free murray rer

we were given a little murray rer the other day, it's been sitting for a few yrs but looks to be in decent shape, has a spicer 5 speed and a tecumseh 8hp, the po said he was mowing with it and it just quit running, i know right now it's not getting spark, the wiring harness is disconnected so i figure it's likely the coil gone bad, the question is, would it be better to try and resurrect the tecumseh or pull it and mount an 11hp briggs we have sitting around in the garage, it's going to be a grass cutter not a mud mower

I would try and save it. Set a budget of how much you're willing to spend and then see what you can get out of it. My brother has a 12.5 OHV Teccy that's very temperamental and been nothing but problems. Still barely runs. BUT, he also has a 13 horse OHV Teccy that's probably one of the best running motors on the property. Starts right up every time. All he had to do was get a new $15 carb. So yeah, Tecumsehs are kind of a hit or miss. But I would at least try the coil so you know what you're up against. (Also, you can set your own budget if you want to, but if it was mine, I probably wouldn't spend over $50 for the engine. Maybe $60 if I knew that would make it run good and reliable.)

the engines themselves are usually pretty good, but the carbs are junk, since we already have this old 11hp and not using it as long as the pulley fits we will most likely go with it, another thing we have to watch for is the shaft length of the engine, it shouldn't be to long but you never know, we have a few mowers to fix for customers atm so i imagine this will be pushed to the side for a while

I'd just swap in the Briggs. Better parts availability. If you can find a coil and make it run that would be ok too.

i discussed it with my brother and we both agree it would be easier and cheaper to swap the briggs in, we know it runs good and we won't need to buy anything for it, it should be just a simple swap with no issues

I would still try the coil. If you want to swap it that's fine... It's your decision. But at least see if you can get the Teccy to pop off with some starter fluid or something. Then you can sell the 8 horse instead of have it sit in the shop for the rest of it's years like 60% of the Tecumsehs that are still around.

we plan to see if we can get it running, we have a guy whos looking for one, will only buy it if it'll start, but we also won't put any money into it or very little if we must it's just not worth it, if it was a horizontal it might be, but a vertical tecumseh isn't worth much around here