Lawn Boy 10696 self propelled lawn mower no spark

[jwales]

This mower has a Honda engine. It also has electric start. Took this off some ones hands...."would not run smoothly". I drained tank replaced fuel line and cleaned carb. Unit fired up great and I mowed my lawn with it. Liked the way it ran and handled, and since it was newer than my current one I decided, "I am going to keep it" Went to mow last week and it would not start. Tried a shot of starting fluid. Still no go. Hmmmm. Checked the plug which was wet and attached my spark tester to the plug cap and no spark. I have disconnected the small wire from the coil and pulled the coil. I am guessing its bad. But trying to figure out how to determine this with my multi meter (new toy)???? There are two metal contacts on each side of the coil and one in between them that face the flywheel when installed. If I have my meter set on OHMs I am testing continuity. Should I have zero reading with any combination (left side/middle, left side/right side, etc.) of contact between these metal contacts? How about the spark plug boot? Any other test I can/should do to determine whether coil is bad...or something else?

Thanks

[NO0C]

I have the litter mate 2007 10795. Ran fine when I put it away for the winter. Would not start in the spring, no spark.

Replaced the ignition unit (30500-ZL8-004 SS to 30500-ZL8-014) and all has been well ever since. The seasonal failure timing was interesting.

I have noted in my .pdf parts manual, air gap is 0.008" - 0.024". (0.016" nominal)

I doubt if there is any sure way to test it with a multimeter.

I only remember it as having one terminal, the kill terminal. Are you my chance calling the poles contacts? No contact to them.

[jwales]

So i used my multi meter to check resistance on this ignition coil per a u tube video. Tested the resistance between the spark plug cap and each pole individually and also tested the plug cap with the kill terminal. All gave readings at around 9.16 K ohms. The u tube indicated they were getting much less on a good ignition coil (which was a B & S ignition coil). Is this a good indication that my ignition coil is bad?
Thanks, Joe

[KE4AVB]

So i used my multi meter to check resistance on this ignition coil per a u tube video. Tested the resistance between the spark plug cap and each pole individually and also tested the plug cap with the kill terminal. All gave readings at around 9.16 K ohms. The u tube indicated they were getting much less on a good ignition coil (which was a B & S ignition coil). Is this a good indication that my ignition coil is bad?
Thanks, Joe

If you're getting this reading from the plug cap to the kill terminal. Most likely the coil is bad as it should in the meg ohms range. The secondary is isolated from the primary except for a common ground.

The following is a simplified diagram of a Magnatron ignition system which the Honda electronic coils are except they can have a timing advance and rpm limiter added. Note the lower end of the secondary would be connected the plug via the high tension lead. They are simply grounding either the base orcollector of the darington transistor to shut down the coil operation.

[jwales]

Thanks for the help everyone. I replaced the coil and the mower runs fine. Although I am a little concerned about using the electric start after reading KE4AVB post about stray voltage. I am wondering if something with the starter system was the cause of the coil going bad in the first place??