No spark on my B&S

bwdbrn1 · Jan 18, 2010

A couple of days ago I started a thread on the Walk Behind forum.
http://www.mytractorforum.com/showthread.php?t=110139
The engine is a Briggs and Stratton Model 61302 Type 942523 Serial 5809040. I can't get these numbers to work on the Briggs site to find a manual specific to it. The mower is an Eclipse Parkhound Series 1212. According to what I've found on it, it was manufactured 1959, and the company literature I found for that year states the engine puts out a whopping 2 1/4 H.P. at 3600 RPM.
Compression according to my gage is right at 76. The first inspection showed no spark. I plugged in a different plug I had handy, and still no spark. I'm checking this by grounding the plug against the block. I've pulled the flywheel and the key looked good. I cleaned off the points and set them to a .020 gap and cleaned off the three legs of the armature and set the air gap at .012, which were according to a Briggs Service and Repair Instructions Manual Still nothing.

I'm thinking I'll try to locate new condenser and points, as well as the proper new plug. Anybody got any other suggestions?

Tractor-Holic · Jan 18, 2010

If you cleaned the points GOOD and the flywheel key in intact,I'd say if the coil is any good, you should get at least a weak spark--perhaps the condensor died of old age though..you can substitute a cars condensor for test purposes.in fact I have used them and left them in and they seemed to work OK..I have tried "flashing" a condensor with a battery and sometimes that gets them working again,at least temporarily..
Make sure any "kill" wires to the coil aren't touching ground somewhere,I'd take them off at the coil to be sure..

One engine like yours I had, I used a car coil on,when I found the coil for the magneto was junk and I couldn't find another one--of course I had to use a small 12V battery with it and wire it to the points and condensor,with an on-off switch..I found using the "+" wire on the coil to the points made it run better than it did using "negative ground" for some reason too..at first I only did this to see if it ran period,once I found out it did and was in good shape,no oil smoke,etc,I decided to leave it on and used it on a mini-bike..

bstrucker · Jan 18, 2010

Look your sparkplug wire over good also,especially any place that it passes close to anything metal,unfortunatley those wires aren't easy to change like the older ones,they aren't impossible to change though.Try a different condensor first but those coils have had some issues also.

js5020d · Jan 18, 2010

I just scrapped the whole points and condenser thing,, I put in one of those spark modules. The engine I used it in was a Briggs 6R6,,, it has nice spark now.

bwdbrn1 · Jan 18, 2010

I stopped by a local small engine shop and picked up a set of points and condenser. I have spark now! The engine sputtered a bit on starter fluid, but the recoil spring broke after a couple of pulls. So now I'm letting the carb soak. I'll clean it up, put a new recoil spring in and try it out tomorrow.

bwdbrn1 · Jan 19, 2010

It runs! Who ever put this thing away last must have made sure they drained every drop of gas out of it they could. The inside of the carb was clean with no gunk or varnish at all. Most of what I cleaned was on the outside. This thing has an oil bath type air cleaner, which must account for the generous coating all over it. Since nobody local had a carb kit for the small flo jet carb, I just went ahead and put the carb all back together using the original stuff. I poured in some gas and gave the rope a few pulls, and darn if it didn't start. Some tweeks to the settings and it seemed to run just fine. I've never posted videos, but I might just try to later.

No spark on my B&S

bwdbrn1

Tractor-Holic

bstrucker

js5020d

bwdbrn1

bwdbrn1

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