Yesterday, my Model 20217 stopped due to running out of gas. As it has always been hard to start when hot I put it away for the day. Today when I try to start it all that happens is I hear a soft backfire about once with each pull of the cord. Any suggestions on solving the problem? Thanks.
You’ve got a mower that’s been around for a long time, with one of the good old Briggs engines. My record on where to start solving this problem is removing, cleaning and rebuilding the carb. Not a hard job and needle and seat kit only about $6.00.
OK, I've rebuilt and cleaned the carb but no improvement. I cleaned and checked the gap on the spark plug. I then tried testing for a spark by unscrewing it with the wire attached and grounding the base to the head with a wire. I didn't see any spark. I took the cover off and found the stop switch wire's insulation had rotted away. I removed the wire and tried again. Still no spark.
What confuses me is that I measure a resistance of 4.7KΩ between the spark plug wire and the spark plug socket. Can the coil be bad and still have this resistance?
