Briggs and Stratton Wind Up Starter

[MossRoad]

Anyone remember these? My dad had one on his 2 wheel tractor and a push lawnmower. I haven't seen them in decades, but wondered why they went away. Very good alternative for those that have trouble pull-starting an engine. I wish I would have kept them.

 

[Willman]

I used one of those wind up recoil starter on a mower that I used to mow a neighbors yard with when I was a kid

 

[BigGG]

Anyone remember these? My dad had one on his 2 wheel tractor and a push lawnmower. I haven't seen them in decades, but wondered why they went away. Very good alternative for those that have trouble pull-starting an engine. I wish I would have kept them.

Yeah, we sold a few of them in the late 60s, early 70s. Good way to lose a toe, or worse. Once you wound it up, you had to be right over the engine to press the handle down to release it, putting your feet close to the blade. I think your picture is the later model, the early one had a knob on the cowling you twisted to release.

And if you wound it up and the release didn't work, you were loading and hauling a dangerous device to the shop. Tricky to work on at that point, too. I think they were discontinued even before the deadman brake and remote pull starter were mandated.

 

[MossRoad]

On his lawnmower, you could wind it 360 around and around until it got tight. Then push a thumb lever to release it.

On his two wheel tractor, there wasn't enough room to go 360, only 180. So you had to ratchet it back and forth, back and forth. To top it off, the thumb lever release was missing, so he'd jam a long flat-blade screwdriver into it, then ratchet it up, then yank the screwdriver out of it.

Until I saw that video I posted, I saw a few more that had the knob style. I'd never seen that before.

 

[caver]

My great aunt had one on her farm on a push mower and possibly her tiller. That was in the 70's.

 

[2manyrocks]

My dad had a small horizontal shaft Briggs with a cast iron block that had a kick starter assembly on the output shaft. The engine was shot or had some problem. I never saw it run, but I remember that kick starter. I've never seen one again.

 

[Richard001]

My dad had a small horizontal shaft Briggs with a cast iron block that had a kick starter assembly on the output shaft. The engine was shot or had some problem. I never saw it run, but I remember that kick starter. I've never seen one again.

Those foot start engines were B&S. They were used on some of the early powered clothes washing machines. A lot of rural areas did not have electricity so the gas powered washer was for them.

My parents had one. I never saw it used on the washer. By the time I was old enough to know what was going on, my dad had replaced the gas engine with an electric motor.

Richard

 

[2manyrocks]

Thanks for telling me what it was. I never realized it was a gas motor for a clothes washer.

I remember looking at the kick starter and wishing that I could adapt it to a couple of his other engines that only had rope pulleys on them. As I recall, the kick starter had some assembly on the engine block itself so it couldn't be installed on his other B & S motors.

To me, the self winding recoil starter was a tremendous improvement over having to wind a rope around the starter pully with each crank on the older motors.

I'm not sure if I ever saw a wind up starter like Moss Road posted in person, but I remember seeing them advertised. I always guessed that it would be easier to use the regular self winding recoil starter if you had to crank the engine a few times to get it started. None of them ever seemed to start on the first crank.

 

[Thomas]

Sure do remember spin tops dad had on and I push it many mile when I was tadpole,never saw spin top on tractor tho.

 

[KennyG]

I remember the wind up starters. I thought it was easier to just pull a cord, but I was young. The Stihl easy start system is similar. I looked at it and decided I liked the traditional pull cord better.

 

[2manyrocks]

Later CPSC mandates resulted in moving the starter cord to the handle of walk behind mowers.

After that, B&S stopped making their totally reliable flat head mower engines that seemed to run forever so long as you changed the filter, plug, and oil regularly.

 

[groundcover]

My grandmother had one of those, she couldn't pull a recoil but used the windup one for years.

 

[Richard001]

Those foot start engines were B&S. They were used on some of the early powered clothes washing machines. A lot of rural areas did not have electricity so the gas powered washer was for them.

My parents had one. I never saw it used on the washer. By the time I was old enough to know what was going on, my dad had replaced the gas engine with an electric motor.

Richard

Here is a photo of this engine:

Briggs & Stratton Washing Machine Gasoline Engine

An old kick-start gas engine that was designed initially for use on washing machines when rural electricity was not available.

www.old-engine.com

Richard

 

[mapper]

There was an elderly lady whose lawn I mowed when I was about 14. She had a wind up start lawn mower.
It worked fairly well.
My dad had a Gibson garden tractor with rope and pulley starting, it got painful if it backfired.
My first car, a 1959 MGA, had a crank stored in the trunk that was inserted through a hole in the front bumper to start it if the battery was dead, with a Lucas electrical system it was needed fairly often!

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

Years ago I bought a local sales/service shops B&S NOS parts inventory and there are a couple of those wind up starters there.
Our go cart Dad built in late 50s had a B&S motor from a Maytag washer that was pedal kick start. Exhaust was a flexible steel hose with like a clam shell cast iron ball on end I guess so it would be placed outside. We just ran a straight pipe. Late 50s...it would probably go 15 mph.
Thanks for the memories.

 

[MossRoad]

Years ago I bought a local sales/service shops B&S NOS parts inventory and there are a couple of those wind up starters there.
Our go cart Dad built in late 50s had a B&S motor from a Maytag washer that was pedal kick start. Exhaust was a flexible steel hose with like a clam shell cast iron ball on end I guess so it would be placed outside. We just ran a straight pipe. Late 50s...it would probably go 15 mph.
Thanks for the memories.

If you look on ebay and such, they're selling those wind up starters for $90!

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

If you look on ebay and such, they're selling those wind up starters for $90!

Good grief! This place my grandfather bought a new Yazoo and an Economy tractor from new and years ago bought their stock of old Briggs parts. I should list all that stuff, it's all new, 50s-60s.

 

[tom3]

A lot, maybe most, of those old Briggs parts seem to be pretty hot sellers if the price is decent. I keep an eye out for stuff I can use even if I don't need it today. You'd be surprised at the interest in old mowers, Lawn Boys and old JDs for sure.

 

[Willman]

My dad had a small horizontal shaft Briggs with a cast iron block that had a kick starter assembly on the output shaft. The engine was shot or had some problem. I never saw it run, but I remember that kick starter. I've never seen one again.

There were some military WWII small engines built with kick starters