JD 170 "upgrade" of coil to no ignitor?

[gforce1108]

Every year my father's JD 170 has a good sized mouse nest in it from sitting in the shed over the winter. Before starting it I always clean it all out. I tried to fire it up and it just cranked. Tested spark - none. The mice had chewed the spark plug wire so I swapped the coil from a newer JD mower (17hp kawasaki) and still had no spark. With the kill switch wire removed it would fire. I traced it back to the ignitor. With it unplugged the mower runs great. I thought it was some kind of over temp switch so I had him buy a new one (didn't expect it to be over $70).

I can swap his old coil back in with the new 'control unit' but I kinda like the idea of eliminating it all together. Any reason why I can't run the newer coil from an engine that did not have the solid state ignition?

 

[gforce1108]

Update - I reinstalled the oil coil with the replacement ignitor and had no spark. It appears that the old coil is bad and the ignitors are not compatible with the newer coil (from what I've read it has an ignitor built in).

I did not try the newer coil with the replacement ignitor. I simply reinstalled the newer coil and left the ignitor removed. Mower runs great.

 

[xp14629]

Mothballs around the machine when he puts it away this year would of helped to prevent this.

 

[gforce1108]

Mothballs around the machine when he puts it away this year would of helped to prevent this.

My mother even bought them for him.... they just never made it out to the shed. Maybe he'll remember this fall.