jimg.allentown
Well-known Member
Looking for some help on an old Craftsman generator with a Tecumseh 7 hp engine on it. Engine model is 143.666072 which translates to H70-130202C in tecumseh language.
Problem is no spark. Found a mouse nest in the blower housing that had locked up the engine. Disassembly revealed a mess. Pulled the blower housing and evicted the mouse/mice and their nest. Replaced the housing, and tried to start. No spark. Re-removed the blower housing and pulled the flywheel. Found an even bigger mess. Looks like this engine had been outdoors in a damp environment. Flywheel magnets - one was loose and just held by magnetism in place, and the other one came off soon after. Fortunately, there were imprints on the inside of the flywheel that gave the (hopefully) proper locations for the magnets. Next, I found that the points were quite corroded. I then replaced the points and condenser. Set the points gap to .020". I cleaned up the flywheel, and applied JB Weld to the magnets, and re-bonded them to the inside of the flywheel. So far, everything looked proper and functional. Spinning the flywheel by hand with the spark plug removed gave me a bit of a tingle from the spark plug wire. BUT....no joy. Simply not enough spark to fire the plug.
At this point, I suspect a bad coil - possibly internally shorted? Possibly the flywheel magnets are improperly located or simply have deteriorated too much to be effective.
Next problem - parts availability..... checked with parts tree, and they do not show a breakdown of the complete magneto, and the mag is not available as an assembly. I see elsewhere a listing for a replacement solid state module part number 34443D. The illustrations seem to indicate that the spark plug wire will not reach the spark plug, as it seems much shorter.
Would it be time to start looking in the junkyard? Any suggestions? Any point in the right direction would be appreciated.
Problem is no spark. Found a mouse nest in the blower housing that had locked up the engine. Disassembly revealed a mess. Pulled the blower housing and evicted the mouse/mice and their nest. Replaced the housing, and tried to start. No spark. Re-removed the blower housing and pulled the flywheel. Found an even bigger mess. Looks like this engine had been outdoors in a damp environment. Flywheel magnets - one was loose and just held by magnetism in place, and the other one came off soon after. Fortunately, there were imprints on the inside of the flywheel that gave the (hopefully) proper locations for the magnets. Next, I found that the points were quite corroded. I then replaced the points and condenser. Set the points gap to .020". I cleaned up the flywheel, and applied JB Weld to the magnets, and re-bonded them to the inside of the flywheel. So far, everything looked proper and functional. Spinning the flywheel by hand with the spark plug removed gave me a bit of a tingle from the spark plug wire. BUT....no joy. Simply not enough spark to fire the plug.
At this point, I suspect a bad coil - possibly internally shorted? Possibly the flywheel magnets are improperly located or simply have deteriorated too much to be effective.
Next problem - parts availability..... checked with parts tree, and they do not show a breakdown of the complete magneto, and the mag is not available as an assembly. I see elsewhere a listing for a replacement solid state module part number 34443D. The illustrations seem to indicate that the spark plug wire will not reach the spark plug, as it seems much shorter.
Would it be time to start looking in the junkyard? Any suggestions? Any point in the right direction would be appreciated.
