There are two wires that come out of that coil. One is thick and
goes to the spark plug. The other is a 14 or 16 guage wire (thin)
that goes to a switch somewhere. That is what kills the motor when
you want it off. The gap between the magnet and the coil should
only be a business card thickness. Maybe two of them.
Just make sure that after its tight that it doesnt come in contact
with the flywheel or the magnet on it.

Its not uncommon for a coil to go bad. It happens. I presume you
DID change the sparkplug, ground it to the motor and give it a few
pulls to make sure that there no spark. You can borrow a plug from
another piece of equipment just to test for spark just make sure to do
this in a somewhat shaded area or you'll never see the spark.

Otherwise you can EASILY get a coil from ebay for next to nothing.


On Mar 20, 11:05 am, "nick" wrote:
about 4 years ago the throttle cable on my 87 model lawn boy broke.
It would still run fine but no throttle. So this year I put on a new
trottle cable. Now I am getting no spark. I gained access to the
magneto, to it out and buffed the rust off the contacts. There is a
wire that runs from the magneto to something in from that seems
inaccessable, but conceveably could be a part of the magneto. I still
get no spark, if I disconnect the wired I still get no spark. I
assume it was part of the kill system as that is where the kill cable
goes to. This is a 20 year old mower with little use. But after
purchase of the cable I have almost 30 more dollars in it and am
relectant to spend more with out know what is wrong. Is there a
proper gapping on the magneto? Is there a way to bypass the kill
system?