Started my lawnmower with a chisel today.

[Ultradog MN]

Grass was getting pretty long.

I had tried to start it a couple of times in the last few days. Pulled on that darned rope till my arm was tired.

I always drain the tank and run the engine till it dies in the fall so don't know why it wouldn't start this year.

Anyway, I pulled enough stuff off the engine till I could get at the nut on the flywheel. Then I found this crusty old cold chisel and it sorta fit into a socket. So I turned it down on one end and put it in the drill.

My contraption worked and the mower started after about 15 seconds of spinning it. Of course when it started it threw the socket off the nut and across the driveway. Oops.

I put the engine back together and it starts good now. Mowed the lawn.

Mother named me right cause I'm good at rigging stuff.

Jerry

 

[Charles in Aus.]

Love a good ' Bodge job' ( Australian for Farmerised )

Lucky the new tool didn't end up through a windscreen though. There is a one way ratchet type socket adapter that you could use that would stop this happening . As I get older I am thinking of converting more of my small engines to start via a drill .

 

[Charles in Aus.]

Stuck valve is usually why they won't start after a long lay up . The vigorous spinning of the drill probably loosened it . Do you close the valves after use Jerry?

 

[M-MAN]

I tried that with a weedeater once. It broke the crankshaft right under the nut.

 

[GarryinNC]

Plus, you got to make use of your lathe.

 

[DMartin9N-2N]

Good evening, Ultra: My father-in-law had a small kit in a blister pack that basically was an adaptor to use an electric drill to start a lawnmower. I believe I have that gadget in my garage... Maybe I will find it tomorrow.

Dennis M. in W. Tenn.

 

[Hobo,NC]

YER SMARTER THAN A MULE AND YER HEAD AINT HAFT AS BIG : )

I prefer the eclectic starter method....

 

[SVcummins]

 

[TimV]

Seems I've seen those, but it's been long ago--the ones I saw were a set of rubber cones--one went on the flywheel nut and the other was chucked in your drill--press it down so the rubber pieces stuck together and you could turn a typical 3.5 briggs or similar engine over. I made a similar socket adapter to Ultradog's years back before I had a lathe--just ground down a chunk of 1/2 key stock until the top inch or so was circular enough to chuck in a drill, peened the bottom edge of the square section so you could slip it up inside a socket and it would stay, then chucked it up and spun the engine over. Probably wouldn't pass muster with the YTOSHA crowd but worked perfectly. Especially handy for spark checks where it seemed you could never both hold the spark plug and pull the recoil. Have moved on to other methods but it did its job well when I needed it.

 

[Goose]

Something doesn't add up here.

I'm the worst one on the planet Earth for leaving small engines sit all winter with gasoline in them, usually E10 ethanol, and I never have a problem starting them in the spring.

I have a wheeled string trimmer that sat all winter with the same gas that was in it last fall. It started on the second pull this spring.

 

[JMOR]

(quoted from post at 23:02:31 05/26/21) Something doesn't add up here.

I'm the worst one on the planet Earth for leaving small engines sit all winter with gasoline in them, usually E10 ethanol, and I never have a problem starting them in the spring.

I have a wheeled string trimmer that sat all winter with the same gas that was in it last fall. It started on the second pull this spring.

ell, I guess you are among the lucky few!!!
I have gas tanks and carbs totally destroyed by that ethanol crap. I don't want to hear propaganda from corn people either, BTDT! I solved the problem after replacements by paying ridiculous prices for ethanol free gasoline for those not often used engines. I don't believe a word of the defenders of that crap. Sorry!

 

[kcm.MN]

(quoted from post at 20:02:31 05/26/21)
I'm the worst one on the planet Earth for leaving small engines sit all winter with gasoline in them, usually E10 ethanol, and I never have a problem starting them in the spring.

I have a wheeled string trimmer that sat all winter with the same gas that was in it last fall. It started on the second pull this spring.

Same thing here. Husqvarna riding mower, Husqvarna walk-behind string trimmer, and self-propelled mower. All sit with 1/3 tank or less of gas, but never empty.

Come Spring, I fill the tank with fresh gas, engines start right up, and life is good.

 

[wore out]

GOOD job, solving a problem and using an antique machine tool at the same time!

On the other hand, most every Popular Science or Pop Mechanics magazine from the late 40's up into the 70's had an ad hawking a "kit" to use a drill to start a lawnmower.

NOTHING new under the sun, I guess!

 

[Phil Tibbetts]

I agree 100%, I've had nothing but grief with ethanol crap.

 

[Phil Tibbetts]

Do you raise corn? That seems to be the crowd that embraces ethanol.

 

[Charles in Aus.]

(quoted from post at 02:47:08 05/27/21)
YER SMARTER THAN A MULE AND YER HEAD AINT HAFT AS BIG : )..

