Kitchen Garden Forum

Hello

This is one for Clive perhaps.

My Dad and I share an old Templar Tillers rotavator. We got it used from an eldarly friend when he had to give up veg gardening and the Briggs and Stratton engine code is for 1979.

This year it started up fine after it's winter hibination but cut out after a few minutes with no sparks at the plug. Dad has successfully removed the flywheel and re-set the points which had closed up but still no sparks so we are thinking the ignition condenser or maybe the coil is faulty.

Does anyone know of any firm in he UK that can supply parts for these older type B&S engines by mail order? Last time we needed parts for another machine we have the local mower place was rather "iffy" about being able to get stock now so although they had what we needed then it would be good to have an alterative. Also what happened to Templar Tillers? Is there anywhere that might have tiller parts (belts etc.) if we need them?

Thanks for any help.
William

Hello William,

I am surprised to hear of a mower establishment having difficulty in obtaining B&S spares even for older machines.

The most frequently used contact set on small engines 294628 is also available as pattern replica parts..although when working in the mower world I used to mostly prefer the genuine items with regard to B&S parts.
The braid that links points pivot post to points arm on some pattern sets were sometimes a bit poor.

Do go fully armed with all the engine numbers from the cowling in any spares enquiry. The full parts drawings will be available to download from www.briggsandstratton.com so you can even sort any required parts numbers yourself....although it is sometimes best to let the machinery agent decide/verify the part numbers if any parts are special order.

There is a dealer search facility too on the B&S site which may offer up some names local to you.

I will contact you via this forums pm messaging system as I have some further info that might help your search for the lost spark.

Contact sets on small engines do need to be immaculate clean, dry and true to acheive a good spark, even grime from feeler gauges can upset things.
On infrequently used engines the points operating plunger can sometimes stick leaving the points open.

Very occasionally silly faults can occur with the engine stop wire....if your engine is fitted with an engine stop via pushing the throttle cable below tick over...the stop wire end is held from earth on an insulated fitting and a contact is made to earth to stop the engine usually by the throttle cable crank arm. Should the wire get chafed then a short to earth could occur which would kill the ignition spark. (Older machines would have a more basic but effective stop device via shorting the HT to earth via a clip to spark plug.)

The wires that fit through the condensor end can also touch earth if they are pushed through too far..again unusual..but I seem to recall possible??

Spark plugs can be ok for years but can equally well also fail..

The B&S ignition system is quite unusual in design but is usually very effective and once put in good order will usually run fine for many years.

I am not up to speed on mail order suppliers.
But one company that might be worth a call to is FG Adamson a long established York's machinery dealer....I have not dealt with them recently but have in the past and found them very knowledgable
http://www.buyamower.co.uk/contactus.asp

I am not sure about Templar spares....the name is now history although in their time they must have sold very large numbers of tillers...they also sold the Templar Turbo hover mowers which later became Crown hover mowers and later I think became the Allen hover range....Allen Power Products now too sadly history...although the hover product may live on with Hayter...pardon my disappearance into trivia

I reckon that a local agricultural dealer sold some tillers a few years ago that I have a feeling were made up themselves from the remants of Templars..?? (..or could they have been former Westwoods.?? I am doubting my memory now.)
The very long established ag' dealer being www.rhcrawford.com always worth a try. They are very much of the old school of machinery dealer and can usually come up with a fix...

But for items such as drive belts a good local garden machinery dealer, agricultural dealer or engineering supplier should stock or be able to easily source standard engineering sized belts.

If you currently have a serviceable belt then now may the time to look for a spare belt as most agents will have a belt measuring device and be able to establish a size easier than if you wait till the belt is in tatters...and once you have established a standard belt size number ref then next time will be easy.

Hopefully a fellow forum Templar owner may already have the answer on belt size ref.??

I will contact you by pm in the next few minutes.

All the best,
Clive.

Hello all

Thanks to Clive for his suggestions.

I have managed to find a simmilar thread on here that I remembered and from that have found http://www.bartrammowers.co.uk/default.htm
which looks useful but the postage is high for small items so any other sugestions would be welcome.

Thanks again so far
William

Hello

A quick update in case it helps anyone else.

A Google sesion turned up http://www.briggsbits.co.uk/. They had all the parts I needed in stock so ordered Sat afternoon and they were delivered this morning and for sensible postage charge -- just need to get them fitted and see if the engine is back to health.

Thanks again for the help

William

Thank you all for this information... I can now hopefully sort some bits out my own machine

These people are really helpful, efficient and cheap. We use them a lot


http://www.perr.com/

Err, I am in the U.K. and the dollar/pound conversion makes them super cheap at present. It takes about 5 days for goods to come. If the cost of the goods is below..Err £18 ish, there is no import duty either.

Couldn't agree more Gandalf,
Have imported B&S parts from the US.
At present - a gift!