The Old Lawnmower Club
Collection, Preservation and Display of Old Lawn Mowers
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Atco light kickstart mechanism

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1manwent2 Fri, 19/08/2022

The kickstarter on my 1948 Atco light doesn’t always engage to spin the engine,are the parts that are shown worn please?Is the indent pin worn or is it supposed to be shouldered on one side like that,is the sprocket worn.

one last question Jon hasn’t got a new assembly so will the later assembly fit

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wristpin Mon, 22/08/2022

I refrained from saying anything as I’ve never seen that type of starter dismantled and wasn’t exactly sure what to suggest, but as no one has responded and your second image makes it clearer, here goes. I presume that the pin floats within the bore in the hex headed centre bolt and engages the pinion by “ hooking” into it by gravity.  My best guess suggestion is that you tidy up the end of the pin so that it’s free to slide through that centre bolt and to replace it so that it’s the undamaged end engages the ramps inside the spur gear. The steps in the spur gear could, perhaps benefit from being carefully cleaned up with a small sharp file so as to present a more vertical face to the pin. Hopefully the combined effect of these to small actions will result in more reliable engagement.

I emphasise that this is guesswork so don’t go attacking it and removing large amounts of metal  - see how it goes.