Petrol mower, crap starter cord

[Tim S]

Hi,

I've got a Hayter Spirit petrol mover with a Briggs and Stratton engine. Mower is excellent for its small size, but the rip cord isn't.

It appears to me made of a braided sheath with an inner core of string and the sheath has worn through (after 1 year).

Before I just go and buy another crap string, are there any better types of cord I might be able to fit instead? Haven't taken it apart yet to see how the string is fixed to the starter pully.

The weak point seems to be that the string goes through a metal loop on the mower handle at an angle and it's the friction here that does the cord in.

Cheers

Tim

[Weatherlawyer]

Can you replace the part that does not enter the winder head? If not, can you pull out the cord and trap the machinery in the out position, remove the cord and insert a new piece of nylon?

Either that or as you remove the cord attach a new piece to it. I remember an early model I had pre designer obsolescence, that had a knot holding the cord in place. The knot was outside the winder upper.

IIRC, the first one we had had the cord separate to the machine and a knotted end fit over a vee groove in the gubbins. I wonder why that idea never stuck?

[Mark]

I replace mine with 5mm Polyester rope, if you have a boat chandlers near you they sell it by the meter Re-winding up the recoil spring is a bit of an AH but not that difficult.

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[Tim S]

Weatherlawyer coughed up some electrons that declared:

Aye, I'm not worried about taking it to bits, just looking for a better type for cord to use.

I'll have to crack it open anyway as the sheath has got trapped inside making it almost impossible to start and soon the inner cord is going to snap :(

Cheers

Tim

[Tim S]

Mark coughed up some electrons that declared:

OK - sounds like an excellent suggestion. I can nip down Hastings or Bexhill-on-Sea way - must be some chandlers down there somewhere

Many thanks,

Tim

[Harry Bloomfield]

Tim S has brought this to us :

You will find chandlers anywhere there is any boating activity - around rivers, lakes and canals.

[Tim S]

Harry Bloomfield coughed up some electrons that declared:

Good point. Yalding is near me - seem to remember lots of boats there. Ah, Yellow pages shows a boat shop. Failing that, turns out there are loads in Maidstone. Wrong direction but not that far.

[newshound]

I think proper "starter cord" is tougher than that ordinary stuff. Last time I had this problem I got a length of starter cord off eBay. This one claims to be genuine Stihl

[Steve Firth]

Ask for advice on a cord that's abrasion resistant. There's usually quite a range at chandlers and some types don't stand up to abrasion well (kevlar for example). I think you'd be best off with a polyester cord with braided outer sheath - that seems to have lasted very well for me in use that sees a lot of wear.

[Tim S]

Steve Firth coughed up some electrons that declared:

Thanks Steve. Perhaps something that's used for sails - those go round pulleys and stuff - must be quite resistant. I shall pop in and ask.

Cheers

Tim

[Steve Firth]

The stuff I was thinking of is used on my boat for the furling gear. It sees more wear than the halyards and sheets (used for the sails). Once a halyard has been used to raise a sail, that's it for the duration of the voyage (mostly) the roller furling gets tweaked a lot so it sees more wear.

I objec to the price of cord but many chandlers have odd lengths left over from people rigging a boat. A length too short for use on a boat is probably way too long for a recoil starter. Sadly I don't have anything suitable lying around or I'd post you some.

[Mark]

Sovereign Harbour Eastbourne or Marine Parade Hastings, don't think they are allowed to keep rope in Gods waiting room. ;(

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[Andy Dingley]

Go to a spares place that does Lawnflite and buy one of their excellent diecast starter cord guides with the smooth bellmouths. I've one of these on an orginal Lawnflite, another fitted to a Hayter to fix just this problem. On the whole I prefer the Hayter as a mower, but Lawnflite have a better cord guide.

OTOH, the electric start keyswitch on the Lawnflite is a piece of junk. Got through a couple of those before swapping it for something from the spares box.

[Tim S]

Andy Dingley coughed up some electrons that declared:

That sounds excellent - thanks . I sahll look out for one of those.

Cheers

Tim

[Andrew Gabriel]

The 3.5HP B&S engine I had on my petrol mower had a wind-up spring-release starter, which always seemed to me to be much easier to use than rip cord. I never saw another one like it, so I don't know if they still exist. It was an extra-cost option when the mower was bought in 1965.

[Andy Dingley]

Yesterday I was doing the season's first cut on a long, wet lawn. Stalled every few feet. I really appreciated the handlebar-mounted pull handle for the starter, it saved a lot of bending down over the engine.