OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Walk Behind Lawn Mower Frames Reel Lawn Mowers, Atco & Villiers etc. Ignition coil replacement on B&S 3hp

Hi guys,
my ignition coil has decided to turn up it's toes.
Engine is a B&S 3hp Model # 80202 0607-02 77032501.

I got a rough price from jackssmallengines http://www.jackssmallengines.com/ignition_b.cfm

It looks like this one.

Replacement Ignition Coil for Briggs

Replaces Briggs 298502
Fits models 60100 (with 2 pole applications), 80100 (with 2 pole applications), 92500, 60500, 80500 and 81500
For 2 thru 4 HP engines with breaker point ignition.

Part# 460014

Our Price: $40.63

Anyhow, I went to my local lawnmower parts shop and was quoted $110+ and they had to order one in.
I was quick to get out of there

If anyone knows a supplier in Perth WA please pm me or post here. Even a secondhand one would suffice.

I could get this motor going and drop it on my old 33.

Looking at getting a Honda motor like deejay has for my Scotty 45.
Model # or link would also be nice.

tia

Pete

Hi Peatert, Great to see that you are considering a Honda for your Scotty 45. They are a great little engine; very quiet and start first pull!
The model Honda that I am using is the G100, 2.5HP. You would have to check your Honda dealers in Perth, but here is a link to a Honda dealer in Lismore with a good website...
Click HERE
Please let us know how you get on.

Thanks for the link Deejay, will look into a local dealer .

I just did a run around to a heap of lawnmower parts suppliers to pick up a coil for the Briggs.
To no avail I might add, as it seems I have a early motor that has the ignition points.
I did however find a very helpful mechanic who suggested that it most probably isn't the coil that is my problem but the points and condenser which will be a very cheap repair if that is the case.
I have one ordered so will keep my fingers crossed.

Joe Carroll posted two days ago on this site about fitting a post-1981 ignition module (i.e. breakerless) to pre-1981 engines like yours (i.e. with breaker). Post-1981 Briggs ignition modules are usually no further away than the next council pickup from a local nature strip (in other words, free).

Thanks grumpy, I found the post by Joe Carroll and an informative read.
I asked at a shop this morning on my rounds if it was possible to adapt a breakerless module to the early models and was told no, definately not.

Here's the post by Joe if anyone else is interested.

Its easy to change it to a breakerless setup, Usually I grab a coil from either a 81 onwards 3.5 or a 375 with the module built in, and bolt it right on, only you have to remember that when you grab the coil off the motor you also need to grab the kill wire as well.

Sometimes I leave the points here and cut the wires off under the flywheel and bend them out of the road and sometimes I take the whole lot out.

The coil that you are after is located HERE here on the outdoorking online store which is cheaper than the website that you quoted.

Excellent, thanks Bruce. If it turns out to be the coil pack I'll get it from the outdoorking store.

Just an update on the B&S.
A new set of points did the trick as it fired up first pull.

As my luck would have it though, fix one problem and another follows straight after.

What happens is this.
When the motor is running and you increase the revs, the pull start assy screams, I mean really, really screams (like a slipping fan belt on a car) and the starter cord begins to unwind about 20cm?
I sprayed it with a silicone spray and it did stop and was able to mow the front and back lawns without further problems. The cord also gradually retracted back to it's original position.

This is not a major worry atm, but I'm curious as to why it happened as it didn't do it before.

Merry Christmas to all.

If you go back through the posts on this site you should find several videos from an American mower repairer, showing the 'short version' of how to do a simple check-out on a vertical-crankshaft Briggs on a mower. Most of them will apply equally to your engine. It sounds as if your rewind starter has been sticking in the engaged position and doing itself a whole lot of no good - the scream most likely comes from the over-running (sprag) clutch. It is a matter of removing, dismantling and cleaning the starter parts, then reassembling. You said you have lubricated it - cleaning, deburring and lubricating would probably be a more reliable cure. You may also have harmed it by running it while it was stuck.

Best guess as to why it happened right after you repaired the ignition is that the rewind starter did a lot of work while you were diagnosing why the engine didn't run.

By thesounds of it you have theratchet type starter that hgoes into the cowling. When you havethe cowling pulled off there is like a square thing that fits into the recoil mech attached to the crackshaft.

This unit that unscrews off the crankshaft may need disassembling and some thouough cleaning, it would not hurt to clean any sign of cossosion off the crank as well, then once it is put back together a verylight helping of light machien oil on the inside of the ratchet mechanism would help it from reoccuring.

Thanks for your super quick and helpful replies guys.
As always, they are very much appreciated and I for one am grateful you guys take the effort to put your knowledge and time into this quality support forum. (Even on Christmas Day )

Thanks again.

Peatert,

Below is some workshop manual information on repairing the starter.

Remember - do not get oil in the cavity where the balls go, just use one drop of very high quality oil on the end of the crankshaft, and don't let it migrate elsewhere. No other lubrication. Your problem almost certainly came from dirt or old, sticky lubricant in the ball cavity and on the cam/rotor. Your recent 'cure' has probably put lube in the ball cavity, which has temporarily softened the dirt and dried-out lube that caused the problem, but before long it will dry out too and make the original problem worse. You need to end up with the ball cavity surgically clean as well as smooth and dry. See what the tips of the cam/rotor lobes look like after the recent mishap, in case it is beyond salvage.

Thanks for the starter repair .pdf Bruce. It was very helpful and I found the starter came apart very easily.

Well, I just spent the last hour with the starter apart armed with a small file and a very fine emery paper deburring and polishing up the cam lobes. They were slighly burred and showing signs of wear but no real damage as such.
And yes grumpy, there was some old dried out lube that the silicone spray must have loosened so I cleaned it out thoroughly and polished the ball cavity areas as best I could.
What did worry me though was that the 6 ball bearings had some bad colouring and showing signs of considerable wear.
I polished those up as much as I could.
Anyhow, I put it back together with a drop of synthetic oil, fitted it back to the motor, started it up and problem solved. No more squeal and no sign of it trying to engage again. Touch wood.

I will keep a look out though for another starter as I think this one is on it's last legs.

Thanks again guys and wish you all a Happy And Safe New Year.

Peatert,

Glad that we could be of some help.

Hi peatert, Great to see you got on top of it, mate!
We wish you a Happy New Year to you and yours as well.

Peatert, if those balls were blued-up and kind of eroded, it may have happened when they were stuck recently - they will have been running extremely fast, skidding against both cam and ball-recess. If the cam and recess look good, you can probably restore the starter's lost youth just by fitting new balls. Of course if you find the right deal on a replacement starter that is good too - but if it's second hand you should strip it and clean it up as you did for this one, before you fit it. Otherwise you could have the same outcome again: people do oil those things, and cause themselves trouble. It's interesting, an old Briggs like that can last a long time if you just keep it filled with clean oil, service the air cleaner, and don't do much else unless there is trouble. Most trouble seems to be caused by letting them run out of oil, letting the air cleaner clog up, or crashing them into things, and a lot of what remains is component failure after a whole lot of hours, but occasionally somebody gets oil/grease on the points so they burn up, lubricates the starter, or does something else that seems like a good idea but isn't.