jlasater Posted July 1, 2006 Posted July 1, 2006 I have a "new" Briggs 18HP horizontal twin in an....ahem....Cub Cadet, and do not appear to be getting any spark at the sparkplugs when trying to start it. This engine has one wire for the electric clutch, one for grounding the ignition system, and one from the alternator to charge the battery. With a points type system such as this, I assume that if I completely unplug the kill switch wire at the engine, any problems with not getting a spark is on the engine side, and not in the tractor wiring. I replaced the points/condenser with the ones off the old 16HP engine that died (it ran, figured the old parts were worth a try) but no luck. I'm down to thinking maybe the magneto is dead or something. Is there a way to check it with a DVM to do a rough verification if the mag is okay, at least enough to where it should start the engine? The mag has two spark plug wires, another wire that goes up to the points, and one wire that grounds to the engine frame via one of the mag mounting points.
jlasater Posted July 1, 2006 Author Posted July 1, 2006 No sooner did I post this question then I thought that I didn't test the spark again with the kill wire completely disconnected after replacing the points/condenser. So...stuck a screwdriver in the #2 spark plug wire, hit the key and saw a little spark. Tried again with an old spark plug and got a big fat spark. Reinstalled the carb and govenor linkage and it fired right up and just purrrred. Go figure.
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