yt6800

[DW]

i'm new here (like today) so here goes. i bought this 6800 a couple weeks ago and have mowed twice with it and thought it ran and mowed good.it seemed to change motor speed about half way through the mowing and picked up a little bit. thought that was strange but just kept it in my mind. it seemed to start pretty hard and as i was mowing it started to sputter and cough a little so i slowed down a little and turned the pto off and then on again (crap shoot) and it seemed ok. ran it around the yard this morning and it always sounds good but when i touched the valve covers the left side was warm and the right side was not warm. right side felt like room temp. decided to take the right side valve cover off and measure the valve clearance. the top valve came in at about .020. don't know if this the intake or exhaust right now and the plug was black. po had just put new plugs in when i got it. also the left side plug was very hard to remove after the first few turns so i left it alone for now. did not want to mess something up. could this be a coil problem? i don't think the right side is firing right.as far as valve clearance goes i just checked that one because it was loose and the other one was not. will appreciate any advice and thanks much.  Denny

[John Honeycutt]

Yes that could be a coil. If you look around there are aftermarket coils on eBay. $40 or so. The OEM was like $400

[DW]

thanks for the reply. ordered a coil from E-bay and should be here in a couple days. checked for spark and none  on the right side and good spark on the left. this engine runs pretty good on one cylinder. never worked on this type engine before and set the valves by the intake open and the exhaust closed method. never installed a coil either. i'll have to get a repair manual soon. thanks Denny

[rattosh51]

While you're waiting for the coil, I would check your valve clearance, as no one ever does.
I can't recall the setting at the moment, but if you search through the old posts, there may be a number...
Let us know how it goes!

[DW]

coil arrived today installed and runs great. these engines sound great on one cylinder. other than checking the spark plug to see if it's fouled i put my hand on the valve covers after i mowed  last week and the left was hot and the right was cool. dumped a couple ounces of sea foam in for good measure. do these carbs. have a drain on them? i thought i read somewhere that they do. runs super good with the new coil. thanks everybody.   Denny

[John honeycutt]

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