# 12 hp Sears Craftsman Riding Mower



## MSL159 (Sep 23, 2004)

My father has given me our old riding tractor. The belt didnt fit anymore becuase i changed the size of the pully on the axel. I didnt want to spend the money on the belt so i moved the axle fowards to fit some old belt we had laying around. Now my problem is, i know the motor runs, but when i go to start it, it takes a long time to start. The thing is, cant use the battery, the one that used to be on it wont hold a charge, and i use the one from our new mower, well after running my dads new one down to the point were it wouldnt charge agian, my dad wont let me use the battery anymore.  So i wanted to know if it was possible to somehow fab up a pull starter for a 12hp ohv, verticle shaft motor. Any suggestions would be great.


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## bugman (Aug 12, 2004)

no unless you change the flywheel. but you could try putting a new autolite small engine plug for ohv engines it sounds like the plug is worn out. now if youv'e got a pair of jumper cables you can jump it of a car battery. wal-mart sells new mower batterys under 20$. now see when a plug gets worn out the spark doesnt work so well hense hard starting. now if you do get the mower running from a normal mower battery disconnect the lights. when on they drain power from the battery. one thing don't keep winding on the battery. do 5 to 7 second intervals. when the battery sound weak, stop and charge for a few minutes. now one time i bought a car battery and put it in one but i really wouldn't recommend that but winding on the starter will decrease it's life. put pull starting such an engine would be hard and would probablly take a couple 100!! try's to even get it started.


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## MSL159 (Sep 23, 2004)

thanks for all the info. See what im doing is making a race mower, and i have taken all the electonics off the mower. So to start it, i need to ground one wire on the frame, and touch the positive to the screw on the starter. So i wanted the pull starter so i dont need to know get all new wiring and a new ignition thingy (dont know the name, the positive goes into it, and then a bounch of wires come out up to the ignition key, andthen there a positive that comes out and goes to the starter. I want to be able to just pull and start so i dont have to lug around a battery.

theres gotta be some way to do it. Someway to mod a pull starter to work, or a pull starter you can buy for it. I have a couple of old pull starters from old motors, i just dont know how to mod them to work. Any suggestions or ideas?


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## bugman (Aug 12, 2004)

if the flywheel is all metal, weld a pulley on top of it to wrap a rope around and pull or you cold thread long bolts into the starter mount holes, cut the top off the bolt and use the starter to start it and pull it off after it's going. just ground the neg. and put the positive to the starter. that would be simpler. you'd have to lug the battery around but you can keep it all in a box and go. racing a lawnmower or any small engine vehicle does better with less weight but pull starting it would litterally exhaust you. the pulley idea comes from those really old engines that had a pulley attatched to the flywheel. don't connect the rope to the pulley, use a big pulley and long thin strong rope if you do it. those old engines didn't have a ratcheting pulley.


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## MSL159 (Sep 23, 2004)

Well i wont be working on it for a while cause i broke my wrist.....  


The idea for the pulley attached to the flywheel is a good idea. Im still looking for maybe a kit or a new flywheel so the pullstarters that i have now can work. Anybody seen any of these parts?


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