Hi Scoffey, let's talk about how to get that Briggs running.
First, checking the spark. Remove the spark plug, reconnect the plug lead to it, clamp it against an unpainted metal part of the engine (usually the cylinder head), set the controls in the start position, and pull the starter, watching the gap between the electrodes for a regular series of blue or white sparks. You may hear them too, as a series of clicks. If there is no spark, the first suspicion falls on the spark plug. Put a short piece of metal rod of the same diameter as the spark plug tip into the end connector on the plug lead, hold it by the insulated connector so it is about a millimetre away from the cylinder head, and pull the starter. If there is no spark directly from the plug lead to the engine, something is wrong. The most likely problem is that the kill wire is grounded.
The kill wire is there to switch off the engine. It grounds the moving breaker point (your engine is pre-1982, and hence has breaker point ignition). The grounding happens near the throttle: when the speed control on the handlebar is pulled all the way toward slow, at the end of its movement, the lever connected to the far end of the Bowden cable grounds a wire, which will be black unless it has been painted over with that orange. When the speed control is pushed to the start position, it should move that lever at the carburetor end all the way in the other direction, and it should pull the choke out as well (your engine has Choke-a-matic choke system).
I suggest you run through that process and see if your ignition is working, and if not, whether the kill wire is being grounded at the carburetor when you are trying to start it. Once you post the results of that, we should know enough to move forward with the test program.
