Find the right equipment, engine and pump manual
Use the manufacturer’s finder with the complete model and serial, then check the manual’s cover against the fitted machine. A mower may need both an equipment manual and an engine manual; a pressure washer may also need a pump manual. Select the applicable revision before using capacities, parts or service intervals.
Choose the finder by the component you need
- Briggs & Stratton: Engine model/type/code.
- Rehlko / Kohler engine: Engine series and full specification.
- Honda engine: Engine model and applicable serial range.
- Toro equipment: Equipment model and serial range.
- Cub Cadet / MTD: Full product and serial numbers.
- Husqvarna: Product model and article/serial identity.
- EGO: Exact tool or battery model.
- Champion: Complete generator model.
Check the cover before using the numbers
For example, the Toro 20370-series manual names four models and serial 313000001 and up. A manual with a similar Recycler name but another engine is not confirmation of the same oil quantity or plug.
On an older tractor with a replacement engine, use the tractor manual for deck and control instructions and the fitted engine’s manual for its oil and engine parts. An original engine list cannot identify a later replacement.
Operator manual and parts book answer different questions
An illustrated parts book identifies assemblies and reference numbers. It does not replace an operator manual’s shutdown directions or a service manual’s adjustment procedure. A retailer’s compatibility list is supporting evidence, not a substitute for the manufacturer’s applicable part lookup.
If two official revisions disagree, retain the model/serial and document numbers when contacting support. Do not silently combine the larger capacity from one with the plug or interval from another. The Equipment identification before ordering parts explains which numbers to record.
Manufacturer support and owner’s manuals
An owner's manual is the manufacturer's own document, and every brand covered here hosts its own copies rather than licensing them out: the reliable version is always on that manufacturer's own site, not a third-party manuals repository that may hold a scan of the wrong revision. Below: where each engine maker and each equipment maker keeps its manuals, split in two because a machine is usually built from both and each publishes separately. Briggs, Kohler and Honda cover most small engines; Toro, Cub Cadet/MTD and Husqvarna cover most of the equipment bolted around them.
Look up the engine by its own plate and the equipment by its own model number: they are rarely the same search.
Two manuals, because a machine is usually two products
The same split that runs through this whole cluster applies here too: the equipment maker and the engine maker are often different companies, and each publishes its own manual through its own official site. A mower's operator's manual, covering the deck, the controls and the safety systems, is a different document from the engine manufacturer's manual for the engine bolted to it, and only the engine manual states things like oil capacity and spark plug gap. Look up both if the machine has a separately branded engine.
Every link below goes to that manufacturer's own officially hosted page, not a hosted copy: linking directly avoids exactly the copyright and out-of-date-copy problems that come with hosting someone else's document. If a link below is wrong, the manufacturer moved the page after this table was last checked, and the manufacturer's own site is still the correct place to look.
Engine manufacturers
Look these up using the engine's own model and type/code number, not the equipment's.
| Brand | Official manuals page | What you need to search |
|---|---|---|
| Briggs & Stratton | briggsandstratton.com/support/manuals | Model number, with dashes after the first six digits |
| Kohler | engines.rehlko.com/manuals | Engine series or spec number. Kohler’s engine division now trades as Rehlko; the old kohlerengines.com address redirects here. |
| Honda | engines.honda.com/owners-manuals | Engine model, for example GCV160 or GX390 |
Equipment manufacturers
Look these up using the whole machine's model number, from the equipment plate rather than the engine's.
| Brand | Official manuals or support page | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Toro | toro.com/parts | Same tool that looks up parts by model and serial range also serves the manual. |
| Cub Cadet / MTD | support.mtdparts.com | MTD Products is the parent company behind the Cub Cadet brand. |
| Husqvarna | husqvarna.com/us/support | Search by product name or model; there is no separate dedicated manual finder. |
| EGO Power+ | egopowerplus.com/support | Choose the tool category, then the model. |
| Champion Power Equipment | championpowerequipment.com/product-manuals-diagrams | Exact model number required. |
Why a Craftsman manual sometimes is not on craftsman.com
Craftsman was a store brand for most of its history, sold under license and built by whichever manufacturer held the contract for that product line and that era, Briggs & Stratton, Kohler, Tecumseh, MTD and Husqvarna/AYP all built Craftsman-badged equipment at different times. When the Craftsman site itself has no manual for an older unit, the engine's own separate plate, if the machine has one, is often the faster route: identify that brand with the serial number decoder and look up its manual in the engine-manufacturer equipment comparison instead.
