craftsman dlt 2000 wont restart after warmed up

My wife's parents have an MTD with that same engine that does the exact same thing. I'll be interested in what the fix is with this one. Lots of smart people here.

Surging is typically caused by a lean condition.
Vacuum leak in the carb/intake system. That might be as subtle as a worn throttle valve rod/bushings.
A Main jet that is varnished up a bit can also do that. They are jetted so lean from the factory, they are already on the verge of too lean.

BTW, running lean can also cause an engine to run hot.
Extra heat may cause a marginal coil to start crapping out.
Clean the cooling fins.

You can check spark quality cold and then again when the no start occurs and compare the 2.

The magneto is failing and will cause a no start hot. We have had many opposed twins do this. Not a big job and easy fix, just replace it.
Have you checked this engines carb for a adjustment screw right at base of carb in front? Might have to remove the hood to see better. Some carbs do have the adjustment , which is idle mixture. Bill is correct with his assessment of the issue. We have done this swap with opposed Briggs and bet the engine has the screw.

It does have an adjustment screw. I moved it a little as i was using it but it didn't seem to make much of a difference either way I moved it. I was moving it a full turn in and out. After running it for about 30 minutes i shut it off and tried to start it back up with a spark tester inline. I had a very faint spark. After the 3rd time trying to start it, it actually fired back up and then had a nice bright spark in the tester. I'm thinking I may need to remove the carb and rebuild it? How simple are they to rebuild? I have a couple 60's and 70's John deer 110 and 112's and have done the carbs on those but haven't done any newer ones. Where is the magneto located?

You proved the magneto is bad via the weak spark after running. The carb is not issue there. The idle mixture screw only does anything at idle, maybe you had throttle higher? Maybe the idle speed screw you might have been turning?
Magneto is under top engine tin.

The surging certainly screams of lean condition. I would be expecting to rebuild the carb after fixing the spark.

Have you worked through Bill's list of things to check?

Mike

I haven't had a chance to mess with it too much. I used it to bag leaves this weekend and it seems to run much better. Maybe i dislodged something messing with the adjustment screw? Here are some pics of the screw I found. I will hopefully be able to get to the parts store this coming weekend and get a magneto for it. Hopefully that will fix one issue. Then to find a carb rebuild kit for it and do that. It's slow because i'm only able to work on it on the weekends.

Here are the pics

That centre screw is idle mixture and it does affect full speed no load. Try running a 50-50 mix of gas-seafoam. On it you will need some choke applied to keep it running. Then on straight gas start with the screw at 1 1/2 out from lightly seated. If still surging see if opening more helps.