The recoil starter has gone out on my old lawn mower. :( Not sure what brand it is, but it's a 5.5 HP vertical-shaft Tecumseh engine, and it's not a Sears. (MTD, maybe) Pull the rope, and it doesn't retract, whether the engine starts or not. The spring is not broken, but I think whatever the spring engages on the flywheel is worn off. The engine still runs good even tho' the compression may not be all that high, and the deck still has a lot of life left before it rusts out.
Many years ago, my dad had several small engines that just had a pulley for a starter, and you wrapped a rope (with a knot on the end) around the pulley and yanked it. The knot went in a little angled notch in the rim. Wrap the rope around and try it again. When it started, you tied the rope to the handle so you didn't lose it. Don't know if they were Tecumseh or Briggs. They might have all been horizontal shaft, and that might actually make a difference -- a safety thing. (BTW, to kill those engines you shorted out the sparkplug.)
Any chance of finding a replacement pulley like that these days? I don't want to buy a whole new starter for it... unless a whole new starter is like $10.
