Outdoor Power Equipment and Small Engines - Help with Kohler engine

Just got a fairly old Yard machines lawn mower with a 15 hp Kohler engine in it, and it has a problem

It starts and runs perfectly for about 1min, then after that it dies, then wont start up again.

After it dies it dosen't spark from the coil to the spark plug.

After about 30-60min it will start right up, then repeat.


What do you think it could be?

It sure appears that the ignition coil is malfunctioning but you need to isolate it to be absolutely sure. Remove the flywheel blower shroud and disconnect the small gauge wire from the coil thereby eliminating the kill curcuit. Reinstall the blower shroud, run the engine and wait and see what happens. Be prepared with an insulated pair of pliers just in case the engine continues to run and use them to pull off the spark plug wire from the spark plug in order to shut down the engine. If the engine does shut down on its own then have a new, correct spark plug at the ready and the moment it shuts down, remove the spark plug wire from the installed plug and install the new plug in the wire and ground it to the engine and then crank the engine over and observe for spark with the new plug. If no spark then you need to replace the ignition coil. If it continues to run without fail or if you observe spark at the test plug then you have another issue and we'll figure that out, if needed.