toro tractor wont start! please help!!!

93JONK · 2008-12-11T15:38:20+00:00

All right, here goes..... i bought a 1986 Toro Lawn tractor on ebayfor quite a steal. Briggs 11HPi brought it home and stuck my jump-starter on it and got to work. at first it obviously would not fireup. i tinkered a little and could get it to fire up off of startingfluid. at that point i started checking the gas lines, which wereclogged. i cleared the lines and tinkered with the carb for a whileand i eventually got it to fire up off of gas, but could only get theengine running with the throttle up high. but it ran!!!! i rode itaround my property for about 10 MIN but it would still only run withthe throttle up high. the engine sounded great with no knocking orsputtering. i went inside and ate dinner and when i returned (about anhour later) it wouldnt even fire off of starting fluid. NOTHING. ifigured that the motor was flooded and i knew the carb neededcleaning, so i removed the carb, drained the oil, and took the plugout to hopefully clear some gas out of the chamber. that night icleaned the carb. the next day i re-filled the engine with oil,reinstalled the plug, and cranked the motor a few times w/o carb tohopefully clear any remaining gas out of the chamber. i reinstalledthe carb, but did not hook the gas line up to it. i gave it a squirtof starting fluid and NOTHING. i can hear that the motor hascompression. and the plug is not wet, so at this point i dont think itis flooded. i checked and i get a strong spark (ouch) from the wire tothe engine, but i cant seem to get a spark between the contacts on theend of the plug when the wire is attached to it when i ground the plugto the motor. i know the plug is good, because i tried it in mysnowthrower and it worked great. i am pretty sure that it is somethingsimple, seeing as though i had it running, but i am out of ideas.please help!!

Dec 11, 2008 26 Replies

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pheeh.zero 17 years ago

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Rule of thumb for Briggs 10.20.30 (mag.points.plug) in thousandths.

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93JONK 17 years ago

Looks like it was the armature the whole time. replaced it for $40. runs like a champ!!!! thanks for all the advice folks!!

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James Sweet 17 years ago

Wow, that's a first for me, glad you got it going.

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Johnl 17 years ago

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James Sweet 17 years ago

The equivalent of an ignition coil in a magneto system.

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Johnl 17 years ago

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93JONK 17 years ago

formatting link

check it out

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