WEAK OR NO SPARK? DOES IT NEED A NEW COIL? / OLD MECHANICS TRICK TO FIX A MAGNETO IGNITION SYSTEM

People who don't work on motors don't understand how we can get excited when we bring an engine back to life. It's just something satisfying knowing that what you did mattered. A lot of times when I'm working on an engine I will take the time to clean the coil and the flywheel. I never trust having a lot of rust on parts that depend on one another to work. I'm glad you were able to get it started without having to put any money out. Great job look forward to watching your next video.

There was a tool rental place near my friends house when I was a kid. They had a scrap box full of Briggs 8hp engines. We asked the guy if we could have a few for parts? He asked what for? We were building a go kart and he said sure take anything you want. We took four 8 hp Briggs. One had a hole in the side by the crank but good valves. One the block was perfect but the piston had a hole in it. We took all the best parts and make one good engine out of it. The Briggs carbs back then sucked so we grabbed a few Tecumseh carbs and made one good one. We drilled out the holes and with some liquid gasket it worked great on the Briggs. We beat on that engine for years with no governor. It was in my friend's shed for years but as we got older we got jobs, married and all that stuff. Those were fun days. To take a pile of junk and make it scream again through the woods. That track we ran on is now a Ford dealership, rental place is gone and my fiend passed away at 31 of CF. Love to spend a summer in those simple times when mom and dad paid all the bills and we got a goof off all summer. Now kids spend all their time on their phone or in video games. I am about to try this coil trick on my Ariens tractor with a super weak spark. See if I lost my mojo.

I worked on my lawnmower for 2 hours and was ready to give up, untill I watched your video. Thank you!

It's strange to hear and see those old Briggs and Stratton engines coming back to life for the first time in many years, they always seem to struggle for the first 30 seconds or so to barely keep running and then suddenly burst into life, and the person makes the effort to make it happen gets a big smile on there face. Priceless!

Fantastic info! Thanks so much for sharing this. Not enough people like you doing small engine repair anymore, so we all need more & more of this kind of knowledge in our backyards.

Your suggestion to use the old mechanic’s trick worked like a charm! Got my old gas edger running after 5 plus years of non running. Thank you!

Lightweight is good and what did I use it for it’s a lawnmower youtube.com/post/UgkxTPN04aT-Qdjr_KS3ql7ng8wnU3wws… also recommend Yes it is lightweight so hence not as robust as our old one. But if you take care it does the job really well.

I owe you a beer! I followed the suggestion on my no spark 3.5 B+S and goddamit spark came back hot as can be. You seriously ROCK!

Gotta love it when a little effort leads to a "no parts repair".

I learned how to check for spark many years ago from an old guy I worked with , he had me hold the spark plug while he pulled the cord . When I jumped and called him names he laughed and said you got spark. That ain’t your problem

Mowermedic1, A very well executed video for us in the youtube classroom. Good to learn something new every day, and you most certainly provided us with that. Just loved the term 'Garden scratcher" and I will incorporate it into my vocabulary. 554 thumbs up verses 0 down, and you deserve it. Thank you for this production.

Thank You for sharing knowledge like this a lot of people obviously didn’t grow up like me and you did working on everything and passing on the knowledge is somthing a lot of people don’t do or don’t have the chance to do

Awesome dude, mine had a weak spark , i adjusted the gap and the spark went altogether, assumed the coil was busted, took it off cleaned it replaced reset the gap, works perfectly :) the new coil cost as much as i paid for the blower, ty mate :)

Awesome advice on the rust removal on the flywheel and coil surface.... great help!! Thank you very much!

Thanks Mower Medic for the video. Super info! I'm working on a Husqvarna 143 weed eater with no spark. I live in Peru, South America and I check with your channel, the Chickanic, and Steve's Small Engine all the time for answers to my problems. I live some distance for any town and you guys have saved me on many occasions. People like you and Bre and Steve are my heroes and have saved me a lot of heartache over the years. I headed to the shop to give it a try! God Bless

Excellent video about a simple fix but generally not considered . I been in the xar game all my life and started to service my own garden mower motors . I also clean the flywheel and coil metal surface with at touch of contact spray . Good man and keep well. 🍻

Great video. I'm working on a small gas chainsaw with a bad coil wire. I think it got hot over so many years of use and went bad. I had to order a new coil but when I put it back together I'll be sure to clean the contact area like you showed. Also, in your video, when you loosened the coil screws the entire coil dropped, meaning the gap was bad which is another reason why it wouldn't start. That gap seems to widen over time and years of use. GREAT video Mower Medic and thanks for doing such a good job making this video and posting it to YouTube. I'm sure it helped out a lot of garage mechanics and you did it with a smile on your face which we don't get much of around here, just a lot of cussin, coughin and spittin. It takes me at least two beers to calm down.

Great video! I just bought an old Ariens Rocket V with the 5HP Tecumseh engine. I tore it down today, same issue no spark. It had a massive nest on the flywheel also and several more on the cooling fins on the head. I checked points, point gap, kill switch wire for shorts, cleaned the rust off of the flywheel and magnets, etc. Did not think to check the coil for rust. So I'll tear it back down tomorrow and check for corrosion under the coil, everything looked good except for the dirt dobber nest. I'll also have my multi meter to check the condensor, and coil. Thanks again for sharing your knowledge.

Thank you for showing me what you did. That’s what my problem was with my motor on my lawnmower

Thanks - didn't know that about cleaning the coil mounting area.