How to Check a Lawn Mower's Starter

The starter assembly on a lawn mower includes the starter rope, starter pulley and recoil spring. It allows you to manually start combustion, cranking the engine faster with every pull, until combustion takes over. When you pull the starter rope too hard, however, it can rip off the pulley or break in half. The recoil spring may also get bent or broken. However, if the starter rope is either too hard or too easy to pull out, there is a separate problem in the engine's compression.

Screwdriver
Wrench
Safety glasses
Work gloves
Scissors
Replacement parts (if necessary)

Instructions

- 1
  Move the lawn mower onto a flat area. Turn off the ignition switch, if your lawn mower uses one. Disconnect the rubber boot from the spark plug and ground the wire against a metal point on the cylinder.
- 2
  Unscrew the rope guide on the mower's handle or near the engine, depending on the model, using the screwdriver and wrench. Unscrew the starter fan housing cover. Take the housing cover off the top of the engine.
- 3
  Pull out the starter while holding the cover to see if it unwinds and recoils smoothly. Determine if it's too loose or too tight against the pulley, or bottoming out the recoil spring. Wear safety glasses as the spring may fly out at any time.
- 4
  Cut off the starter rope if it looks frayed, oily or broken, and remove it from the pulley. Unscrew the starter pulley and slide the screw, washer and pulley off the post. Turn the cover over and pry out the recoil spring, if it's still attached, using the tip of the screwdriver.
- 5
  Check the spring inside the cassette to make sure it isn't damaged and the hooks aren't bent. Replace the recoil spring if it's damaged. Replace the pulley if it's cracked or broken. Reassemble parts in reverse order after replacing all damaged parts.

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