On Jul 10, 12:09*am, "James H." wrote:
On Thu, 8 Jul 2010 19:46:57 -0700 (PDT), JIMMIE wrote:
Sounds like the shear key on the flywheel may have sheared..
This will put the timing off.

That's exactly what happened. The flywheel "pin" was shaped like a Z (side
view) instead of a rectangle (I bought six new Briggs and Stratton flywheel
keys from Ace hardware and none look like a Z from the side.)

The hard part wasn't getting the flywheel off; it was figuring HOW to get
the flywheel off. Banging on the crankshaft and prying up on the flywheel
only served to break the plastic intake manifold in half, bending one of
its bolts and breaking the other one in half.

Success only came to me after I totally gave up on this crazy
bang-on-the-crankshaft-and-pry-the-flywheel method. When I finally realized
there were two untapped holes for a harmonic balancer puller, I simply
tapped them with a 1/4 x 20 tap, and voila! The flywheel pulled off with
ease using the flywheel puller.

Now I have to order a new plastic intake manifold, and pick up a set of
screw extractors to extract the broken intake-manifold bolt.

In hind sight, if you have a Briggs and Stratton engine (specifically the
Briggs and Stratton 123K02-0444-E1 engine), DO NOT pry up on the flywheel
and bang down on the crankshaft (what's that gonna do anyway, beside break
stuff). There's NOWHERE to pry except soft aluminum and plastic anyway.

Just use a harmonic balancer puller (after tapping the holes in the
flywheel left for this purpose). I wish I knew that when I started this
thread!

I do THANK EVERYONE for all your help; it was my first lawnmower repair in
my life! When the parts come in for the broken intake manifold, I hope it
will work again!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Plktb3a_-MI
Around 4.01 he taps it off, he doesn't even bother with the prybar.