Has the engine been tuned up latley?   Good fuel, spark etc.  Also is 
the gas fresh?  I had one Briggs that would not even show any signs of 
life.  I drained the gas out put in new gas and it ran great.

Pull the spark plugs and check for a nice blue spark while cranking the 
engine over.

If you have good spark then check fuel.  Is the airfilter clean?

Recon

Mark E. Skeels wrote:

>Ok here's a mystery (to me...)
>
>I've got an old lawnmower with a Briggs and Stratton 2 cylinder 4 cycle 
>engine.
>
>The starter motor lacks sufficient torque to start the engine. It 
>sputtered and almost started one time, even so, but no success 
>subsequent to that hopeful event.
>
>I turned the flywheel by hand and it seems free enough.
>
>I measured the voltage drop and there's about 1.2v total drop in the 
>wiring between motor terminals and battery.
>
>I put a new starter solenoid in.
>
>I replaced the brush assembly in the starter motor.
>
>I removed the armature and looked at it; it looks sound and I cleaned 
>the armature contacts with contact cleaner.
>
>The magnets look OK to my untrained eye. They are not loose and they are 
>not cracked.
>
>I read on the internet that someone had a similar problem, did all this 
>stuff, and still had to replace the entire starter motor, which solved 
>his problem.
>
>I am about to drop $100.00 on a new starter motor.
>
>Can anybody shed any light on the failure mode? Does this even make 
>sense or am I missing something?
>
>Thanks,
>Mark
>  
>

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