the intake manifold and see if there is harsh build up there. If there is soak the parts harshy built up for about 2 hours and re-install. For the carb do the smae but use pipe cleaner of compressed air to get all the dirt out. Hope this helps. Let me know it works out.