Honda GX 160 won't start

My pressure cleaner started shutting off after short use but restarted easily . Then it shut off and would not restart. Getting fuel ok. I troubleshot the the on/off switch,ok . The small wire to the ignition coil is good. The small terminal on the ignition coil is shorted to ground with or without the wire connected to it. Should the small terminal on the coil be grounded? I believe the coil is bad,is it ? Thanks

 

Check the oil level... if it's low, it will shut down and not restart. The small coil wire will show continuity to ground no matter if it's connected or not.

 

The oil level is good. If the small terminal is supposed to be grounded, how does the on/off switch turn off the motor? I am confused. The oil level sensor is not grounded.

 

The terminal isn't supposed to be grounded like you're thinking... one end of the wire is grounded. That wire then wraps thousands of times around the armature. When the magnet on the flywheel passes the legs of the armature, a magnetic field develops in these windings and collapses around the secondary windings when the transistorized switch tells it to. If the other end of this wire is also grounded, this electromagnetic field never develops in the windings, it just passes to ground through the kill wire (killing the spark). So one end is grounded and that is why you show continuity to ground. It shouldn't be 0 ohms though...there should be a little resistance, just not open.

 

Thanks fellas, I got it going, replaced the spark plug and works fine. Looks like I fell into a trap by not not zeroing out my meter. The small terminal on the coil is 1 Ohm to gnd. I've never had a spark plug act like this.