How to make a Pull Rope for an old "Wisconsin" (brand) engine

[Paintedcow]

I have an old Wisconsin model BKN engine (7hp), which I'd like to try to start. It has the old pulley with the notch to wrap a rope and pull start it. (not a built in recoil like on must lawn mowers).

The engine did not come with the the pull cord. I just googled the web, and found several .PDF repair manuals to download, but none of them say how to make such a cord. I imagine I could buy a premade cord from ebay or some where else, or get one from a Wisconsin Engine dealer, but I know I can easily make one. It's just a length of nylon rope, (like used on any lawn mower), and a handle. The end that goes on the pulley has a knot. I already have a handle from a junked mower.

The question is how long the rope should be, and is there a special way to make the knot on the end, so it releases as soon as the engine starts.

Do anyone of you have such an engine with the rope, who can post the length and describe (or post a picture) of the knot? I can buy that rope by bulk, for under a dollar at the local farm supply store.

[Wade Garrett]

Don't need anything fancy...maybe any old clothes line.

Tie a figure 8 knot in the end that will go into the slot in the pulley and pull it into a ball.

As to length, put your strongest fist against the wall and measure how long the pull is back to your ear. Make the cord six inches or so shorter than that.

Use anything for a handle.

[clare]

I didn't think even a painted cow could be dumb enough to hve to ask this question. Use a fat enough cord that the knot will hold in the notch, and make it as long as you can comfortably pyll.

[Dean Hoffman]

Baler twine might work.

[Paintedcow]

Yep, my concerns too, which is why I asked and want to make sure the rope is the right length, etc. Having never started an engine like this, it looks a little dangerous....

[clare]

According to the BKN manual you can download - on page 9 it says the rope should be sized to give 2 full rotations of the engine with a full pull. Make the rope long enough for 2 full wraps plus whatever open length required for a proper pull posture.

[Mike Duffy]

I'm curious about what happens if you mis-pull (i.e. just pull it a half turn or so) and the engine starts anyway because it's warm, for example.

Let's further assume just for the sake of argument that the throttle is stuck wide open.

It there any danger of the cord winding itself 'the wrong way' and converting itself into a sort of weed whacker?

[rbowman]

If there is, Pained Cow will manage to do it and it will be his weed that gets whacked.

[clare]

I've never had it happen - the rope unwinds very quickly, and the notch in the pulley has a "ramp" side and a "hook" side. No way the knot will hold in reverse..

[clare]

I've started all kinds of engines with the pull rope, and I can say with conviction it would take someone of incredible talent to manage to get the rope to wind backwards.

Someone like the friend of a Newfy I used to know. My friend had an old ford that was a bit hard to start when cold - so he used to jack up one rear wheel, and wind a rope around the rear wheel. He'd put his wife in the driver's seat, with the car in low gear - he'd run down the driveway pulling the rope and she would pop the clutch - and the old Ford would star.

His friend was complaining his Dodge didn't start well when cold - so my friend told him how he stated the Ford. His friend decided to try it, and after a lot of fussing (and mabee a few "sacre tabernac"s) he was ready to run the rope down the driveway. When my friend popped the clutch he looked in the mirror to se his friend coming up behind the car taking 10 foot steps - and he got his foot on the clutch quickly, just as his friend took the mirror off the door.

He had trouble getting the rope to stay on the wheel so had tied it through the "spokes" of the steel artillery style wheel and knotted it at the center of the tread - and to be sure he didn't let go of the rope had wrapped it around his hand. By some fluke, the rope actually wrapped back onto the tire when the car started - and he couldn't let go. Luckily as he came op close to the car it ran off the tire and didn't wrap him around the tire!!!.

[Mike Duffy]

Lucky I guess because the coroner would be hard-pressed to call something that likely to happen an 'accident'.

[Dean Hoffman]

Agreed. I started those old engines a lot as a kid and never had any problem.

[Stormin Mormon]

I'm guessing too narrow. Clotheline is more like it for a 7 HP.

[Stormin Mormon]

Many years ago, I had friend on bicycle want me to pull him (her? Been a while back) behind a car. Using a rope. The friend on the bike proceeded to wrap the rope around his hand, several times. I suggested he clasp the rope (I had made a loop or handle of some kind). If the bicycle rider became unsteady, he could simply let go of the rope.

[rbowman]

In the old days, that's how you could tell the cops that slept through the academy. Nightsticks have a thong and they would stick their hand through the loop like the dufus in the last photo:

Grab the nightstick and you pretty much pwn the moron.

[TimR]

Great photo.

When I was a prison guard we were heavily trained on how to wrap that cord so it released if the baton got grabbed. You did not want to get pulled out of formation into the scrum. Needless to say that photo is NOT how to do it.

[Tekkie®]

[e-mail] posted for all of us...

You thought wrong. I wonder if he's Stumpy under another nym or he's got the Stumped edukashun.

[Tekkie®]

rbowman posted for all of us...

Ha ha ha +1