Tecumseh engine question

[POC]

Someone gave me an old DR Trimmer/Mower today. It has a Tecumseh TVS90 engine. It won't start. I checked and it has no spark. I unhooked the kill switch from the coil and then it had a little bit of spark, just a little orange spark, not a nice big blue one that pops. So, is the coil the probable problem? I'm not a great small engine mechanic.

Thanks,
Patrick

 

[tomplum]

Assuming that this isn't old enough to have points, the coil itself has 1 small terminal on a solid state ignition. If you removed that wire from the coil terminal and your spark is very weak, you could replace the spark plug, clean up the spark plug terminal and set the air gap to the flywheel at a .010" Likely if it has spark though, it should have enough to run. If not, a coil could be funky. Most times it is carb related. Spray a burst of carb cleaner into the cylinder and try and crank it up. If it tries to run, likely carburetion. These blow out head gaskets too from time to time and the compression isn't there to fire it up.

 

[Spanner]

Do the easy stuff first - Obtain a new spark plug of reputable brand. NGK or Champion. Then check your spark (in a shaded space, not sunlight.) and report back.

:wrench:

 

[tomplum]

A new plug and a burst of carb spray tells you 1) you have enough spark 2) you have enough compression 3) timing is close. I don't know how much easier you want. Determining if a spark not under compression is "good" or not is a krap shoot at best.

 

[Ron of Va]

I will confess that I hate Tecumseh engines. But that is another story.

This guy on YouTube "Donyboy73" works on a lot of Tecumseh engines and has a lot of videos of dealing with their problems.

He is in Canada and they use a lot of Tecumseh engines on their snow blowers. His videos are excellent and easy to follow. Click on his playlists and you may find something you can use. He has videos on all kind of small engines.

donyboy73
- YouTube

 

[POC]

Well, I bought a new plug, sprayed some carb cleaner in, changed the oil and gave it some starting fluid and it eventually started. But it smoked, a lot. Oil was dripping from under the pull cover onto the muffler. I thought I'd over filled the oil maybe. After a little while the rod broke and punched a hole in the side of the case.
So, any good places online to buy small engines?

 

[Spanner]

The damage may have been already done before you got it.

Anyway, I asked you to check spark and report back - You didn't. My next direction was to be to check the existing oil and colour etc. Nice to know what you're starting from. But too bad...

:wrench:

 

[POC]

The old oil was black.

 

[tomplum]

How about one of those Predator Horrible Freight engines? I think they make verticals. People have good results with them.

 

[POC]

I saw those. I talked to my dad tonight, he said he had an almost new motor off a pressure washer I can try. Just hope the shaft is long enough.