# Ariens (922008) 5hp Tecumseh no spark??



## GAR (Nov 7, 2014)

Need help with this one. Ariens (922008) 5hp Tecumseh engine with no spark. Just picked this up yesterday. I am not a small engine wiz but I know enough to tinker around in the garage. This one has me stumped, no spark. First thing I do is get a new spark plug and gage it .30 and plug it into the coil boot and give the engine a couple of pulls with sparkplug on metel and see no spark. I then Check to see if there is a cut off wire on carb, there is one white wire running to carb as a cut off but it's off when you throttle up so that's not it, then I pull flywheel and see this, looks like new point were installed and some weird wiring I have no idea wear it should go to. The white wire gose to carb as a shut off and the Red?? Was just shoved in there connected to nothing. The key shut of was not on this blower when I got it so I assume this red wire was on that?. Anyway I checked the coil wire for cracks and there were none, I cleaned all dirt, dust and rust off inside of flywheel and what I am guessing is the magneto and points with sandpaper and electronic spray and put it all back together.....Still no spark, but now feel a shock or spark in my hand wile holding the sparkplug boot wile tuning over the engine. So then just to be sure I tried the old sparkplug still not spark just a shock in my hand wile holding the sparkplug boot wile Turing over the engine. I am stumped, someone els put new points in it and did something wrong and now I am trying to figure it out. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I tried to explain the full problem, the picture I posted is from before I cleaned it up. Someone obviously worked on this before me and did not install something correctly. I read that if the flywheel is not put back on correctly that the timing of the engine will be off and you will not get a spark...is this true and if so how to I correct the timing.


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## Ray 1962 10ML60 (Oct 14, 2011)

I would say to pull that red wire out of there entirely. Make sure the point gap is set correctly and they are opening and closing as you spin the crank by hand (pull the plug when you're doing this, makes it easier). Open of the the trottle and try again. The old points can be a pain sometimes, you can solve it all real quick with one of those nova II ignitions for $12. Takes the old points and condenser out of the picture completely. I'm going to change over to it once I tear my old blower apart again someday. 
http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=191418314178
And you can't really put the flywheel on wrong because there is a keyway on the crank and corresponding spot on the flywheel. You're not missing the key there are you? I don't see it in you're pic.


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## Grunt (Nov 11, 2013)

Hello Gar. Maybe I'm not seeing the whole picture. There should be two wires coming off of the coil. One should go to the insulated point terminal and the other to ground. It looks like the lighter colored black wire is going from the ground screw to the points and will definitely short them out. Is one coil wire broken off? Maybe that RED wire is a splice to the coil wire I'm not seeing?


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## GAR (Nov 7, 2014)

Thanks for the info guys, I am going to pull flywheel off again and take a look at wear the two black wires are connected to. I will remove the red wire that gose nowhere and try for spark again. I will take better pictures this time when I pull off flywheel. Thanks again.


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## Grunt (Nov 11, 2013)

This will give you an idea about the two coil wires I am not seeing. I think the shock you feel in the handles is caused by that light black wire going to ground.





 
Don't forget to torque the flywheel nut to 46 ft\lbs when reinstalling it or it may shear upon starting.


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## GAR (Nov 7, 2014)

Ok, I took flywheel off and the red wire that went nowhere. It looks like a stereo speaker wire, defiantly a past home repair job gone wrong...LOL. Anyway I took two pictures of wires and points. Both black wires are connected at one place together and then run to the coils?? What should I do from this point, I will try taking one of the black wires off. The lighter black one and grounding it, then try for spark. Am I getting close or am I a moron...


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## Grunt (Nov 11, 2013)

It LOOKS ok from what I CAN see. The short wire from the coil should go under the ground screw, the long coil wire should go to the insulated points block along with the condenser wire and the white carb kill wire. It looks good from here.  Before you close everything up, take a clean business card with a little alcohol or brake cleaner on it and rub it between the closed points to remove any dirt or oil on them.

If you still don't have spark after putting it back together, try removing the WHITE wire from the throttle plate and check again for spark. That white wire may be shorting to ground from a bad insulator on that plate. OH, make sure the throttle is not in the stop position, that would also kill the spark.


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## GAR (Nov 7, 2014)

Thank you so much for that video and your advice. I now have spark and hit the carb with some starting fluid and it started right up!! I can rebuild a carb in my sleep but I have never worked on points and a magneto before. I am going to clean this machine up and use it this winter.


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## Grunt (Nov 11, 2013)

Your welcome. Congratulations GAR. Success is a wonderful thing. What did you find as the final solution? The red wire, white wire or the coil wires were wrong?


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## GAR (Nov 7, 2014)

Well I pulled the magneto and coil and followed that video and yes, the wires were wrong, points had grease on them and I still have no idea what that red wire was for but I removed it. The white wire was the engine cut off going to the throttle on the carb.


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## Ray 1962 10ML60 (Oct 14, 2011)

Yahoo! Good job Gar!


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## Grunt (Nov 11, 2013)

After looking closer at your pictures, the red wire ran up the handle bars to the ignition switch???
Anyway---Great job.


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## GAR (Nov 7, 2014)

I will post pictures when I get done with cleaning it up and putting it back together. It still needs full degreasing clean up, carb rebuilt, new fuel line, belts are in there but there very stiff so new belts and a few tweaks hear and there. This was a true barn find. I have restored several Craftsman snowblowers and all of them had a good amout of rust on them, the two Ariens I picked up last weekend are both over 30 years old and have very little rust.


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