Briggs & Stratton Landmaster 15843

have a look-see here....

http://www.chat.allotment-garden.org/viewtopic.php?t=2353

that should get you on the right course.
your machine does indeed have points, they  are under the flywheel, as you quite rightly observe.
crankshaft is a tapered, keyed fit into the flywheel. sipmlest way to undo if you don't have the correct tools, is to undo the nut, wind out a few turns, place a very large screwdriver under the flywheel and lever upwards a little (carefull not to damage the flywheel) and stike the end of the crankshaft, squarely on the top with a copper mallet, being VERY carefull not to damage the threads. Most of the older briggs engines had a bit of crankshaft metal before you got down to the start of the threads.
if you have a look at the thread that I've put up for you, you should get the general idear.
Please do let us know how you get on, and if you have any more questions, don't hesitate to shout out!

Aha! one of those eh?
well, you can't belt it with a hammer then.
that whole assembly needs to come off. needless to say, there are special tools to do this. as you haven't got them, you will need to improvise.
the assembly unscrews anti clockwise. you need to be able to lock up the flywheel so that it won't move, and then maybe use something like a large set of pipe grips to unscrew the assembly. before doing that, there is a mesh screen cover that is held on by two or sometimes three 4ba bolts that you must remove.
A WORD OF WARNING.
inside the assembly, there is about 5 ball bearings. sometimes when the screen is removed, the top cap can come off and then they are ridiculously easy to loose. also, the crankshaft  is machined to fit into the square part. under no circumstances should you hit the cranckshaft as it will not then fit back into the recoil starter part.
there is a knock off tool that can be got from specialist mower shops that will fit over the crank so you can hit it, but these are few and far between.
one of the people on this forum has used boiling water to expand the alluminium of the flywheel enough to allow it to be prized off. you might want to try that first!

edit:
I noticed that on the link I gave you, I suggested that you could used the rawhide mallet/ tap the flywheel instead of the crank method. that'll work as well as the water trick that I mentioned above.
enjoy!

hot water would be kinder than a blow lamp methinks......