Joy!How? It happened on the first pull too!
What did I do? In my mind, nothing really. But I believe the root cause to be a weak spark.
The fine print:
After viewing many a Youtube vid on non-running small engines, I was target focused on the coil after all my original diagnostics. Yes, it did spark, and yes, when I hooked the crank shaft up to the drill and spun it with no plug, it did spark, but only consistently at higher drill rpms.
I wont bore you with the details of the coil DVOM measurement (or trying to get the specs...fail!), but I had similar ohm specs to compare and soldiered on. I reset the coil/magnet gap (seemed ok at the onset), burnished the grounds and re-assembled.
Oh...in the course of 100% disassembly, it got detailed to within an inch of its life, and I clear-coated over the fast fading Husky orange and rapidly starting to produce those wonderful fiberglass mold-casting splinters (from too much AZ sun), and it now is brighter, cleaner and tad bit shiny. Kinda like polishing a turd.
Well, I burned through a whole tank of gas just now and I'm pretty sure my neighbors will rest easier with less weeds in the back 40.
I know my tractors appreciate being discovered again.