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I have my 14.5 HP Briggs out of my tractor. I have been undertaking some repairs to the engine and am nearing completion on them. I am just about ready to reassemble the carb, heat shield, cover, etc and thought it would be nice to test the engine before I reinstall it in the tractor. The tractor is currently a two hour drive from where I am repairing the engine.

I was wondering if I could hook some jumper cables from a battery to the engine block for a ground and then touch the positive cable to the starter to start the engine to see if it runs. I could hook up a temporary gas supply with a small plastic tank I have. It doesn't have the exhaust hooked up so it will be loud.

Is it safe to do this without harming the engine? If I can run it on a bench, how would I shut it down?

Yes you can all you need is small battery to power the carb solenoid
After that the engine is self energizing
To stop you will need to depower the solenoid or connect a wire to the magneto so you can ground it to the engine to kill the spark.
The engine plug should have the solenoid & magneto wires .
However the engine will have a lot of kick back so it needs to be SECURE and that is SECURE with a capital S an old milk crate will not cut the mustard and it will rip most vices off a work bench
None of those portable fold up work benches will do the job either .

bertsmobile1 said:

Yes you can all you need is small battery to power the carb solenoid
After that the engine is self energizing
To stop you will need to depower the solenoid or connect a wire to the magneto so you can ground it to the engine to kill the spark.
The engine plug should have the solenoid & magneto wires .
However the engine will have a lot of kick back so it needs to be SECURE and that is SECURE with a capital S an old milk crate will not cut the mustard and it will rip most vices off a work bench
None of those portable fold up work benches will do the job either .

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Maybe I should just wait and put it back in the tractor then. I don't need the engine to go flying around the yard on its own.

It is up to you
FWIW
I have some old engine plates from deceased ride ons , mainly Murray & MTD
These are bolted to a frame made from 4 x 4 posts that is supported by a pair of Triton Jaws ,'And even then thay will start to dance around the yard
One of those roundtuit projects is to set a 9" pipe in concrete with a flange on the top to bolt the mounting plates to
Got it here ages ago just need the enthusiasm to get it done
In reality I rarely do engine rebuilds unless it is one of my own engines as few cusomers will pay for a rebuild .