B&S 18HP Vtwin

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Jeremiah

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I just picked up a lawn mower for free. It has a Briggs and Stratton 18hp twin. It wont run and the spark plugs dont produce a spark, I checked the plugs on another motor and they spark fine. The magnets and magneto are rusty and I'm not sure what the proper offset depth is for the magneto. Someone told me the thickness of a sheet of paper is ideal. Is this true? and could this be the reason why the engine will not run?

Starter works, and the magneto leads are not shorted out but it just wont spark. Any ideas?
 
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Bluethunder3320

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sand down the rusted magnets on the flywheel so that they are smooth and clean.

be sure to disconnect the kill switch wire from the coil to lessen possible reasons its not working.

gap it to a credit card thickness.

it is possible your coil is bad.
 
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Jeremiah

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Okay. I cleaned out the carb today, set magneto depth, got it alot closer about 2 sheets of paper away from the magnet. It now makes a spark on both wires. The problem now is there is too much compression for the starter to turn but i can turn it over by hand so I'm guessing the starter is junk. I even tried to start it off my truck battery which is 880 CCA. I'm going take off the exhaust and check the exhaust ports to make sure there isn't a mouse nest or something blocking the exhaust. And while the starter ships im going to put marvels oil in the cylinders for a few days to try to loosen up things a bit.
 
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slideways

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Check the valvetrain to make sure both valves are opening and closing completely. Also make sure no pushrods are bent. I see alot of strange things happen to these motors but they are rock solid when they get running good. In race trim they are capable of 40-50hp.
 
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