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F.H. F.H. is offline
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Default Lawn Mower stopped running, no spark

Meat Plow wrote:
On Thu, 19 Jul 2007 16:42:17 +0000, F.H. wrote:

Meat Plow wrote:
On Thu, 19 Jul 2007 14:43:29 +0000, F.H. wrote:

Meat Plow wrote:
On Thu, 19 Jul 2007 06:41:34 +0000, F.H. wrote:

6 hp Briggs & Stratton

Was working fine until this week. Started up and then died and wouldn't
restart. No spark at all. Any suggestions? TIA


How did you test for spark?


Pulled the plug, opened the throttle to open the kill switch, held the
plug against the engine (as it was getting dark) and pulled the starter
cord a few times. No visible spark. Maybe I should get someone to hold
it while I pull? Just to make double sure? g


That's a good idea but ,,,,that someone could get a jolt without enough
juice to jump the gap.

Of course I wouldn't do that.


I know, it was a bit of sarcasm on my part.

I suppose you of course tried a new plug.

Just the gap test like the original. Been a long time since I
encountered a bad spark plug.


I would go ahead and replace it regardless just to rule it out 100%

culprit ( take it also that you don't hit big rocks, stumps etc) could be
the kill switch mechanism and the mag itself. If you have hit things large
enough to stop the engine then there could be an issue with the flywheel
sheer key being bent and the flywheel being just enough out of position.
I've seen this once and the engine did run prior but would not start after
cooling down.

Just a basic lawn. No big rocks. I can see the kill switch open and
close but I'm gonna check it closer.


If you can, remove the wire from it, that would rule out a bad switch. Put
the plug back in and see if it starts. I don't trust 100% touching the
cylinder head with the plug body. I've been fooled by it on smaller tool
engines.
Back in 1983 I roomed with a buddy who work on small engines for
a living. He did lots of repairs on the weekends in our garage and he
taught me to work on this stuff so I'm not just making wild guesses here.


Problem solved. Turned out to be the linkage to the kill switch was
sticking. It was moving but not *quite* enough.