Sheared Flywheel Key Question

Sawdust

Jim from Kentucky
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Have any of you had this problem and the engine idles well. The symptoms appear as the throttle is increased and worsens at WOT, black smoke, runs rich, uncontrollable RPM’s, mis firing, back fires, and hard to start. This is on my Simplicity 3415H with a 15 hp Briggs.

I was cutting grass yesterday with no problems, never hit nothing, then all these symptoms started. Since I’ve had this, the carb has been a major pain, the adjustments never stay, it has the typical flo jet gas leak from the emulsion tube no matter what I do to it. When I got it back to the shop I started to adjust the carb thinking that was the problem but no matter what I done to the carb it ran the same. I might start out checking the head gasket, then pull the head then check the valves before I check for a sheard flywheel jey.
 
Is this a cast iron points based ignition Briggs? If so, kinda sounds like bad condenser. Check the spark. If nice and blue and jumps a wide gap it's ok. If red and won't jump more than an 1/8" gap then it's ignition.
Yeah Daniel on the points and condenser. It had a bad condenser when I first bought it because of a no fire. I replaced them with a new B&S points and condenser set back in the summer. I know new doesn’t mean anything so I’ll start there tomorrow checking the spark.
 
I just had that (bad condenser) on a cast iron Briggs a few weeks ago.
I'd replaced the points a couple of years ago (maybe 2 tanks of gas "run-time" ago,) and didn't have a condenser on hand at the time). And it was fine for probably a tank and 1/2 of that/ and then started giving me fits. I found some OLD NOS Briggs points and condenser on eBay, along with a new coil (aftermarket prime line coil)
I'm just glad that I didn't have to replace that coil, as it's on my compressor 30 miles in the middle of nowhere and I didn't have my cordless Milwaukee impact with me to take the pulley off the flywheel /so I could get the shroud off the engine..... Not like I could build up air, with the engine not wanting to run after all.... Knowing where that compressor came from I would be surprised if the condenser I replaced wasn't the original one from 1972. The nos parts I got, I would have to guess, were at least that old/ judging by the packaging and logos
 
I just had that (bad condenser) on a cast iron Briggs a few weeks ago.
I'd replaced the points a couple of years ago (maybe 2 tanks of gas "run-time" ago,) and didn't have a condenser on hand at the time). And it was fine for probably a tank and 1/2 of that/ and then started giving me fits. I found some OLD NOS Briggs points and condenser on eBay, along with a new coil (aftermarket prime line coil)
I'm just glad that I didn't have to replace that coil, as it's on my compressor 30 miles in the middle of nowhere and I didn't have my cordless Milwaukee impact with me to take the pulley off the flywheel /so I could get the shroud off the engine..... Not like I could build up air, with the engine not wanting to run after all.... Knowing where that compressor came from I would be surprised if the condenser I replaced wasn't the original one from 1972. The nos parts I got, I would have to guess, were at least that old/ judging by the packaging and logos
I’ve heard a few folks complain about the new B&S parts are no better than the cheap aftermarket parts. Both are probably China made.
 
Daniel was right on a bad condenser. So much for new parts. I put my old one back on and it fired right up and runs well. I contacted Isavetractors and explained my problem not sure what or if anything they will do. They were on the tractor for two months but I kept them on a shelf since 9-15-21. Next time I’ll save my money and buy the aftermarket set since they all come from China anyway.
 
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