The Old Lawnmower Club
Collection, Preservation and Display of Old Lawn Mowers
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Mountfield M4.

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Motivator Mon, 02/04/2018

Hi everyone got a old M4  has a Tecumseh Aspera  motor on the deck.

It has a recoil to the side of  recoil cover , but a ratchet start on the top.

Is this correct.  Looks like what used to put on Viktors .

 

Regards

Pete.  

 

 

Forums

wristpin Mon, 02/04/2018

Very unlikely that it would have had both from new. My first guess is that it originally had the wind up coffee grinder starter on top and that the owner got fed up with it not starting and grafted on the side mounted starter and toothed flywheel. BUT there again it is unlikely that the cylinder block would have had the bosses to mount the side starter, so did it start with a side mounted unit and then someone added the top mounted one,  but why?

When the wind up starters were fitted to an engine in good condition they were more or less ok but once the engine was worn, or out of adjustment , more often or not they didn’t have enough force to fire it up. Interestingly Briggs and Stratton had a go with a wind up starter about ten years ago which was equally unsuccessful .

A few detailed images of your engine may reveal more.

Motivator Mon, 02/04/2018

Will get some pics . Very strange that it would have both on the mower.

wristpin Tue, 03/04/2018

The colour suggests that the wind up starter was the afterthought and the side mounted one the original. Perhaps a previous owner had difficulty with the upward pull required for the side mount, not the easiest of actions.

Supergrass Tue, 03/04/2018

I have never seen this engine on an M4 mower.It looks a lot like the engine we had on a two stroke flymo in the 70s.This just had the side pulley to start and went like the clappers.P S dose the wheel drive work ?

Motivator Wed, 04/04/2018

Not got it going yet it is in good condition solid alloy deck . Will take the cover off to clean the points.

See if i can get sparks .