Engine had been dificult to start after winter storage. Prime, Pull, coughs and stops. wait. repeat and it eventually started. When grass grew went through same routine and cut lawn for an hour and finished. Today began same routine but the engine seemed to fire and pull the rope back hard. No start. Air cleaner ok, plug is new. I am thinking I may need replace the solid state ingition. Is that a good place to start?

carb, did you use any fuel stabilizer, (ex: sta-bil) in the gas, if not the carb may be a little gummed, how old is it, it may need a good head cleaning as well. but as for the magnetron, if its cutting out when it gets hot and does not start back up but after a few minutes does, yeah it may be the mag.

When trying to get it started it only coughed or run a few seconds. It did run for an hour before the trouble began so I don't think its a fouled carburator. I'll try to start it tomorrow and see if it even coughs a start. Thanks for reply.

hmm, ok, i had the same problem with a 3.5 briggs, so what is it acting like? does it run good for a few, then starts spitting and sputtering, and intermittently cut off? or just spit? mine spit till the coil finally gave up, it was failing under the heat from the engine.

Tried to start today and it did not even fire or cough. Looked at parts list and attempted to the solid state ignition. Got as far as removing starter grill, losening the blower housing, and removed one screw on fuel tank. Nothing more to remove on parts list, but fuel tank and blower housing still refused to come off. My pulling on it might have got the rewing starter goofed up. Trying to get an appropriate manual from the public library. Getting the tank and housing off seems as confusing as removing trim in a car.

if its a briggs, that would be a quantum, the palstic cover on newer ones pops off with two screws and there is a few bolts to pop the tank off, one on the side of the engine i beleive. as for the recoil starter, that shouldn't have gotten messed up, and to take the shroud off would be a couple bolts and pop it off upwards. they do have screws and bolts in unsuspecting places

Yes I found all the screws and the tank did lift off. Then the blower cover and I replaced the Solid State Ignition. Left an 1/8 " gap between that and the magnet on the wheel. Put it together did not start. Realized that 0.0125 was not an 1/8th inch so I used an Index card to approximate .0125" gap. Put it together again. Still I could not get it to run so I asked my big neibhor to pull the cord while I looked for a spark to the plug. While I went to get something to hold the wire, he pulled it a couple of times and it tried to run. Sounded like something knocking as it ran a few seconds. I thanked him he left, but I could not pull that hard to get it to even cough. Bought a new mower but haven't pitched the Craftsman yet. Might try to get it to work as a hobby, after all I got $30 invested in the new Ignition.
Thanks for your help.

ok as for the spark plug, what #'s is it, should be a j17lm champion or 458 autolite. too long of a reaching plug will knock and also damage the plug, as for the plug, that muist be gapped at.30, the mag i like to gap with a $ bill.

I have one of those here. Sounds like exactly the same symptoms as yours.

I put a new plug in it and it ran just fine to mow my snall front yard. I did notice it was lightly missing a beat every little while while running. After it ran for about 20 minutes I shut it off. Now it wan't start at all.

It also does all that you described. Snaps the rope handle back hard on kick back and clanks loud now and then as it tries to fire. It seems to try to fire but doesn't start.

That is the new miracle BS plastic carb set up. I used carb cleaner in the barrel but it ran afterward. Wonder if it is spark or carb? I suspect spark but the plug is new. Anyone has an idea on this I would like to hear it but I am not going to buy ignition parts as said above, just yet.

Thanks!

I got the covering all off and had a look. I see the flywheel key is sheared and about 30 degrees off as was found in the other above. Now if I can get the fly wheel off without breaking it, I think I can reslove the issue by replacing the key on the shaft and flywheel. Bound to help timing!

yeah, oh and the flywheel on those little ones are real easy to pop off with a little leverage applied to opposing sides a little at a time. one side then the other in that order........