My 20Hp Briggs and Stratton Will not turn over please help.
Hi, I have a 20Hp Briggs and Startton (Engine# 461707 Model 0116-E1).

My mower refuses to start. Luckily in the past I was able to start it by jump starting it from my car. However it seems to not want to do anything now.

When I turn the key I hear a loud click in the engine and the flywheel will turn maybe 2 or 3 teeth and stop. It will do this on a brand new battery. Also a brand new battery is only lasting me one to three mows before it is dead.

I can turn the flywheel by hand but it is very stiff. I have replaced the solinoid. Im thinking its my starter. I removed the fly wheel and starter. Im going to try putting a jumper cable directly to the starter bolt to see if it spins. Anybody have any idea what may be the problem? Starter? Magneto? I have repalced, the battery wires, solenoid, put in new fuel lines and fuel pump. Cleaned the carb and replaced the filter. Replaced the oil. Im not sure what else to do.

Also I have looked at the starters online. On partstree.com it has two starters Parts number 497596 and 498148. Part 497596 has a 3-5/8" housing and the 498148 has a 4-3/8" housing. I don't know what that means. I measured the width of my current starter and the case is like 3-1/8" wide and 4" tall (The case alone). Does it make a difference on housing size? They both have 16 teeth and both say for 18hp engines. But mine is 20hp. Make a difference? Thanks for the help!

**Edit.

I jumped the starter, it spun fine. I re connected it along with the altinator, hooked up the battery and turned the key it spun like crazy. I put the fly wheel back on and the fly wheel made one complete turn and stopped. I removed the spark plugs and tried again. The fly wheel spun without any problem at all. Reinstalled the spark plugs. Try again, The fly wheel makes a complete turn and stops, like the battery doesn't have enough power or the starter doesn't have enough power to keep it going. Any ideas. Please!

The starter can still be bad... I had to replace the starter in my 20 hp craftsman last year... it was weak and had a hard time spinning the engine. Don't remember the part numbers for everything... but in my case it was the same one as an 18hp.

Have your battery load tested at a parts store and make sure its good. Those type batteries are typically crappy quality compared to car batteries in my experience. And none of them ever really like to be discharged deeply but less run dead.

All right I will try the new starter and see how that works. Yea these batterys suck I have bought my third battery and never get more then 3 uses out of even after disconencting the terminals after use. Thanks for the reply

Three uses means you may also have a charging system issue. You should get a minimum of one year... and two or three if you periodically charge it over the winder months. Or use a battery tender.

Update. I put in a new starter. The fly wheel spins like crazy. But that's all it's doing. It doesn't sound as if it's trying to start. The flywheel spins and spins and will not fire. Seems as if now it's not getting a spark. Please help!!

Update. I put in a new starter. The fly wheel spins like crazy. But that's all it's doing. It doesn't sound as if it's trying to start. The flywheel spins and spins and will not fire. Seems as if now it's not getting a spark. Please help!!!!
OK, first things first... right after spinning over a few tries. Pull a plug, Is it wet with fuel? Also position it so it touches the engine where there is bare metal. Momentarily crank it and make sure if its getting a spark or not.

No room for guessing here. Make sure in each of those two cases. Tell us what you see and we can go from there.

Thanks smoothy. Yes the spark plugs are wet. I'll take them out and position them by the fly wheel or something. I'll let you know. Thanks. Also think the magneto on the flywheel gone bad?

That would be strange if it did in conjunction with a starter problem. I'm going to assume its something else more simple first.

You did spin the engine over with the new starter the normal way... with the switch? Not with jumper cables.

Yea I had to jumpstart the battery due to it basically being a heavy paperweight. Batteries won't hold a charge.

If you jumped to the battery posts, and used the key to crank it then it wouldn't matter. I was trying to make sure you wasn't bypassing the ignition switch somehow. I want to make sure the ignition isn't being killed via the switch or a short. I think that's more likely than any other fault on the ignition. Magneto ignitions are generally stopped by grounding out the magneto.

I'm working from memory right now... I actually have a service manual for these engines at home. I have a craftsman tractor with a 20 hp Briggs engine in it, that has wiped out a starter, solenoid AND a second starter bendix (at the third startup this season, damn plastic gears) in the last year.

Ok, I tested the spark plug I got a spark on both plugs. So that is working. While over looking everything I noticed a black wire that was severed that ran to the magneto and to the starter wire bundle. Not sure what it is but I reconnected the wire with electrical tape. However still getting the same thing. The flywheel just spins really fast and nothing happens. It won't crank at all. I can smell fuel in the air after I spin the wheel for quite a while.

Any other ideas? Clogged Carb? I have no idea what else it can be. Driving me nuts. About to push damn thing into a river.