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Ether Jones

wrote:
I have an older Sears Craftsman lawn tractor with a 180 opposed twin
cylinder Briggs and Stratton Engine.

How old is "older"?? What is the model number of the engine? This
info should be on a nameplate or label somewhere on the engine. There
are different versions of the 180 opposed twin Briggs engines and they
have different ignition systems etc. (Mine is the 16.5 HP with
electronic ignition - no points).

My son was cutting the lawn with
it the other day and it gradually stalled out on him. He started it
up again, but it quickly stalled out again. Now the engine will barely
crank and will not start.

Well, if the engine will barely crank, then you've obviously got a
problem with your battery or your starter motor or your cable
connections or engine friction. BUT... it's difficult to say, without
more detail from you, whether this is a CAUSE or an EFFECT of the
original stalling problem. In other words, your son could easily have
worn out the battery cranking the engine trying to get it started,
because there was something else wrong with the engine.

It is a very common problem, especially with kids, to abuse the
starting system on lawn tractors. They are not designed to crank the
engine for long periods of time. You should never crank the engine
for more than 5 seconds at a time. If the engine does not start within
5 seconds, turn the key off and wait 10 seconds before trying again.
If the engine doesn't start after 3 or 4 tries, FIGURE OUT WHAT'S WRONG
before you burn out the battery.

If the engine doesn't crank when you turn the key, RELEASE THE KEY
IMMEDIATELY. Wait 10 seconds and try again.

The first thing you need to do is fix the cranking problem so that you
can perform further troubleshooting.

I checked the battery with a multi-meter and it tested at 12 volts.

Simply placing a voltmeter on the battery terminals with no load on the
battery tells you nothing. Even a "dead" battery can read 12 volts
with no load.

Place the voltmeter on the battery terminals and observe the voltage
when someone is cranking the engine. If the voltage drops below 9
volts you've got a problem. Do you have a battery charger? Charge the
battery overnight, and try cranking the engine again in the morning.

Post again after you've tried this.

I tried jumping it with a portable power source and this did not help.

Please give more details on exactly how you did this, and what kind of
"portable power source" did you use.

One question I have is whether a problem
in the starter would have caused the engine to stall out after it was
already going?

Highly unlikely.