Do you need to remove the flywheel to change the starter gear in a briggs md. 46107 engine?

Check cable nut for loose or dirty. Check voltage with key turn to start,

Michael, if the briggs is overhead valves, it may need valve adjusted so engine will turn easier. Check the attached links,instruction and guides, Good luck
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http://hubpages.com/living/Hard-to-start-Briggs-and-Stratton-engine
HOW TO ADJUST VALVES FIX HARD TO START Lawn Tractor with OHV Briggs Engine...
YTD 3000 Craftsman lawn tractor will not turn over ShopYourWay

remove the tin upper engine cover and look at the gear on the starter yes they do break the gear the gear is only $10

Easy to check if your engine was designed for additon of starter. Starter motor is mounted at rear of engine to gain access or flywheel. The block would need to have mounting holes already drilled into block and the flywheel will need to have ring gear. There should be a removable plate on fan cover (or cutout) to allow starter to enter flywheel. If your block has mounting holes but not the geared flywheel, you could try to find a dead motor with good starter parts at small engine shop. Good luck

depends on the engine, briggs L-head opposed twins can be viewed by removing the sheet metal head cover near the starter, changing its starter is fun, as one of the bolts is under the flywheel, it can be changed without flywheel removal, with patience. Briggs Vanguard and Intek twins starters are easier to remove, the intek cowling has to be removed to see anything with starter in place but the starter can be removed with the cowling in place, the Vanguard has a few sheet metal covers that must be removed. If you've got a Kohler, starter removal is usually pretty straightforward, take the starter to a local repair shop for a comparison or test if you are unable to determine what's wrong. A decent shop will at least inspect it and show you what a known good starter drive looks like.

The starter is actually an assembly with a motor and a solenoid. The solenoid does two things: it closes a contact to send electricity to the motor, but it also moves a gear on the motor shaft upward to engage a gear on the engine flywheel. Most likely, you will have to replace the starter assembly to fix this.
Just in case, you should also check the gear on the engine flywheel. It's where the starter pinion engages. If it's missing several teeth, you could just be in that 'dead spot'. That can temporarily be solved by turning the motor a little bit to get to a good spot - but remove the sparkplugs first! And eventually you'll end up in the dead spot again. It is a more expensive repair.
Good luck! Please rate if you find this helpful, thanks!

Check the flywheel for areas of damaged teeth also. Broken teeth on the starter drive gear may inticate damage to flywheel also.

Briggs offers a kit to replace the plastic ring gear with an aluminum ring gear. Remove the gear by drilling the rivets and punching them out. The kit comes with bolts, ring gear, and starter gear, plus instructions. Go to your local briggs dealer with the model, type, code numbers of the engine. Aprox $40 cost. If you cannot find a dealer, I can offer the part to you. thanks, mowerguy

I’m happy to assist further over the phone at https://www.6ya.com/expert/rolandw_c013176d62ee17ae

your battery is in a weak state also the solenoid is shorting out replace the solenoid

you can actually just replace the starter bendix