Several weeks ago my lawn mower started giving me problems. When I pull on
the rope to start it, I get an excessive amount of resistance. Sometimes
mid-pull the rope just stops moving (resulting in a situation where I just
about break my arm). On top of that, frequently when the rope does make a
full pull, I get an extreme 'jerk' back towards the mower (I thought I broke
my hand because several times it pulled it back against the handle bar.) As
a result, I can't start the mower any more.

I took it to a repair shop shortly after it began exhibiting these problems.
I paid the guy about $50 and he told me that he replaced the spark plug and
did some work on a part of the engine. I don't remember if he used any
technical names (I don't think he did), but the jist of what he said was
that the part that the pull cord attaches to in the motor wasn't lining up
correctly with what it needed to. (He said it was off by about a quarter of
a turn.) He said that he adjusted the alignment, saw no other problems,
tested it, and everything worked fine.

When he started it in the shop, it worked great. When I took it home, it
started up for me, too, but it still didn't seem like it was back to
'perfect' condition. The next time I mowed (a week later), it was OK, but I
got a bit of recoil. Fast forward 2 weeks--here I am with the exact same
problem I started with.

I plan to take the mower back to the original guy, since I hope he'll stand
behind the work he did. But he's closed now.

I did an online search for what this problem might be and came up dry.
Anyone have any experience with a problem like this?

The mower is about 3 years old, lives in a garage when not in use, and is
pretty well cared for. The motor is a Briggs and Stratton. The mower
itself is a Scott that I bought at Home Depot.

Anything anyone can tell me about this would be greatly appreciated.

Tony