Snow Blower--Again

   Oh no, not again, thought I.   I thought I had the snow blower working a year ago. (http://50farm.blogspot.com/2018/02/snow-blower.html)  It ran last spring when I moved it to the back yard.  When I tried to start it this winter, when the weather forecasters all predicted a coming storm, nary a snort would it utter no matter how many times I pulled the starter rope.

     I shoveled a lot of snow this winter.  During sunny times, I pulled the cowling off the flywheel, removed the flywheel, checked the points, everything I could think of.  I lost count of how many times I disassembled, reassembled, and tugged fruitlessly on that starter rope.

     Finally one fine day, I went to the local small engine dealer and got a new coil, points and condenser. I got a new flywheel key, too.  Sometimes a jimmied key can set the flywheel off enough to interfere with the timing.

     There were trials and tribulations, but eventually I got everything right, the correct gap on the points, the correct gap between the coil arms and the flywheel, the flywheel key in correctly (that key isn’t square, I found after several unsuccessful tries one sunny day).  Filled with hope and confidence, I pulled the starter rope.  And again and again, I pulled.  Nothing.

      I tried priming the cylinder by removing the spark plug and dropping  a couple of drops of gas into the cylinder..  I tried a little starting fluid sprayed directly into the carburetor.  Nothing worked.

      Then the thought came, I have fixed the wrong problem.  But how could I be wrong?  It obviously had fuel.  It had to be spark.  During those short days, I didn’t have much time to work on it.  When it go too cold, I picked up my tools, put things away and retreated to the heated space.

     I never quit thinking about the problem.  How could that system work when everything is grounded except the coil and the core of the spark plug?  The condenser is grounded, even the business nipple because it is tied to the grounded part of the coil.  The points remain open except for a quick dip as the piston rises.

      I brought the old coil and condenser into the warmth and went after it with my ohmmeter.  That was the way it worked.

      A new idea entered my head.  Maybe I needed a few more rpms than I could get with the pull rope.  I made a farm trip one cool day.  One of the things I brought back from the farm was an electric motor out of a washing machine.  I threw in a short v-belt, too.

      On another warmish day, I pulled the shield off the drive end of the Briggs & Stratton to find two v-belts, one driving the blower part of the machine, the other providing the ground drive.  It didn’t take much to get one of the belts off, my short belt on the engine shaft, the other end on the electric motor pulley.  It should work.

     But first, I had to wire a pig tail into the electric motor.  I used a couple of alligator clips to hold bare wires to the contact points on the engine.  When I plugged it in, I couldn’t hold the motor still.  When it jumped with the torque, the clips made contact with each other.

      There were sparks.  And a kicked breaker.  At first, I thought it was the ground-fault interrupter that had kicked.  After a few minutes of terminal work, I had correct clips on the pig tail and the clips attached to the spades in the engine.

      I thought I reset the GFI buttons, but when I plugged it in, nothing.  It took quite a while to trace the correct breaker.  I found it, finally, in the breaker box in the basement laundry room.  I reset the breaker, then the GFI outlet.  This time, when I plugged it in, the motor took off.

      Soon I had an extension cord strung out, the electric motor resting on the snow blower housing, the belt on both the electric and the gas motor pulleys.  It took a few tries, but with good timing, I managed to get the electric motor to spin the gas motor a few revolutions. 

     I had to get enough tension on the belt by pulling the electric motor into the belt.  The electric motor didn’t particularly care for this activity.  It would stop until I let off some of the tension, but eventually I got everything going.  The electric motor had the Briggs & Stratton turning quite a few rpms.  Nothing.  Not a pop, not a snort, or cough.  Nothing.

       It was dark this time when I put everything away, both externally and internally.  I must have fixed the wrong problem, but what could be the real problem?

      Eventually, I turned to the internet.  I had been there before with not much success.  I stumbled upon a guy who had essentially the same problem I did—all new parts, all carefully installed.  I followed the year-old conversation.  The expert said if he had everything in there, it either had to be a faulty coil or condenser or spark plug wire.  The victim insisted that he had checked everything with his ohmmeter.  They were all good.

      The expert came back with, maybe you installed the coil upside down.  The next response, the victim was ecstatic.  Yes, you are a genius!  I removed the coil, turned it over, remounted, regapped, and voila! The thing started on the first pull.

     Well, on the snow blower, it couldn’t be upside down, because the coil is mounted vertically.  But it could be inside out.  I had nothing to lose.  I pulled the coil off to see if it would fit going on the other way.     

      Yes it would.  What do you know?  Could this be it?  I reinstalled and regapped the coil.  With everything in place, I jerked the starting rope.  It didn’t start, but there was more than a nothing.  It kicked back and tried to rotate backwards.

      I checked the throttle, pulled out the choke, and gave the rope another pull.  Vroom!  It was running!  Yay, I did it, folksies!

     It’s March.  There could be another snowstorm bad enough to require a snow blower.  I think I might have jinxed that, maybe.  I didn’t pull the machine around to the front.  If we do get another heavy snow, even then will be some scooping.  I will have to dig out the back gate to get it open enough to get the snow blower through.

      Now I have second thoughts about my second thoughts. The original problem must have been a faulty coil, because the old coil wasn’t on there wrong-side-out and it wasn't working.

     I didn’t fix the wrong problem.  I fixed the problem wrong.