Magnum 18: still no spark

[Mudrig150 298]

3 coils later, I still have no spark. Original coil, which had weak spark before, now has none. My known good replacement coil acts like it's dead now, too. I bought a 129$ Kohler OEM replacement coil and still no spark.

The kill wire isn't connected.

Both plugs are in, with their wires connected.

Coil magnet is gapped to .014", per spec.

Spark plugs are correct and gapped to .035, per spec.

 

I did notice after shining the flywheel magnet that its almost totally split and has a chunk taken out of it (which can be seen at the top of the picture). I checked out the original coil, and the edge is dented and folded over, so it seems like the coil was set crooked and the flywheel magnet hit the coil.

 

Does this mean I'm screwed? This flywheel was way over-torqued and bent my puller trying to get it off, so it's on there wayyy too tight, the bolt is on there with over 100 ft/lbs of torque, which warped the bolt head.

[ZXT 2,394]

1 hour ago, Mudrig150 said:

Coil magnet is gapped to .014", per spec.

Spark plugs are correct and gapped to .035, per spec.

 

I'm not sure if you have it mounted permanently in this picture, but that's WAY bigger than a .014 gap. 

[Mudrig150 298]

Just now, ZXT said:

I'm not sure if you have it mounted permanently in this picture, but that's WAY bigger than a .014 gap. 

That's because the magnet is at the 10 o'clock position on the flywheel. When it is in the proper spot it is a .014" gap.

[Mudrig150 298]

Sanded and polished the magnet, set to .008" and still nothing. Busted a pry bar in half trying to pop the flywheel loose. I'm done with this engine. 

[BESTDOGEVER 218]

Does the magnet pull the module to it if its loose? If so that's good but if the flywheel is over torqued that could be a problem also try it with the module spaced at. 010 the closer gap may help with the spark. Good luck 

[Mudrig150 298]

ARGH!!! The puller broke AGAIN! Bent it back, added a brace, and put it back in with all 4 flywheel bolts, gave it a whack with a big hammer, and the threaded part of the puller broke in half. 

They must put this damn flywheel on with a hydraulic press!!!!!!!

[BESTDOGEVER 218]

Can you see if the keyway is lined up on the shaft and flywheel. I don't know how it could be tightened down that hard without breaking the bolt 

[Mudrig150 298]

I know it's lined up. This flywheel is an anomaly. The other flywheel on my rusted engine popped off with a screwdriver, this one has broken a puller and a pry bar.

[Mudrig150 298]

I still don't understand how it had spark before we picked it up and now nothing???

 

I got it with a fuel issue, it ran when you dumped gas down the carb, and had a bad fuel pump.

We got the snapper home, tested spark after unloading it from the trailer. Good spark.

Key switch put 12 volts to the ground wire. Weak spark. Unplugged the coil kill wire.

Pulled the engine to fix the starter. No spark.

Pulled engine out entirely, and had it sitting on the floor. Weak spark.

Swapped it for my known good coil. Good coil completely lost spark even on another engine.

Put engine on table, swapped for BRAND NEW COIL, new coil has no spark. Can't test on other engine because I don't have the other engine.

It's set to .010, has no kill wire connected, and only goes on one way.

WHAT MORE COULD THIS ENGINE WANT????

[BESTDOGEVER 218]

 Check and double check that you are not somehow getting 12 volts to the module that will fry the module in a second . I know because I have done it to  a Briggs and one of my m18s well on the Kohler a bad ignition switch did it.

[wildman 205]

If engine is out add some penetrating oil 

[Jayzauto 89]

Where do you stand with the Flywheel??  Original post showed Cracks?...Bends??,,,   Then a few broken pullers trying to remove the Flywheel....Broken Magnets will Definitely affect spark.... If there truly is a cracked Magnet, it will confuse timing as well as Spark strength.    You stated you had a spare flywheel that was Good??

 

 

GLuck, Jay

[Mudrig150 298]

15 hours ago, Jayzauto said:

Where do you stand with the Flywheel??  Original post showed Cracks?...Bends??,,,   Then a few broken pullers trying to remove the Flywheel....Broken Magnets will Definitely affect spark.... If there truly is a cracked Magnet, it will confuse timing as well as Spark strength.    You stated you had a spare flywheel that was Good??

 

 

GLuck, Jay

It's not a full crack. It's a crack that leads into a scratch. It's something with the grounding. I believe the coil C-bracket needs to be grounded to get spark, so I'll try adding a ground wire off the bracket to the block and seeing if I have spark then. Someone pointed out that his flywheel had a quarter of the magnet missing and still had spark, and a heavy fridge magnet was enough to get it to spark, so I can only see grounding as the issue.

