OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Engines Questions On Briggs & Stratton Engines Engine Won't Start

Hi NormK,

Guess what. For some reason, i thought of reconnecting the kill wire and lo and behold after a few pull, the engine came to life. Was so surprised. I don't know what happened but now it's starting beautifully. Our lawn was finally cut.

I suspect it was really the rusty flywheel and coil legs that caused all this trouble.

Thanks to you and everyone who assisted me on this journey. Success !!!

Nice work Shannon

You have learn't plenty out of this exercise.

wce

Definitely wce. The video you posted was a big help understanding what's going on. Feels good when you get something to work. It took me a while but certainly worth it.

thanks again.

Hello there,

It seems the problem has reoccurred. I've tried cleaning the flywheel again and the coil and still won't start. I will double check again the cleanliness of the flywheel, the coil and the gap and hope for the best.
If it still doesn't start, it could be that the coil needs to be replaced but want to make sure it is the one as it could be an expensive part. Is there a way of checking this out with a meter ?

G'day Shannon and Norm,

Here is how to test the coil.



Cheers
Max.

Hi Shannon,
It is only a Briggs, you can find old Briggs motors on nearly every street corner on hard rubbish the coils from the vertical shaft motors will fit so none of it is a big deal. Did you find out if it has points?, if so don't worry about them because most of the Briggs motors you will find these days are electronic and don't use points and are a direct replacement

hi maxwestern,

Thank you for sharing this. I will give it a go for sure.

Hi Normk,

Thanks for your comment. I'm not sure what you meant by points. Please advise based on the attached photos.

Hi all,
I did try the coil test as shown on the video and i was getting a reading between 280-282 which indicate the coil is ok as per the video. i will try cleaning the flywheel and the coil again and and see how it goes. One thing hard to check on daytime is if there's a spark coming out of the plugs so may need to improvise a dark cover to improve visibility.

Hi Shannon,
don't worry about the points the coil you have is electronic so all good there. Checking for spark can be an issue and then you can have a plug that shows spark when out of the motor but then won't work under compression. Always try another plug before delving too deep in other problems

my mate bites the bullet and puts his finger on spark plug tip to FEEL for a spark.....
speedy

speedy,
that still doesn't eliminate a bad plug and could bring on a heart attack

Alleluia. Lo & behold the beast came into life after polishing the flywheel, the coil and using a gap filler when reinstalling the coil. Now i can breath and see if it will survive cutting the lawn.

Once again than you guys for all your comment. One thing i learned on this exercise is how to check if the coil is still good.

Now, on to the next problem.