Good one Hobo :lol: :lol:

 

[Ultradog MN]

Thanks fellas.
Yeah, the idea of starting them with a drill has been around for a long time. I just figured it was a good title for a post
BTW, I am no fan of ethanol gas either.
I brought my old Miller welder home from up at the property last week where it's sat unused for 3 years. Have the carb off of it and the black tar looking crap inside has it all gummed up. What a mess!

 

[Moonlite37]

Harbor Freight has them for an impact driver

 

[bc]

Good job. Henry Ford had a simple way to start a model T with a crank. Need to figure out a way to make an adapter like that that will disengage when it starts. Or else figure out how to add a starter bendix to that.

Maybe cut the socket to resemble a crank and weld something on the nut to match.

Need a way to start weedeaters with a drill as well.

On the other hand, I think you just invented the battery powered mower!! Run out of gas? Just mow the yard with the power drill turning the blade.

 

[4wdtom]

Any engine, especially an old one not designed for the stuff they call gas now, that won't start readily I give a shot of either. Sometimes they will run for a second for a couple of times on either then I guess when the gas gets where it is needed run on gas OK.

 

[Goose]

I haven't raised corn since I was a teenager.

BTW, are you any kin to Paul Tibbets?

 

[Blackhole49]

Only 8 bucks and free shipping.
Untitled URL Link

 

[Ultradog MN]

Yeah,
That's what I needed.
I have them for 1/4 and 3/8 but not for a half inch.
The cheesy chisel worked to my advantage tho.
As I mentioned, when the mower started it was spinning faster than the drill and just about tore it out of my hand. The chisel slipped out of the socket and prevented the drill from also getting thrown.
If a guy worked on small engines more it would be good to have a ratcheting device between the socket and drill.

 

[M. Doud]

I don't think its the ethanol, I think its the water the ethanol pulls out of the air. My guess is how damaging it is related to how much moisture is available to pull out of the air.

That said, my small engines are also ethanol free consumers.

 

[K Effective]

Well, some of it WAS the ethnol,as it ate up certain rubber/plastic substances that [u:1967e53f3c]used[/u:1967e53f3c] to be found in fuel tanks, carb boots, fuel lines, primer bulbs, etc. It turned fiberglass resin to sludge, and caused the carb boots to fail on many snowmobiles, which starved the engines for lubricating fuel/oil mix and burned them down.

Most manufacturers of gas-powered devices have taken steps to upgrade their products to be unfazed by the ethanol now.

I used E85 to clean the tar-like gunk from a gas tank on an old roto tiller, abandoned by my Aunt long before ethanol fuels were around. It sure cleaned it up good!

Glad to hear the Monarch still makes chips, UD-MN! Mustie1 has shown this starting method many times on his YouTube channel, often nearly breaking his wrist and backing the crank nut clean off, as well.

 

[ChasK]

Be honest...that looks like a spike tooth from an old wooden harrow! I have several of those 'chisels' as well!

 

[fixerupper]

Well I am a corn farmer. I have sold plenty of corn to the local ethanol plant at the highest price around. However I do not use ethanol just because it has made me money in the corn markets. If ethanol was a generally bad product I would still sell corn to the ethanol plant but you would not see me using the stuff. I also sell corn to feed mills but I do not have livestock.

I am not a one hundred percent ethanol supporter. Ethanol works just fine in most of my vehicles, I have a 300 gallon tank of ethanol I use from several times a week and have used from for the past 30 years at least.

Ethanol does not work in my Polaris 500 side by side in the summer. Ethanol vapor locks and I end up dead on the road. It is designed for 91 octane fuel and they mean what they say. Its a pain in the butt messing with five gallon cans of 91 octane when putting the hose from the barrel into the tank is much more convenient but thats life, nothing is perfect. Years ago ethanol wrinkled accelerator pump diaphragms in some Fords and Chryslers. That is mostly a thing of the past unless you still drive vehicles from the 70s.

Has the ethanol i use left yucky deposits in carbs on my engines. No. The alcohol in ethanol is a pure product. Alcohol removes residue, the crappy low quality gasoline alcohol is mixed with leaves the residue.

Does ethanol permeate plastic floats and tanks? Yes it has damaged non ethanol resistant plastics from the past. Today most plastics that are exposed to ethanol are resistant. Notice I said the word MOST.

So in the end, ethanol is a good clean fuel that works OK in most engines. Again I said the word most. To declare ethanol as being the all evil bane of the world is a very closed minded uneducated attitude.

 

[Ultradog MN]

I think you were also looking at a lathe
recently. Did you buy it?
I'm finding that a lathe opens up a whole
new realm of things you can do.
I have been having a ball with the Monarch.
Currently building a a set of tracks and
rollers to slide these antique doors in our
entryway closet. The doors are heavy -
maybe 80 lbs each and 7' 6 tall
I made the rollers out of delrin.
The spacers for the tracks needed to be
fairly precise so I milled them to size
in the 4 jaw yesterday.
I'm hoping to do a test fit of the doors
this afternoon.
What I really need now is a horizontal band
saw or maybe an old power hacksaw.