[Jayzauto 89]

How about Magnet Strength??   The only real test I've seen any manufacture use, is   'Will it pull a screwdriver into the magnet from 3/4" away' ,,,  sounds like a hokey test, but it seems to be accurate.  I've had broken/cracked magnet's that didn't have the strength to pull a screwdriver, so to be fair, it did fail the test.

 

Can't say I've ever ran into a coil frame that was improperly grounded, but can't hurt I suppose......

 

Have you tried the Ohms test on Primary & Secondary coils that now Don't have spark??

 

 

GLuck, Jay   

[Mudrig150 298]

2 minutes ago, Jayzauto said:

How about Magnet Strength??   The only real test I've seen any manufacture use, is   'Will it pull a screwdriver into the magnet from 3/4" away' ,,,  sounds like a hokey test, but it seems to be accurate.  I've had broken/cracked magnet's that didn't have the strength to pull a screwdriver, so to be fair, it did fail the test.

 

Can't say I've ever ran into a coil frame that was improperly grounded, but can't hurt I suppose......

 

Have you tried the Ohms test on Primary & Secondary coils that now Don't have spark??

 

 

GLuck, Jay   

Tried. Somehow the used replacement coil killed all 3 of our multimeters. With them set to continuity mode, you touch the leads directly together and nothing happens. No idea how that happened. 

Edited February 3, 2020 by Mudrig150

[Jayzauto 89]

Hmmmmmm, Even Stranger......  Did you short M/M Leads together while set on low Scale Ohms???   What does the display read??

 

 

GLuck, Jay

[Mudrig150 298]

Anything I set them to, they just read OC, Open circuit.

I think the innards off all 3 multimeters are fried.

[Jayzauto 89]

Are the leads any good???   Try swapping leads around??   I find it hard to believe a Non-Powered Circuit ate up a M/M....   But in any event, Start with a known good meter for testing, before going crazy.   Too many unknowns at this point.    It would be a shame to go thru all that work for a couple of bad M/M Leads.

 

 

GLuck, Jay

[Mudrig150 298]

Multi meter works now, one had a bad negative lead and the other a bad positive lead. Swapped them and got 28,000 OHMs resistance on the coil.

[Jayzauto 89]

WOW.....THAT's a boat load of unwanted load..... Well since you have a variety of leads, try ohms testing ALL of them.....Possible one of your leads has the high resistance.  Coils should have under 5 ohms on the primary.  You can never measure that with a bad lead.  Get the meter squared away before anymore parts replacement.  Obtain a quality meter if possible, with good leads.  I use Fluke, which I was able to buy with money I saved from Not buying extra parts.  Then recheck the coils.  

 

Any luck getting your flywheel off??   Are you using a Quality puller??  Many of the Chain Auto Parts stores will Rent/Loan Tools.....  I think you may be better off with the other Flywheel IF it is the same.

 

 

GLuck, Jay

[Mudrig150 298]

2 hours ago, Jayzauto said:

WOW.....THAT's a boat load of unwanted load..... Well since you have a variety of leads, try ohms testing ALL of them.....Possible one of your leads has the high resistance.  Coils should have under 5 ohms on the primary.  You can never measure that with a bad lead.  Get the meter squared away before anymore parts replacement.  Obtain a quality meter if possible, with good leads.  I use Fluke, which I was able to buy with money I saved from Not buying extra parts.  Then recheck the coils.  

 

Any luck getting your flywheel off??   Are you using a Quality puller??  Many of the Chain Auto Parts stores will Rent/Loan Tools.....  I think you may be better off with the other Flywheel IF it is the same.

 

 

GLuck, Jay

Secondary resistance. The stock spec is 22 to 42 thousand.

And no, the flywheel still won't come off. I had to pay 75$ to return a broken rental puller. Great. 

The leads have .1 OHMs resistance, right in the good spec. The broken negative lead on the old I used lost continuity from an internally broken wire, which was made apparent when the lead started having a much less stiff part.

[Jayzauto 89]

What did you get for a Primary Reading??

 

 

GLuck, Jay

[Rob R 951]

I pretty sure after reading this you have a couple of issues that is causing you to pull out you hair, you need to attack one at a time until you get to the solution. I had one that was similar with not cracking issue or flywheel issue and the main problem was the ignition coil mounting to the engine block had intermittent ground, suggest you eliminate this first and see if you spark improves w/o doing anything else then move on from there.