Hi Jeff,
Some of the early Briggs could be cantankerous too. I can still recall my father back in the 70s pulling the starter cord on the grain bin and auger engines over and over and sweating and cursing. He'd end up taking them to the shed and pulling them down. Clean the filter, clean and check the plug, clean the carby, pull the flywheel and check the points, give them a clean and re-set, then put it all back together. He would get them going again. Then after he'd been for lunch he'd come back to find the engines wouldn't start again. So there would be more pulling, sweating and cursing. Then of course the cord would end up breaking.
Some engines are reliable, others are not, and that rule seems to still apply today, regardless of the brand name. If you get a good one you get a good one. If you get a lemon you soon know about it. It can be frustrating when everybody else says they bought the same motor and have had no problems with it. "Always starts first pull for me!" etc. On the farm we use to call the bad motors "Friday arvo motors", because they must have been put together late on a Friday afternoon, too close to beer time. lol!
I've had my share of crook motors. Some you just can't fix no matter how hard you try or how much money you spend on them. Others start reliably and never give you any trouble. Often it is just the luck of the draw, but on other occasions some motors did gain a reputation. For example the Villier's Lightweight 4 stroke.
I recall we did have a horizontal 2-stroke Villiers on the farm which was very reliable for the first few years. Then all of a sudden it became hard to start. I tinkered with it on and off. Sometimes it would run, other times it refused. I ended up giving up on it. I'm not sure what ever happened to that engine. It seemed to disappear soon after I shelved it, so it possibly went to the tip.
