Briggs & Stratton Lawn Mower Ignition Coils
Briggs & Stratton, an American company with a rich history of more than 100 years of production and innovation, is best known for producing powerful small engines for lawn mowers, racing cars, and snow blowers. Your riding or push lawn mower may work perfectly with a Briggs & Stratton lawn mower engine, but if any lawn mower parts break or wear out, all this innovation and advanced technology goes to waste. The ignition coil is essential for starting your lawn mower, so without it, you would not probably get very far.
How Ignition Coil WorksThe ignition system starts your lawn mower when you pull the rope or turn the key. This system creates a spark inside the combustion chamber and ignites the air-fuel mixture. At the moment you start the engine, you also turn the flywheel, and its magnets pass the ignition coil. The flywheel keeps rotating as you work with the machine, and the magnets continue passing the coil.
Testing the Ignition CoilLuckily, the ignition coil is one the easiest Briggs & Stratton lawn mower parts and accessories for your ignition system that you can test, so its a great place to start when troubleshooting your engine. For testing, clip one end of the spark tester to the cylinder head and the other to the ignition cable. While spinning the flywheel at about 350 rpm, watch the spark inside the tester window. If the spark is able to jump into the tester gap, everything is fine. If it does not, you need to replace the coil.
Replacing the Ignition CoilStart replacing the coil by removing any batteries and unhooking the spark plug wire. Secure the wire, then remove the coils mounting screws. Disconnect the stop switch wire from the flywheel brake, then remove the ignition coil. Install the new coil, using an OEM part for best quality, and lock the mounting screws. Push the coil away from the flywheel and tighten one screw. Turn the flywheel to get the magnets to the opposite side of the coil. Put a shim between the ignition armature and the flywheel rim, and turn the flywheel until the magnets are adjacent to the armature. Loosen the tight screw, and let the magnets pull the ignition armature against the shim and flywheel. Tighten the mounting screws, and reconnect the stop switch.
Upgrading Older SystemsYou can upgrade your old single-cylinder Briggs & Stratton lawn mower engine. Before 1982, the breaker point ignition systems that had a mechanical switch served as the standard for mowers. By installing a solid-state ignition conversion kit, you can improve such engines reliability, so it would last for some more decades. The engine should have a two-legged armature because the kit is not compatible with the three-legged versions.
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