Kebitz should know how to do it...

[Ljohnsaw]

K,
I have an OLD 2hp B&S motor on a centrifugal water pump.  It has the old wind a rope pull on it.  The motor usually starts on the second or third pull so you have to re-wind up the starter pull each time.  Kind of annoying.

I also have a "newer" 2hp B&S engine (actually 4 now) from sidewalk edgers.  They all have the recoil pull starters.  I pulled one of those off hoping to put it on the pump motor.  Only the crank shaft extends into the recoil to support it.  My pump motor doesn't have that extra long crank shaft.  It's not worth "rebuilding" the motor to have the right crank to support the recoil and the edgers cases don't mate up with the water pump.

Have you ever done a swap for a recoil starter?

[Kbeitz]

I have taken the recoil off snowmobile engines to put on the old Briggs. You also need to take the cup thats on the flywheel. Your trying to use the ratchet. The ratchet in Snowmobiles is built into the rope part. The flywheel on a snowmobile only takes a cup. Kinds like some older chainsaws.

[Ljohnsaw]

Hmmm, ok.  Now that I think about it, there are some other makes of lawnmowers that have that other type of pull start.

Thanks for jogging my memory.

[florida]

I had a tough-to-start mower with the pull start that wore me out. I chucked a socket on my cordless, stuck it on the crankshaft nut and off it went. Never pulled that rope again.

[Ljohnsaw]

I had a tough-to-start mower with the pull start that wore me out. I chucked a socket on my cordless, stuck it on the crankshaft nut and off it went. Never pulled that rope again.

Yeah, but this motor is not tough at all to start.  Just that you have to pull the manual choke slider out (every time) before you start.  If cold, you have to gradually push it back as it warms up (30 seconds?).  If warm/hot, push it almost all the way in (keep out about 1/8") so you don't kill it (flooding).  If you go too slow, too fast or too far, it stalls.  The choke is old an worn so it doesn't slide too smooth.  And the kill switch is a toggle on the head that shorts out the spark plug wire.

Working up there, you generally are running the pump for 10 or 15 minutes when washing down or wetting down a work area.  When you go to start it, you forget to do one of the required things - flip the kill switch off, pull the choke, check the gas, etc and you end up having to rewind the pull rope a couple three times.  Just an inconvenience, not the end of the world.

There are dozens of free mowers on CL everyday.  I'll just have to look for that other type of pull start to scavenge for my pump.

Now the other 2hp motors I have, I plan to mate one to an old lawn tractor rear end so I can make a Kbeitz gas winch for my log arch.  I'm done messing with an electric one (and batteries).