OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Engines Questions On Briggs & Stratton Engines Briggs Quantam

A mate brought over a Rover with a Quantam on it that he had picked up somewhere. Had been sitting somewhere for a long time. I checked it for spark, nothing, pulled the coil cleaned it and the magnets up, still no spark. I took 2 coils from my drawer and tried both those and still not a hint of a spark. I have never had this happen ever before in my life so I am a little confused as to what is going on. I can't believe I had 3 dead coils. I didn't bother testing the coils with my meter and my mate decided he would look for another motor on a mower with a wrecked body Pretty easy for him as he is a Postie and he spots all sorts of good stuff on his rounds. He just has to hope it is still there when he finishes his rounds.

A guy spots mowers for me from time to time and texts me their location. He helped me score an alloy base Victa with a Quantum that has a snorkel. Never seen one. I've yet to test it as the starter has no rope.

Hi Norm and Mf

I've had failed coils a lot on the Quantam motors and
a few times swapped over 3 coils before getting spark.

One Quantam motor I took a coil off had thrown a conrod
after fitting the coil to another motor it still had no spark,
I don't understand how a motor can break a conrod but have no spark.The coil just happened to fail while the motor threw the rod.

Cheers
Max.

It happens Norm. I'm assuming you tested them with the kill wire disconnected incase it's shorting out somewhere.
I had one where the flywheel was the culprit, but that's a longshot but worth trying if you have one more "dead" coil.

Cheers, Ted

Thanks MF, Max and BT,
What I found strange was that one of the coils had a tick on it and I do that to a coil if it was on a motor that had spark before I pulled it off.
Yes BT, kill wire disconnected. The flywheel was an option I was thinking of, magnets were good, but it was the only other thing I could think of. The state of the motor didn't look too flash so I just said to him much simpler to just find another motor for it. He was going home to take the motor off.

It's funny, lately I've only been finding Quantums rather than any traditional Briggs with the carb on top of the tank. Three this year so far.

I have heard of power wire brushing will de magnetize the magnets or change their polarity. I even a had couple coils to fail over the years that work one day, lightning storm comes through and the next day they don't work.

Really the flywheel magnets needs only a light cleaning as magnetism is not affected by rust, just creates a clearance issue.

It's good to know this AVB a out saves needless pedantry when sanding them clean. Just make them reasonably smooth and you're set!

Seeing you brought this back up MF, just a bit of an update on this motor. My postie mate took it home and somewhere picked up another Quantam coil and he got it running very well. I will have to test the coils I have here, because I usually test all the coils before I pull them off a motor to make sure they have spark