- Find Manual & Parts List: Briggs & Stratton.
- Manuals | Customer Support: Rehlko (formerly Kohler Engines).
- Owners Manuals: Honda Engines.
- Toro Parts Lookup: Manuals, Diagrams & Genuine Parts: The Toro Company.
- Buy MTD Online Support (model/serial lookup and manuals): MTD Products (Cub Cadet parts channel).
- Support: manuals, parts, accessories and guides: Husqvarna.
- Resources and Support for EGO Owners: EGO Power+.
- Product Manuals & Diagrams: Champion Power Equipment.
- Find and Download Product Manuals and Guides: Craftsman.
Manufacturer support and owner’s manuals: questions
Why are there two separate manual tables, one for engine makers and one for equipment makers?
Because a machine is usually two products bolted together, exactly the split covered on where the model and serial numbers are: an equipment maker builds the deck, frame or housing, and a separate engine maker builds the engine bolted to it. Each publishes its own manual through its own official channel, and looking up the wrong one is why a manual sometimes seems to be missing information that is in the other one.
Which number do I search with on each manufacturer's site, the model or the serial?
The model number, in almost every case: Briggs & Stratton's own lookup even specifies dashes after the first six digits of the model number specifically. The serial number matters for dating the unit or scoping a recall, covered by the serial number decoder and checking a recall, but the manuals lookups are keyed to the model.
What happened to kohlerengines.com?
Kohler's engine division now trades as Rehlko, and the old kohlerengines.com address redirects to engines.rehlko.com. The engines themselves and their identification plates are unchanged; only the corporate and web branding around them moved, which is worth knowing so a redirect to an unfamiliar domain name does not read as a broken or suspicious link.
Why might craftsman.com have no manual listed for my machine?
Because Craftsman was a store brand for most of its history, built under license by whichever manufacturer, Briggs & Stratton, Kohler, Tecumseh, MTD, Husqvarna/AYP, held the contract for that product line and era, so the current Craftsman brand owner does not necessarily hold every historical manual. When that happens, identifying the actual engine's own separate plate and looking up that manufacturer's manual directly is usually the faster route.
Can I use these manual lookups for equipment sold under a different retailer's own brand?
Sometimes: retailer-badged equipment (the retailer variant problem covered on the serial-number page) is frequently a licensed version of an underlying manufacturer's design, so the engine bolted to it may still be a Briggs & Stratton, Kohler or Honda that decodes normally in the engine-maker table. The equipment itself, though, needs the actual selling retailer's own support channel, which the guide does not attempt to enumerate.
My mower has a Briggs & Stratton engine. Which manual do I need?
Two, if you want the full picture: the mower manufacturer's own operator's manual for the deck, controls and safety systems, plus Briggs & Stratton's own engine manual for anything specific to the engine itself, oil capacity, spark plug gap, air filter part number. The equipment maker's manual does not cover the engine-specific figures, because that engine is a different company's product bolted onto the machine.
Do I need the manufacture date before I can find a manual?
No: manuals are looked up by model number, not by manufacture date. The serial number decoder is a separate, unrelated question, useful for scoping a recall or judging a used machine's age, but finding the right manual only needs the model number stamped on the plate, which does not change no matter when a specific unit was built.
Why does the Husqvarna row link to a general support search rather than a dedicated manual finder?
Because that is what Husqvarna itself provides: a single support search covering manuals, parts, accessories and guides together, rather than a manual-only lookup tool the way some other brands offer. Searching by the product name printed on the machine, chainsaw, trimmer, mower, on that support page returns the manual along with everything else Husqvarna publishes for it.