Engine Brake

l008com

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May 25, 2015
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So what is the purpose of the engine brake? I only found out about this feature recently. It seems kind of pointless to me. Who cares if your motor takes a little longer to stop spinning? It seems like that would not effect me at all? Is there some benefit to this feature that I'm not missing?

I start and stop my mower a LOT (to reposition the camera in my youtube videos), so in my mind its one more part to wear out and need to be fixed.

Maybe it's the case that without the engine brake, it takes several minutes to spin down? Or maybe the engine will start back up again for a long time after stopping, if you squeeze the handle?
 

StarTech

Lawn Royalty
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On walk behinds it to stop the blade action quickly. Along with braking it kills the ignition coil. I never replaced a flywheel brake except on a Kohler engine where it no longer kill the ignition coil. Most brake uses a separate kill switch but Kohler uses a conductive brake pad.

Most times it is the cable that controls that gives problems.

Of note some larger engines actually uses a stator braking system.
 
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