Old Suffolk Punch recoil starter versus rope kind

[MM]

Last February I bought a secondhand Suffok Punch for £60 from a local lawnmower hobbyist, who refurbishes dozens of old machines. He even replaced the recoil starter last Friday for free when it stopped working.

Then I remembered my late mum's Suffolk Punch lawnmower, which she bought brand-new in around 1959. It had a rope starter! What could be more simple? So I'm thinking, is it possible to convert the recoil starter to the rope variety? As I recall, where the recoil starter is located on more modern machines, on my mum's there was a pulley wheel with a notch and the machine came with a rope with a knot at one end and a wooden grip at the other. Provided the mower was in a good state of repair, one usually only needed to wrap the rope round once or twice to start it.

Were rope starters discontinued because of elfnsafety (fingers being ripped off etc), or merely for customer convenience?

BTW this old mower gives a much better finish than my rotary mower. For £60 it's brilliant. (Actually, he's raised the prices this summer to £70 and usually has several machines ready to buy, mainly Suffolks.)

MM

[NT]

Why not. But why.

NT

[Roger Mills]

Isn't a recoil starter meant to be an improvement over pulley and rope on the basis that, if it takes more than one pull, you can do multiple pulls quickly? Also, you're unlikely to lose the rope with the recoil sort.

Converting back would be a retrograde step in my opinion. The only possible justification would be if the recoil mechanism was broken, and you already had the bits to do the conversion.

[Dave Liquorice]

Or if the knot didn't release from the pully and the engine fires having hand/arm forceably pulled onto rotating pully...

Fairly sure a Suffolk Punch is a cylinder mower, they always give a better cut than a rotary but don't handle long grass as well.

[MM]

I just like experimenting!

MM

[MM]

How about going the other way and installing an electric starter? Doable?

MM

[Tony Bryer]

When I bought my Belle Minimix mixer c.1976 I expressed surprise that it had a notched pulley for rope starting rather than the recoil starter I was familiar with from mowers. The answer I was given was that rope start was preferred because there was nothing to break or go wrong. In the context of a cement mixer, being able to come into contact with moving parts is a given anyway so no real H&S or so ISTM

[MM]

That is my feeling, too. I've always maintained that "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" and the fact is that I, aged 12, could start my mum's mower no probs, i.e. with the rope and pulley in around '58/'59.

It so happened that the guy who supplied me with the secondhand mower is an individual of the "old school" and doesn't believe in ripping his customers off. He said to me when I paid him the sixty quid back in Feb, if it goes wrong, bring it back and he'll fix it for free if humanly possible.

Now, if I'd had to *buy* a new recoil starter from somewhere, even supposing such a thing is still available for a machine that must be at least 20 years old, it would likely cost a fortune (rarity value).

MM

[Dave Liquorice]

Think that would be a bit more complex. How you mount the motor, get the drive onto the fly wheel etc. A clockwork starter might be easier to fit.

[NT]

The notch in the wheel is one sided, so the rope knot cant stay in it once the engine fires

NT

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

Look up "De-glove injury".

[Roger Mills]

Possibly - but what's going to power it? Most mowers I've come across don't have a battery - just a magneto for powering the spark - so you'd have to fit a battery. And then, how would you keep it charged?

[The Natural Philosopher]

IN THEORY.

Those of us who had this lawnmower know that practice is not always the same as theory.

Plenty of ways for the rope to jam on the drum.

[Nick Odell]

If I were doing this I think I'd like a battery box/psu mounted on the garage wall with a set of jump leads attached. Then start the mower defibrillator stylee.

"Clear!" Pop! Pop! Put put put put put put put

Nick

[Jules Richardson]

There's not necessarily any need for a 'local' battery; e.g. I just start my lawn tractor via my truck's battery and jumper cables - my experience of the types of weedy little battery that the tractor's supposed to have is that they don't generally last very long (and plus I have to worry about removing them and conditioning them over winter). Yes, it's a pain if I ever need to stop the mower "out in the field", but such situations are extremely rare.

Mating a starter to a mower not designed for it is certainly do-able, but I suspect that finding a suitable large-diameter gear to [somehow] fit to the mower's crank might be difficult.

cheers

Jules

[Jules Richardson]

Or a cartridge-based starter (either Coffman type or direct-acting such as those used on Field Marshall tractors). A complete bastard to use and maintain, no doubt, but delightfully quirky... ;-)

cheers

Jules

[NT]

I wonder what you have in mind. I used a rope start engine daily long ago, and by the end of the pull stroke there was nothing but the knot and a few inches left on the little flywheel.

NT

[MM]

A car battery would start a small lawnmower several times and could be put on trickle charge for a few hours to top it up. I seem to recall an external starter being used on some WW2 plane engines. The think was rolled up, the engine started, then pulled away.

Imagine how envious the neigbours would be to watch me press a button and have the 20-year-old Suffolk Punch burst into life like a Spitfire! (It certainly sounds like one, quite noisy, although the silencer isn't rusted through.)

MM

[MM]

It'd be mounted where the recoil starter currently is. This is fixed on with three stud bolts protruding from the engine casing and three locknuts applied from the outside.

MM

[Muddymike]

When the recoil starter disintegrated on my old Suffolk mower I started it for the rest of its life with an electric drill via a simple home made dog bolted onto the flywheel.

Mike