Old faithful is an early 8hp Lawnflite vertical Briggs riding mower,
And it died on me a few weeks back.
I truck for a living so things tend to take longer to get fixed than would seem reasonable.

It ran fine since Metuselah's last birthday but started coughing and running intermittent like an old Sopwith Camel with the on/off ignition, and finally after a long struggle to live...it stopped for good it seemed, and things went quiet.
I took off the scarf and the helmet and goggles, and tried to start it again and got a few coughs and good tries but then it stopped and ran no more.

I took the carb off and cleaned it, put everything back the way it should be, and hoped to make it work again, and it did, but not for long.
coughing and hesitating, it stopped running once more.
I took out the spark plug and noted the black hole kind of sooty deposit and a lot of wet like mixing oil.
That's when I realised that it was indeed mixing oil from the right mixed gas can but for the wrong machine.

Out came the mixed gas, the tank was cleaned, fresh gas put in and ran through to the carburetor (carby, carburettor or thingme, take your pick.),
after which I took a new spark plug and checked for a spark, which I found, and found it to be a weak blue yellowish colour.

That's as far as I got. I plan to go and get a carb kit in the morning, and maybe an ignition kit to boot, as I have a few thoughts on what could be the problem with my Lawnflite machine, but wanted to throw it out here for you folks as an extra attempt to define what could be the matter with it.

Now! All the funnin aside, my thoughts are; points and condenser could probably be replaced as I have been beating around on this thing for 3 years with not a hair of trouble and it sat in my buddies yard before that for two years not being used.
I had the carb apart and saw a lot of worn items which I want to replace.

While I am at that I will also put a new high tension lead on and what ever else may be related to the way it died.

The last thing was, when I checked the spark plug the last time it ran, it was sooted but dry, and it quit like it had bad points or a bad condenser.

If you think you have something else in your mind as a possible cause for that behaviour, I would love to hear your comments.

The engine has very good compression and has not had any issues before this time.
The mower is old ( I'd say early 80's) but I love this thing and want it to live.
Thanks, MP.