need some educating on how ignitions work nowadays

I was trying to start my mower and it won't fire up at all. Not even with starting fluid sprayed in the breather. So I pulled the plug and spun the crank a few times and nothing, no spark at all. I had a spare coil so I changed it out but still nothing. So I figured it must be the ignition module. And I'm not so old to think it had points and a condensor. Anyway, I got the flywheel off expecting to find a module of some sort. There is nothing there other than the flywheel and coil. How do these work nowadays? I'm at a loss as to why it isn't firing and am just standing staring at it. Were the old points/condensor and later, capacative discharge ignition systems just for show? I'm about ready to bolt an electric motor on the mower bed and drag a cord behind me!

This is a Toro self-propelled push mower that has been converted to run off propane because of the crappy gasoline we have to use now.

Thanks for any help,
Alan

Around 1949 a Hungarian migrant to Australia invented the Hall Effect trigger unit.
About 1960 they started marketing it as the ATOM Ignition Module.
No small engine maker except Victa ( local company) and Stihl adopted it till the 90's when patients espired.

Very simply as the magnets pass by the coil an inducted voltage is produced.
The voltage starts at 0 V then rises to a peak before falling off to ) again.
This is called the Hall effect.
The ignition module simply measures this rising voltage and when it gets to a predetermined value closes the circuit and allows the coil to discharge to the plug.
At first they were a discreet item bolted onto the engine.
However they were found to be more reliable if fitted to the coil itself so now days are epoxied to the coil wires.
The chip is about 1/4" square.
Thus now days the coils which used to be a universal fit now have a trigger tailored to that engie inside so become specific to a particular model.
Rule of thumb.
If the coil is on the outside of the flywheel. it will be a latter module controlled one ( and very expensive to replace ).
If the coil is under the flywheel then it is an older points controlled coil.
The points on these older motors can be replaced by an external module.

Ok, thanks for that explanation, it was enlightening. So the problem has to be in the coil/module or the flywheel? The flywheel is still magnetic, I checked that. Is there a way to check the coil/module or do I just toss it and replace with an exact one and that will fix it?

Hopefully but before you start throwing money around we need to know.

The Make & Model number of your engine