Spotted this rather nice looking unit for sale with the usual blurb about it no longer starting etc, could see that the the top cover had been removed and starter cord hanging out etc. Contacted the seller, yes it's all complete, my son tried to fix bla, bla. The picture was one side of the mower only. I get there and this is what was done ! strangest thing is the mower is in excellent condition deck wise, wheels, chrome work and as I suspected is a self propelled model. Anyway, i had parts to convert back to what it should be but I can't get a spark ! done all the usual checks and tried coils I know work but no spark. It's a Quantum series Briggs. Any help appreciated as always.
First thing i checked was compression, plenty, tried plugs out of running mowers, disconnected kill wire, coil tested good but tried one off a running mower to make sure. Just a mark on the flywheel, not gouged. Magnets are good, was doing my head in so resorted to the best remedy after a frustrating period in the shed. Got one of the vintage 2 strokes out, bit of fresh fuel, wind it up and away it goes every time, grab a beer and bloody marvel at these incredible machines, always makes you smile.
Hi wce, I'd use a wire wheel on the flywheel, and even the coil faces... Set air gap to 10th. Watch for small pieces if wire holding on to magnet. Maybe plug wire is the fault, Guess you are using electric start... it's gotta go soon. speedy
........................Keep your blades sharp......................
Yep what speedy said, I sand everything I can for a good earth for the coil , clean the alloy the coil bolts to, clean both sides of the coil where the bolts go through ,clean the threads on the bolts and under the bolt heads, check the coil is not mounted upside down ,this one is mounted right above ,then if all fails to get spark ,take the coil off and put it back on the running motor it came from,it's happens to me occasionally ,I swap a coil over and it dies.
This mower now looks a lot better, in my opinion. Lack of spark ! wish this could be explained with some science but no. Got a friend to come over with all the gizmo meters, I grab a coil off the bench, ( one of a couple which came off working engines ) bolt it up, gap it etc, nothing, multimeter says working, I stick a screwdriver in the end of the plug lead and tell my friend to crank it over because I know I'm not going to get a shock, nothing, checked all the plugs I knew worked as they came out of working mowers, nothing. Got a new plug out of the stock, spark ! reassembled, start up no problem and runs great. Take the new plug out and put the original one in and runs fine. Put the plugs back in the working mowers and they all started fine. Its a beast of a mower and ready for a lot of mowing, i know there are lots on the site who are not fans of Briggs and Stratton but I think they are very good ( earlier models ) and the IC series are a great engine. Self propelled gearbox works fine, I think Tyler worked it out early on in the thread when he suggested the fuel tank seam came apart maybe and caused this whole palaver.
Thanks for your comment, getting a positive endorsement from you with your level of experience and knowledge of mowers is very well received, thank you.
