Coil Replacement

[c3po]

I have a Toro Super Recycler lawn mower with a 6 HP Briggs Engine, its 13 years old and still runs good, except today it would not start.

I checked the carburetor and it was clean, even replaced the fuel line and drained the gas tank, still would not start, then I checked for spark and there was none.

Is this an easy job to replace the coil on a small briggs engine, I have done this on my Dad's old riding mower that had a Biggs Engine as well as on a Kawasaki engine.

Has anyone on here changed a coil on a small briggs motor.

 

[01rangerxl]

Yes, it's easy.

Take off the top cover, unbolt the gas tank and tilt it back, remove the engine cover, and you can get to the coil. Unbolt the old coil and disconnect the ground wire. The new coil may come with a card to use as a spacer. If not, use a piece of a file folder. Put the card or piece of file folder between the flywheel and coil as a spacer. Tighten the bolts on the new coil, and remember to plug in the ground wire. Put everything back together and you are done.

 

[c3po]

I followed your instructions to the tee and it only took me a few minutes to get everything off, now I will call my mower place and order or get the part on Tuesday.

Without your advice it would probably have taken me a lot longer, many thanks.

 

[01rangerxl]

Glad to help. Once you know how to get to the coil there's nothing to it.

 

[JHZR2]

On our 87 flathead it was super simple...

 

[yeehaw1960]

Hopefully you took the wire off the bottom of the coil, put the top back on and checked for spark. The (ground) wire that runs from the coil to the kill switch might be worn and grounding out on something. More likely that the coil is bad. I use a piece of roof flashing to gap the coil. Turn the flywheel to where the magnetic part faces the coil. It will grab it magnetically through whatever you gap it with and hold it in place to put the screws (bolts) back in.

 

[c3po]

Quote:
Hopefully you took the wire off the bottom of the coil, put the top back on and checked for spark.


I did not take that wire off, I know it is kind of a kill switch for the mower, it was working fine, meaning when I would let go of the bar the mower would shut off, its worth a try, even though I believe I have a Bad Coil.

This mower has well over 1000 hours on it and when I took it apart I did have to get the Air Compressor and blow a bunch of junk out, I thought it would have been whistle clean since each time I use the mower I blow everything off with my hand held blower, I even blow into the flywheel area to flush any debris out. Maybe it will be a good idea to take the Mower Housing off once a year to make sure everything is clean since I know these Coils do not like heat.

I think I did pretty good going 13 years on a coil, my Dad went through 3 coils in 13 years on his MTD Tractor that had a Briggs Engine.

 

[01rangerxl]

Bad coils are not too uncommon, but neither are ground wire issues. A lot of times the insulation gets burned about half way down the wire. Just throw some heat shrink insulation on it and you are good to go.

 

[c3po]

I put the new coil on yesterday and she fired up on the 1st pull, there was some debris inside the engine, even though I blow the mower off each time I use it, I think at the end of each season I will take the Mower Housing off and blow all of the cooling passages to make sure I have unrestricted flow so the Coil stays as cool as possible.

I got 13 years out of this coil, not bad, since I had replaced 3 coils in 13 years on my Dad's old MTD Tractor before he got rid of it. I think every December I will be taking all of my small engine equipment apart to blow out any DEBRIS since an air cooled engine needs to breath, kind of hard if there is some junk obstructing the flow of air.