Last year when I was doing my fall tilling, the 3 hp Briggs & Stratton engine (80202 0510-02 7602536) just stopped. No spin down, stalling, gasping or anything, just one last stroke and dead. Last year I had redone the ignition system, and it was running great. I put it away after it died and I just now got it out again.
I noticed that there was a bunch of gas around the carb to tank gasket, so I just started with a carb & related gasket overhaul. The pull-string return was also pretty weak and would occasionally jam up and make a horrible noise, so I replaced the spring & clutch pack. When I reassembled it, it did the same thing that it had when it died: When I pull the string, it puff like it's going to start, but it just will just backfire a bit if you have the choke set right.
Priming the carb with starter fluid or gas doesn't affect it other than making it sound a bit more promising depending on choke settings.
Any other ideas I should look at? The other sites aren't very helpful and my arms are getting tired of pulling!
daeman
HalfDork
3/21/16 12:38 a.m.
Sounds like you've sheared the flywheel key and it's out of time.
Usually happens when you hit something hard, or someone forgot to tighten the flywheel nut.
In reply to daeman:
Was just going to say the same thing. It's got fuel, it seems to have compression (you feel pulses when you tug on the sting I assume?) and it's blowing out the exhaust. Spark is all that's left.
I'll check it out, as soon as this 5" of snow melts. Thanks for the suggestions.
So this thread isn't actually about grassroots rototillersports?
https://www.youtube.com/embed/4U4523Cfs6A
Another vote for loose flywheel, since it's a 1976 and you said you had recently gone through the points. Should be 55 ft/lbs on the nut.
All three of you guys get internet cookies. The flywheel key had sheared.. I'm assuming the clutch jammed and that's what caused it to snap. I've got a temporary key made of steel in there now, I'll try to source another aluminum one..
Any hardware store that sells small engine parts will have a bucket of them.
Yeah, apparently that's not my friendly neighborhood hardware store, though.. That's where I got the key stock to cut down to size that made it work, though.
The good news is that it fired up on the first try after that, so all of my other repairs worked!
I should clarify, by "sells parts" I don't mean blades and mufflers and other typical consumables, I mean like they actually have a stack of catalogs on a dedicated counter and will willingly order internal engine parts and whatnot.
