"Tony" wrote in message
...
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.

I discussed this same problem recently with a neighbor. We both experienced
this with B&S engines and he was familiar with another neighbor who had the
same problem The rope attaches to a reel that has a spring winder. When
you pull the rope there are two arms that extend and engage a hub. Pulling
the rope therefore causes the hub to turn and the engine to turnover and
hopefully start. When you run out of rope and the centrifugal force stops,
the arms are suppose to retract and disengage from the engine. The spring
allows the reel to rewind the rope. If the arms don't retract, the rope is
ripped from your hand as you have experienced. I don't think the spark plug
has anything to do with the problem.

If you locate the engine model number, you can go to the B&S or Sears parts
sites and order either individual parts or an entire reel assembly. If your
mower is like mine, you have to drill out four rivets to get to the parts.
You will then have to put it back on with some new rivets. I hate when they
make things that you can't easily repair. It can be tricky to get the
spring rewound right, so you may find yourself at a repair shop anyway. As
I recall, the entire reel assembly for mine was around $40.