Briggs Vanguard problems

[jpswift1]

I was just curious if anyone could help me out with this problem that I began having with my 570cc Briggs 18HP Vanguard. The day before I took my MaxII to Canal Fest for a swim in the water, I took the flywheel off to install a new starter gear. After Canal Fest my Max seems to be running like its only running on one cylinder. It revs up slow and it doesnt have the top end power. Does anyone have any ideas what might be the issue? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Beeman]

Check spark first.. both cyclinders

[micmac]

Jeff,

I'm in the process of modifying my briggs vanguard I don't know if it applies to your engine but here goes:

The flywheel is right under the Magnetron ignition modules for each spark plug. On each module there are 2 leads. one is the spark plug (obviously) and there is another small wire that goes to a common ground with the other module, referred to as the common kill terminal. Each of these wires has a diode the purpose of these is to prevent crossfire of the engine. I would check these wires for: both are grounded together, not damaged or the diode could be bad on one. There was some protective casing on mine that was damaged so I cleaned it up and used new shrink wrap. I also was thinking that the aft one could be damaged by the flywheel if not careful.
Also the Briggs book says the whole wire and diode must be replaced if determined to be bad.

I hope this helps

Mike

[jpswift1]

Thanks so much Mike, I think that might be the problem. I will check it out this weekend.