8hp Sears riding lawn mower problem!?

Sounds like maybe you forgot to re-set the proper gap between the magneto pickup & the flywheel. If that's not the problem, then while you've got it apart; check for spark at the magneto. There's not a whole lot of things that can go wrong with that system.

The problem you are describing is an electrical issue. It could be the gap between the flywheel and coil, a safety switch, key switch, bad coil, or the system is grounding out. The easiest way to check for a safety switch and a bad key switch is to disconnect the wire that connects to the coil rear the flywheel. After disconnecting that check for spark. If you have spark then your problem is one of the two. If you don't have spark then check the wire that goes to the spark plug for cuts in it. If there are cuts in it use electrical tape to cover the cuts. If that doesn't do it you probably have a bad coil that needs to be replaced. In rare cases if the coil and or flywheel have rust on the contact points then it with cause the unit to not have spark. If you notice that with yours, you can use sand paper to clean the contacts and then reset the gap.

The cheating way to rest the gap on a coil is to use a business card between the flywheel and coil.

Hope this information can help you get it fixed!

Best of luck!

Disconnect the battery. Clean the terminals and the inside of the connectors with sandpaper then lightly grease them. Then charge the battery fully (overnight at 2 amps). Then reconnect, and off you go. If your onboard charger isn't working efficiently you may need to charge the battery regularly, I put mine on charge routinely between mows, it's really no trouble and keeps the battery in good condition.

It could be flooded since you probably tilted it all around.

Also, check the on/off circuitry. Something could have come loose.