Fresh battery, I assume? Is this a Kawasaki or a Briggs and Stratton overhead valve engine? What you describe sounds very much like the valves need adjustment. They are designed to open slightly ahead of the time to let excessive pressure out else the starter won't be able to turn the engine (the compression release feature). If the valves are out of adjustment, the pressure is too high for the starter to turn it over. The adjustment procedure is engine - dependent but the essence of it is that with the valve cover off, you need to find the piston's highest point (top dead center - TDC), rotate the flywheel further so the piston is 1/4" below the TDC and adjust the valve lashes in that position to preset gauges - 0.004" between the rocker and the valve stem on the intake and 0.006" on exhaust (the gauge value of adjustment would have to come from the engine's manual so need to know which engine. These should do it for B&S ).
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12 years ago