jgun45879 156 #1 Posted March 9, 2013 I just brought home a 1972 JD 110. It has the K-181 Kohler engine. Has been stored and not run in several years. I opened the hood and was checking things out and noticed theres no coil. The plug wire comes out from behind the flywheel shroud? Not familiar with this. Is it some kind of transistor ignition? Anyone shed some light on this. Thanks, Jim. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Wheel-N-It 2,967 #2 Posted March 9, 2013 Maybe its been converted over to electronics, or the engine was replaced with a magnum??? Have you got spark at the plug? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jgun45879 156 #3 Posted March 9, 2013 Hi, No, Its not a Magnum, its a K series Kohler and appears to be original. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Wheel-N-It 2,967 #4 Posted March 9, 2013 I'd like to see a pic of that ! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Don1977 604 #5 Posted March 9, 2013 My guess is "Magneto" ignition. The "Breakerless" still has the plug wire coming out of a coil, It is just a different shape. Not round like a "Battery" ignition. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jgun45879 156 #6 Posted March 9, 2013 It has a working set of points and a condenser. Plug wire is hooked to spark plug and then runs behind bearing plate and flywheel shroud? Cleaning things up right now and have not tried to see if it has spark yet. The no coil ignition has me wondering how this works. Hoping someone here was familiar with this set up. Thanks. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
diesel cowboy 263 #7 Posted March 9, 2013 Its a magneto ignition simmilar to the newer magnum engines but uses the points and condenser to tell it when to fire the plug instead of being a self contained unit. I have one on a B-60 and one on a Panzer. All of the old pull start engines were set up like that and some of the tractor manufacturers specd the engines like that. The bonus is that if the battery is dead, on some engines you can wrap a rope around the pulley on the flywheel and start them that way. Hope this helps. Stewart Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jgun45879 156 #8 Posted March 10, 2013 Well, that makes some sense. Have made a little progress with it. It now starts right up but will only run at half throttle or less. If you juice it up with throttle it starts to cut out really bad, spitting and sputtering untill you back off the throttle. I've cleaned the points and changed out a known good plug and condenser. Still does the same thing. I'm pretty certain its an ignition problem. So, I'm guessing I'm down to a bad "coil" behind the shroud?? Thanks for any and all help. Jim. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jgun45879 156 #9 Posted March 10, 2013 Would the coil or ignition modual be under the flywheel or on the outside of the flywheel like a Magnum engine? Where would be the best place to find one to try? Thanks again, Jim. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
diesel cowboy 263 #10 Posted March 10, 2013 The coil is under the flywheel. I think the last time I looked for a new one it was discontinued from Kohler. If you can find a pull start Kohler it should be the same part for the 6, 7, and 8 hp engines. From what your describing on the way the engine runs it almost sounds like the carb. needs some attention or it has a valve thats sticking. You said its been sitting for a few years so its possible that the part of the carb that works at high speed is gummed up or partialy blocked. I've run into both occasionaly on some of the older Kohler's that come into work. They'll run great at idle but if you try to run them up to full speed they choke out or sputter and blow gas out the carb. Stewart Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jgun45879 156 #11 Posted March 10, 2013 I'm pretty sure its not the carb. I've had that apart and cleaned. How can I verify a valve sticking? I'm assuming it would be the intake valve? It does not smoke really at all except maybe a little black fuel smoke when I try to run it at full throttle.. Is there any way to determine that the coil is not the problem? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
diesel cowboy 263 #12 Posted March 12, 2013 I'm not sure how you would check the valves other than pulling them out to look at them. It might be the intake sticking. You could pull the carb and spray some sort of penetrating oil on the valve stem and spin the engine over a few times to coat it and try it again to see how it acts. As for checking the coil try putting a spark tester on it and run it and see how the spark acts when it starts to sputter. If it has a nice bright spark everything there should be good. If its an occasional bright spark and mostly dim ones and then goes to almost nothing or very tiny when it acts up then its somewhere it the coil, points or condenser. if it is I'd start with brand new points and condender. If its not that then I'd look at the carb again. Theres a bunch of little holes in the high speed screw that need to be open and if you look into the throat of the carb from the throttle side there is 3 little holes in the side of the body. All of them need to be clean for it to work right. I use a piece of tag wire to run through the holes to make sure there open. I've lost count of the times that I rebuilt a carb and missed one and it still ran bad. Stewart Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jgun45879 156 #13 Posted March 13, 2013 Thank You Sir. You have been very helpful. I believe you hit the nail on the head about it being a valve hanging up. I think thats what i've traced it down to. I pulled the head and sprayed PB Blaster around each valve stem and left it set overnite. Put things back together and it ran pretty good for 20 mins or so. Thought I had it licked but when it got good and warm it starts haging up again off and on. But at least I think I know what I'm dealing with now. I will pull the valves out and have a look next. Thanks again for all your help. Jim. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
