If it even has points, which haven't been used for some time. Chances are that if you saw a mower at the curb, Briggs, the coil would work.

You really need to verify you have an ignition problem first. If it will fire at all on ether, chances are the ignition is OK. Loosen the gas cap to make sure there is no vac in the fuel tank. The last year for points on B@S I think is around 1982, so it has been awhile. If it does have points, then you could rig up some sort of coil+battery arrangement as the points control the timing. Coils for those old engines are generally $25 or less. Newer coils (electronic ignition)should retrofit as well, just cut the wire to the points and put the new coil in.

Starting the engine from cold, it ran about 5 minutes and then quit. It will pop using ether but not fire gas, I rebuilt the carburator, so am sure its not the problem. This is an all aluminum engine that has been re-ringed once already so don't want to spend anymore on it. It is on a wood splitter and I have about a cord of storm damage wood to split, if I could wire it to run with a battery and a car coil and run a wire to the breaker points it would be the cheapest. I don't want to spend the time trying it if the timing would be incorrect.

If you try running 12 volts from a car coil to the existing points/condenser you will fry them. If you are convinced ignition is the issue, install a 397358 Manetron coil and be done with it.

I have an LT150 JOHN DEERE and the engine has a surge at high pwr. I cleaned the carb and that improved it a little bit but the problem still persists. Any ideas out there to try something new?