OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Engines Questions On Tecumseh / Kirby Engines Tecumseh Starter Cup

Hey Guys, long time no post.

Any of you remember my old Tecumseh wind up mower? Its been sitting under my garden shed bench for over 12 months and i cant get the thing to start up, it sounds like the wind up starter isnt gripping anything. The cup that normally has ' teeth ' on it is completely smooth.

How do the wind up starters work if the cups are smooth?




Cheers Josh

Any chance if you can get a pic of the starter cup, ill see if I can recognise it / match it to something here

No worries i will try and get a pic of it tomorrow.

Okay for some reason i thought this cup was smooth, must of been one of the many other mowers i have had. Anyway here are some pics and a very short video.

The teeth on the cup dont look to bad, i'm beginning to think its the arms in the starter mechanism itself just arnt coming out far enough to grab them maybe?





Click on this one for video.


I know the mower isnt much, but it ran like a dream and cut the lawn like no other mower i have had. So i would like to keep it going and one day give it a new lease on life.

The next task is finding a catcher for it!

Do the pawls come out when you work the starter with it off the engine? I see a bit of grease there, I find sometimes greae can dry up like glue and actually stop things from moving as well as they should... it may just need a bit of lube in where the pawls are....

I cant help with a catcher, the base looks like a mix of designs the lines down each side remind me of a 60's victa corvette, the handles remind me of a late 70's vulcan branded mower, I only know of cyclone for making agricultrual style shovels, a nice unit you have there

Yeah the pawls come out but looking at it one doesnt come out as much as the others, i might pull the starter apart, degrease the lot of it and put it back together with a light spray of lube instead of the grose grease thats on it.

I havent seen another mower like it joe, and i can find no info on it anywhere.

Will see if the clean up fixes it, will look into the spring assembly too.

Okay well the starter mech was full of old grease, i cleaned the lot out but it still makes no difference, it sounds very grindy in the starter, can i convert it to pull starter? I would like to keep it as a wind up starter but if i cant a pull starter mech will do.

any more ideas?

will a victa one fit maybe ? looks simillar .... not that i have a spare though , just a thought

Looking closer at the pic the teeth do look a bit knocked around, a victa one would go closer to fittin than a kirby 4 stroke one...

It sounds really grindy when i flick the starter switch, i'm guessing the cup is worn out and the spring inside the starter has seen better days, i mean it is pretty old! I just want the old girl running, it was the first mower i picked up on the side of the road and was our first mower that we had at our own place. Kinda wanna keep it running.