Starter question

[Lanse]

the starter on my Briggs wont start. It jest spins there, all the teeth are the way they should be, all still there, and not ground down, and the same is true for the engine but anyway, it just spins, it wont rise up to the flywheel. Any iders???

 

[MrJimi]

the starter on my Briggs wont start. It jest spins there, all the teeth are the way they should be, all still there, and not ground down, and the same is true for the engine but anyway, it just spins, it wont rise up to the flywheel. Any iders???

Two things will cause that, Plastic gear is shot or it's your solenoid
and it sounds like it's the solenoid
Jim

 

[Nasty135]

Lanse, I could be one of two things , #1 If you recently had the battery out and mistakenly hooked it up backwards the starter with spin backward not allowing the pinion gear to engage the flywheel (don't ask how I know, It was an experiment ) or #2 The inside spiral of the pinion gear is gone and will not raise the gear on the shaft to engage the flywheel. Most small engine repair shops have those parts for sale cheap. Fairly simple to fix...

 

[Chuck52]

There is no solenoid, so it's not that! Nasty is right about the parts and all, but the gear probably isn't stripped inside, just not sliding easily. The one on my mower had some plastic shavings in it which kept it from sliding up just with the centrifugal force, so I just took it off and cleaned it up. However, that only kept it working for a while. I eventually ended up replacing it. The gear usually comes in a kit which contains the entire "power head" of the starter. That is the gear and the shaft it travels on, plus replacement springs and such. I got one this year for about $15 at a local rental shop that also works on mowers. The shaft may be hard to get off, and you may need to drive it off or use a gear puller or something. The hardest part of the replacement for me was seating the little split ring that holds the gear on the shaft. It's not a c-clip, just a round split ring, and the kit doesn't include the driver needed to seat the darn thing. I found a piece of aluminum tubing of about the right diameter and drove it on with that, but in fact I ended up using the old ring rather than the new replacement because it was "loose" enough to go on with my made-up toool.

Chuck