The Old Lawnmower Club
Collection, Preservation and Display of Old Lawn Mowers
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Recoil starter not working properly

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Johnone Sat, 04/06/2016

Hi all. I've got my old Tecumseh engined mower out of the dark to see how she performs this year, now I've managed to get to a point it all works, that is. My new recoil starter seems to have developed a problem. If I try to use it in the usual way, it doesn't recoil.

I took it off the mower and, after manually winding the chord back in I proceeded to pull out the chord slowly to see what I could see or hear. To start with the recoil is engaged but after about 1 1/2 turns there is a sound a bit like sprockets jumping, if you understand, then the recoil is not engaged, then after about 2 more turns it seem to re engage then just before the chord is fully out the same sound is heard and the recoil does not work.

All a bit strange, being as the recoil was new last year and has never been fully used in anger.

Any suggestions???

Hope someone can help.

Thanks

Forums

hillsider Sat, 04/06/2016

From your description it sounds as though the recoil spring may have become detached from its anchor point either on the back of the rope pulley or the recoil casing. All you can do is to carefully dismantle the unit to investigate but do be careful as you release the spring they can be a bit lively and are liable to hurt if fingers get in the way.

Another possible reason for the problem is that the spring is sticking due to dried lubricant, either way you need to investigate the cause so do proceed carefully.