18 H.P briggs and stratton engine ? dead cylinder help please
newfee_bullett
16 years ago
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bill_kapaun
16 years agolast modified: 9 years agoRelated Discussions
briggs and stratton 18.5 hp
Comments (1)To answer you questions we really need to know WHICH 18.5 B&S you have. Model number, as there are several that fit that description and some are radically different. IF this happens to be an OHV single cylinder, I have detailed instructions for adjusting the valves which is likely the problem. Address below, put in proper format and remind me. IF it is a horizontally opposed twin, I have a list of possible causes for hard cranking. Either way, you have likely fried the starter by holding it engaged too long trying to make it turn the engine. Brief engagement followed by a considerable longer cooling period must be used. B&S starters are highly interchangeable so a good used one should be fairly easy to find. Walt Conner wconner5 at frontier dot com...See Morewiring a briggs & stratton 18 hp engine
Comments (6)hi all i have a qestion that i hope can be answered. i have poulan riding mower that had an 17 hp i/c single cylinder on it that blew up, my dad had a 18 hp opposing twin cylinder lying around have already bolted the motor on and hooked everything up except the wiring, not sure how to wire it up the 18 has a yellow wire from the coil and the red and white wire from the stator, the mower its self has the same plug for the white and red wire, but is orange and red, also the other motor had the high speed cut off that went to the carbuerator, it is white and black. when i plugged the red and white wire to the red and orange wire together and ran the mower, my key switch would not cut it off. just wonder if any one on here has done this. any info on this would be greatful thanks....See MoreBriggs and Stratton that is hunting and surging
Comments (8)***"What will removing the kill harness from the coils and do a test run tell me?"*** That was brought up due to the fact that the ignition system here (in vee twins) is configured as 2 separate magnetos...........joined together into a single kill wire circuit, for convenience when shutting down the engine. With magnetos, you must ground one leg of the primary coil circuit in order to "kill" the spark generation. A problem or obstacle arises when you have an engine configured with multiple cylinders and multiple magnetos. The focal point in this is that in order to kill both magnetos with a single kill wire circuit, you gotta join the kill wires from each magneto together so that both mags are killed simultaneously when a command to stop the engine is issued. This "command" might come from the ignition key switch when the machine operator turns the key switch to OFF, or.......the command may be issued by one of the safety interlock switches or relays (depending on the make of machine). The problem or obstacle when simply connecting the kill wires from each magneto together in the form of a "hard wire" splice is that connecting the kill wires together will cause serious and detrimental operating effects on BOTH magnetos when the engine is running. In theory, the kill wires can be kept separated from each other by providing a separate kill wire circuit for each magneto..........and running the pair of kill wires all the way to a specially designed key switch having 2 individual kill wire terminals (1 for each mag) which remain completely separated from each other until the key switch is turned off. Now, that in itself is a bit more complex than the single wire system that is industry standard.............but it gets worse. Because in modern OPE, there is a safety interlock system, with multiple switches wherein each switch can issue the command to kill the engine spark.............each switch would have to have double circuits for the magneto kill function, or a master relay for magneto kill having 2 separate circuits would have to be employed. All this double wire stuff and special switches in various locations could conceivably add hundreds of dollars per unit built to the OEMs cost of manufacture, and that cost would be passed on to the consumer. To overcome this obstacle, Briggs overcame the problem by connecting the kill wires together with 2 diodes, so that the separate magnetos stay separated electrically from each other during normal operation (and therefore do not interfere with each other's spark making business). In this manner, the kill wire function can be controlled by the same simple type of switches now in use. Now, for why this is something to be concerned about if you own one of these Briggs engines. Occasionally, one of the diodes can become defective. If becomes defective OPEN, there may not be any noticeable difference in how the engine runs, but when trying to stop the engine, one cylinder may continue to have spark. If this is on an engine that has a fuel solenoid, you might not even notice that you have a cylinder still getting spark, because the fuel solenoid stops main jet fuel when the key is turned off, and the pilot jet fuel is not enough to keep the "live cylinder" running against the dead cylinder load. But, if one of the diodes becomes SHORTED, or any sort of continuity in both directions develops, there will be some problems in how the 2 cylinders run. Tomplum's suggestion of isolating the magnetos from their kill wires is a way to determine if there is a problem of 1 cylinder being dead. But to separate the mags from their kill wires properly, you must disconnect each wire from the magneto itself, and that means taking off the flywheel cover. If you remove the flywheel cover, put it back on before running the engine or you will overheat it because with the cover off, there is no air flow across the cylinders. You will also have to choke the engine to a stop if running with the kill wires removed. This post was edited by mownie on Wed, Apr 9, 14 at 13:21...See MoreBriggs and Stratton 24 hp ELS Engine
Comments (79)Hi all, I'm not mechanically inclined, so if you could give me some thoughts on what has happened I would appreciate it much. I have a Craftsman Pro Lawn Tractor, it has the B&S 24 hp ELS V-Twin with a 24" cut, that I just use here at home,(2 Acres) I've had it about 2 maybe 2.5 years and it is out of warranty. I was riding it from the garage to the yard (blades were not engaged yet) when a very loud pop happened and it died. After that, when I tried to restart it, the motor just turns but it will not start as if something in the engine broke..... I DO think this is MY fault (and I'm embarrassed to say this), but I think I was low on oil - could you give me a suggestion as to what may have broke, due to my ignorance, so I can at least have some idea of what to tell someone it may need when I try to find someone to give me an estimate to repair it? BTW, I live in a rural area and do not have any authorized B&S centers within approx. 80 miles of me (Sears store is about 58 mile away too). One last thing, I have always put new oil and filter, and air filter on it each year, and last year I put a new spark plug on it in addition to the other maintenance - I have tried to keep it running well, but this year I just made a MAJOR/stupid mistake that is gonna cost me......... Thanks for any suggestions guys (and ladies) :-)...See Morewalt2002
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