I have an older Briggs and Stratton mower of the type you can get at Home Depot.
I think something in the safety mechanism broke. The safety mechanism is a bail on the mower handle that must be depressed to allow the engine to start. The safety cable (called the "stop cable") and its latch are ok, but I think that whatever they connect to inside of the engine compartment broke.
Is this a repair that is easily possible, or will it be a can of worms to open up the mower?
Best Answer
The answer is yes they can be repaired, my mower the cable to the break broke, type that 3 times fast LOL, On my model the cable releases a spring loaded break shoe that stops the magneto quickly. Thx cable broke right at the connection point (the staged on end failed) in my case I was able to braze the cable back together but the cable was less than 20$ so I fixed it and ordered the new cable knowing it wouldn’t last that was over a year ago but it is getting close again so I will probably need to put the new one in before the end of summer, I had to remove my oil dip stick 1 bolt , the metal cowling 4 bolts flipped the cowling over and could access the cable not hard at all.