Hi Deejay and Grumpy many thanks for your welcome and replies, feel at home already.
The kill switch on my model is the metal pivot to the spark plug and as far as I can tell does not cause a problem. There doesn't seem to be any oil around the points so I'm assuming the plunger is ok and as far as I can tell the wiring is in good order.
I spoke to my local mower man and he had a set of points for my model so I bought them ($23) which is about right I think. In my haste to get back and try them out I decided to just fit the new condenser side of the points just to see if I could get any sign of a spark (lazy I know). I then reassembled it but still no spark.
As far as I can tell, the points contact is good and they make and break, the wiring is ok but I can't really be definite, the flywheel and magnet are good and I assembled the coil to it using the business card gap system and things rotate well, so I'm guessing the coil?
When I was getting the points from the mower man he said he uses the Magnatron which doesn't require points and I see you mention it Grumpy. He said they were expensive but he has a second hand one, and although I nodded I didn't really understand, I just wanted to go and try me points!
Is it likely that a coil would fail just by sitting for a long time? (Ha, I can't believe I've just written that question. Sorry Grumpy.)
I've managed to find the model numbers on the cowling, are you able to identify this one?
Thanks again guys, regards, Finbar.
B&S model 9250
Type 1029-01
Code 79111325

SB 45 11235 [Linked Image]