# John Deere, no spark



## Banksy (Aug 31, 2005)

I have a 199? John Deere 265 lawn tractor and it doesn't have any spark. It has the 17hp Kawasaki single cylinder. I thought it was a bad coil so I bought a new one and still nothing. An inline spark tester shows a very dim flashing bulb, so there's a little electricity being made I guess, but no spark at the plug and the plugs brand new. The flywheel has magnitism, but maybe it's not strong enough??? Any suggestions, I'm stumped.


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## Sydenstricker Landscaping (Dec 17, 2006)

It could be the gap between the magneto and the engine is too far apart. Try and re-adjust it to where a piece of paper will slide in and that is it. Probably isnt receiving enough juice from being that far away.


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## Banksy (Aug 31, 2005)

I have it set at .010 of an inch. The smallest size on my feeler gauge. I even tried going out to .013 of an inch and nothing. I do have the kill switch wire to the coil disconnected so it eliminates all the kill switches on the tractor. No difference if it's connected, just a little flash on the spark tester. The spark tester is good, my Murray mower runs with it on.


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## grandview (Oct 9, 2005)

Battery not cranking it enough? Even if it's fully charged it might not be put the cranks out.


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## Banksy (Aug 31, 2005)

It takes a car battery, not the little regular tractor battery. The battery is fully charged and cranks it over just fine. I hate electrical anything


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## grandview (Oct 9, 2005)

Safety switch?


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## Banksy (Aug 31, 2005)

That's what I was thinking originally and that's why I took the whole safety switch system and ignition switch out of the system. So basically I've made it so if the engine were to start, you couldn't shut it off. The spark system is very basic...goes flywheel, coil, plugwire and spark plug. I was thinking I would just take all that mess out of the way to start with and work backwards.


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## MickiRig1 (Dec 5, 2003)

Keep in mind 1 in 10,000 new parts are bad right out of the box. I have been Mr 10,000 a few times! The new coil or wire may be bad right out of the box. look at the test procedure for car coils using a VOM meter. It will give you an idea of what the primary and secondary resistance values should be. Are you sure you are getting gas and it's good?


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