It's Alive!

[docrowan]

In the late full of 2008 I bought a 30 year old tiller off a guy for $60. It has a little Briggs and Stratton on it. Replaced the spark plug and cleaned it up a bit and it fired right up. I tilled up a garden last year and had good luck with it.

I let some good friends borrow it to till up their garden in late spring and had some problems with it when I got it back in the late summer. (I allowed for Murphy's Law and expected to have trouble with it so I wasn't upset.) I replaced the belt and was able to till up another patch with it, but late in the summer I was using it and it died on me. Ground was too hard anyway, so I shelved the project until this spring.

Last weekend I drained the gas and oil, tore the engine half way down and decided to put in a new carburetor diaphragm and magneto conversion kit. After my parts store had already closed I discovered the magneto they sold me was a direct replacement instead of the conversion kit. I decided to clean everything up, sand the flywheel, replace the diaphragm, and try it. A shot of ether and it crunk right up. (Crunk is proper mechanic grammar.) I just got it all put back together on the tiller and crunk it again and IT'S ALIVE!

Now I've got to get the parts place to take back their $40 magneto. Not sure how that's going to go over.

[cabinetman]

You're getting your money's worth out of it. Maybe don't loan it out anymore.
.

[RAFlorida]

Hey Chris, glad you got that ol' machine up

and going. Those B/S motors take a lot and give out their best. Hope you don't have any problems with the return on the magneto, they should honor the return.
Now, if you want to see if it'll do okay; after you tiller your garden and you're not sure it's working right, drive on down here and tiller my wife's garden and we'll share a few cold ones.

[tommyt654]

Sounds similiar to a Merry-tyne Tiller I bought a few yrs back and did all the exact same things you did, and she still runs today , but I can,t use it cause of the foot, but I kept her and last time I checked she still crunked up as well, Can,t beat those old B + S motors

[Uncle Cracker]

Now I've got to get the parts place to take back their $40 magneto. Not sure how that's going to go over.

Since the part was not what you asked for in the first place, I can't imagine they will have a problem with it...

[docrowan]

Update: they did take the magneto back. Also, they looked the correct part number for the solid state magneto, so when I need one (eventually) I can just tell them the part number. They didn't give me a bit of trouble. Love me some small-town, old-fashioned shops.

Y'all can tell I like working on B&S engines, so I don't have a bit of problem loaning out my tiller. If I ever do a restoration project on it, that may be a different story.