Have a Lawnboy 5244 that was not running right. Would not rev up much past an idle. It was suggested that the cause may be a bad coil, as these are a 2 stage unit. I pulled the coil off and in doing so the spark plug wire fell off in my hand. I did some checking with the plug wire and my ohm meter and to make a long story short it was shot. I ran to the auto parts store and got a wire and replaced it. Also I notice that the plastic enclosure of the coil has some cracks in it. I didn't do anything to seal those, rather I wanted to try it with just the new plug wire. I cranked it up and it revved up higher than it had before, almost to where I would deem it normal speed. But when it got right where you might expect it to level off, it would backfire pretty bad/loud. Probably a good way to clean the carbon out of the exhaust but not good on the internal parts of the engine.

Now, the $64,000 question--Definitely a bad coil?

Now, the $32,000 question--Think if I put some JB Weld on the cracks it will shield it?

Thanks for the help.

Brad