Re: Briggs and Stratton won\'t start.
Chuck, The wiring for shutdown you described will work. The only problem is if this tiller had a safety shutdown system this will render it inoperative. Therefore while operating and it gets away from you it will continue to run. Also it will start even if the tines and or drive sytem is engaged. So you will have to be extra careful and aware when operating. Being an older unit it may not have these systems installed. As far as the linkage it would be very difficult to try to talk you through getting that hooked up properly. Keep in mind that the governor linkage has to be right in order to run properly. Trial and error could be risky do to the possibility that the engine speed could get away from you and cause major damage if linkage is not properly hooked up and adjusted. Other possibilities that may be causing this problem could also be related to the carberator and fuel pickup. Tillers in general do alot of sitting around not running so they are prone to stale gas gumming up the jets and needle valves in the carberator. If you have the model with the pulse-jet carb (mounts on top of fuel tank) it could be a dry/stiff diaphram causing you some problems, a clogged pickup tube screen, or all of the above. At this point I would highly recommend purchasing the factory single cylinder 4 cycle engine briggs manual, the one I have is pretty old but the part number is 270962-3/92. I think the last three numbers are the month and date of publish. Anyway, the manual is very clear and gives good illustrations for gov. linkage as well as clear instructions for going into the carb if needed. Another option is see if the local small engine dealer will let you copy some of the pages out of his manual. I know I used to do that for people who needed it.
But don't be suprised if they frown on that. Hey maybe even some time spent doing some searches may turn something up on the net. Have the engine numbers handy, they should be stamped on the shroud near the cyl head.