[Maxwelhse]

My elderly neighbor is yet again having problems with her Deere STX 38 so I dragged it over to take a look at it. It seems the gasket in the gas cap fell apart and clogged the (ancient) fuel lines. Pulled the tank to wash all the crap out of it and another hose that isn't feeding fuel to anything is connected to the housing (the tank is sorta weird and has like an plastic exoskeleton formed around the actual tank). It immediately fell apart and I have no idea where it goes to or what it does. It doesn't appear to be a hydro breather since it looks like that is under the seat.

The remainder of the hose runs inside the cowl where all sorts of grease (probably from decades of spilled gas) and leaves and such and packed in there. She parks it outside year round with no hood or cover so I really don't want to spend a bunch of time power washing it (or filling up whatever that hose goes to with water) if I don't need to.

Can anyone offer any insight or exploded diagrams?

Also, it was full of at least 2 year old gas that smells like varnish (after a shower and several courses of fast orange my hands still smell like spoiled gas). Are the carbs on these things anything special? It's a Kohler Command 12.5hp. Is it even worth attempting to rebuild it (it appears plastic but that may just be some shrouding or something that I'm seeing) if it won't run or should I just have her get a new one and not even mess with a kit?