I built a "Franken riding mower" using an engine from an old rider that been in in a pasture for I don't know how many years. I thought the fly wheel screen setup was unusual looking. I didn't realize it had one of these spin starts until I saw this video. Taryl explains another bizarre and unusual item of the grass rat world. Thumbs up!
I am amazed that I had never seen one of those units. Ingenious!!! I have made many assisted start units over the years, and why I never thought of a taper I will never know. I slapped myself on the forehead when I saw the picture, and now my forehead is flat.
I had a Lawnboy just like that one once. It was in about the same condition as this one when I got it. That was my favorite mower out of any of them. Smooth, quiet engine and the scent of two stroke in the air made the freshly cut grass smell better.
I pulled an old Lawnboy out of a swamp in the mid 70's, took it home, cleaned it up, lightly ported it, flipped the reed valves over, put a new NGK plug in it, and it still mows better than new to this day...
@@80SWoods It was an old subdivision once, and when the Highway was built the State used Eminent Domain to evict everyone off the properties. They left their homes and belongings behind for the Bulldozers to take care of.
This is amazing actually. I love the HUGE added convenience that setup gives you. One of the BIGGEST pains one deals with, in my opinion, when dealing with these small-engine tools - is that most of them are all PULL start with a recoil rope! Aside from the safety issues you brought up - which sound like were addressed with the rubber bit - The big problem I see with this now is that it most likely does not support the newer model small-engine based tools out there being sold today. THAT being said - the parts involved on this setup does not look all that complicated - and if you know how to use a metal lathe - and you have a 3d metal printer or two - and you also know how to weld (this includes TIG/MIG/Stick/Fluxcore) You can probably and quite easily fabricate the parts you need to put on whatever small-engine tools you have - and since you're doing the fabrication yourself you can just make them all fit the same rubber bit on the Cordless Drill - that way you can start all your tools with just 1 bit! Say goodbye to dealing with recoil ropes! I am honestly surprised companies that make small-engine tools have NOT adopted this and have made this setup a UNIVERSAL FEATURE!!! Odds are if you own a lawnmower - you also own a cordless drill - and if you don't own a cordless drill - you would be willing to buy one JUST so you can buy the version of the mower that lets you start it with a drill! The only thing people would worry about at that point then would be which bit they are using - and you know there would be companies out there that would sell Universal bits which would work on any recoilless small-engine tool (because you know the manufacturing companies out there that make lawnmowers and whatnot would want to have their own proprietary bit that starts their tools...)
Hey Taryl! I absolutely love the Mysteries and Oddities clips! I grew up in the 70's and 80's. I have never seen or heard of this before. Not a bad idea! Keep em' coming!
I have 2 push mowers I tow behind my 4 wheeler. Both have 15/16 nuts on the flywheel. Our dragbike ( 250+ hp) has a 15/16 nut on the cank . It is started with a high torque car starter that has a special socket thats cut so when the motor starts it kicks the sockt off. I use a cordless impactor to start my mowers. A drill won't start them! Love the show. 👍👍
Taryl, I bought a cheap swivel head ratchet wrench from *Harbor Freight and cut off the handle so I could put it into my drill motor. With the swivel all duct taped so it couldn't go very far from straight including the socket, I made up a very viable way to spin any engine over w/ out the nut coming loose or the socket flying across the room. What drove me to it was a chainsaw I had that didn't start good cold. It had a bolt holding the clutch on, so a way to drive the crankshaft was readily available. Then I started using it on my other chainsaws that after I removed the starter rope/ blower housing, but they needed to be turned Counter Clockwise. and as with any flywheel nut, I didn't want it coming loose when it started. So I needed a reversible ratchet head to run backward. My first try I didn't have the socket taped on the ratchet head and it stuck to the flywheel nut then came off as the engine revved up. It flew clear across the room and ended up behind the Oxy Acetylene torch bottles. BUT IT WORKED! When I was young I put a straight drive into my Dad's drill motor and tried to start my Go-Kart engine the same way. Catastrophe! It was a 3 1/2hp Tuk-Um-Suck and when the engine started the nut came loose and the flywheel split at the key way and exploded into a million Al U Mini Um parts! I found another flywheel, but I never tried anything like it again until my shoulder got Arther's itis in it and I just couldn't stand there and pull and pull and pull. *I do not advocate buying Chinese Communist Slave Labor tools. ben/ michigan
My grandfather had the socket one on his John-Deer mower. He would not allow us, grandchildren, to start it with the drill for the same reasons you mention. The kick-back was not fun. So, I learned to pull start that deer mower, which help me with my other grandmothers mower who had the very same lawn boy you had the adaptor on. 😊
My father did small engine repair for over 30 years and I remember him using an air drill to bench start engines back in the day with one of those. And yes, Lawnboys were his favorite! I still have 1 of those models today.
I remember seeing kits like this in the late 90s/early '00s either in the Northern Tool catalog or the Harbor Freight. (Remember they used to sell Briggs engines? LOL!) When I was a kid I just used the drill and a socket on my go kart and lawnmower. We didn't really have safety yet.
Late 80s, i mowed my old neighbor's lawn in Southern Iowa with his similar lawnboy. I remember when he installed the spin start and made the hard cold starts so much easier! I was probably too young as he always used the drill for that first start. That light lawnboy was so much easier to push than dad's heavy snapper.
Super. My first lawnmower was a Montgomery Ward self propelled rear wheel drive 20 inch 3 horsepower gas engine machine with a wind up starter where the pull start is on most mowers, (And a lock-maintenance, wind-start, and release-run lever.) and I would hook my wagon to the mower and ride around behind it while I was mowing. Back to the subject, I liked to make go carts as a hobby, for fun, and I got most of my stuff from the dump, back when that was alright, usually finding an engine that had a rope pull starter, and I ALWAYS cut the cover off, took the pulley and rope and stashed it on the go cart just in case the motor died somewhere, and just used a 1/2 inch drill and an impact socket welded to a 1/2 inch extension that was cut down and an aftermarket 12 volt to 120 volt inverter to power the drill from a battery. (I saw this idea in use on another engine, not my invention.) I tried a 3/8 inch drill, but it was a little hard on it. These were fun carts, not racers, or professional, and some had unique features, like three gearless speeds (Gears?) in both forward and reverse, accomplished with two drill press pulleys, (Three different diameter pulleys, one casting) and three left pedals tightening three seperate idler pulleys on three seperate belts. (It worked great.) Reverse was a small riding lawnmower forward-neutral-reverse transmission that also changed the verticle to horizontal and belts to a chain. I also made a 10 foot long "limo" out of two 10 foot long 2×6 boards once, and this one had "remote starting" in that I installed a pull rope that was about six feet longer than normal and ran it under the seat to the steering column brace and positioned the handle so that you could pull start the cart while you were sitting in the drivers seat. 🙂 One last item was an old, small motorcycle "kick" starter that had been welded to the top of a verticle Briggs and Stratton three and a half horsepower engine on a push mower that I borrowed once. It was funny because you had to kick or pull it sideways, but it always started the mower. P.S. Good way to get your toes mowed. 💙 T.E.N.
I like the woman's shorts in that Ad .. In the early 80's here in 🇦🇺, the brand name was Trackers. If you wore copies you weren't so cool🤣 (even the guys)
When I started cutting the grass, circa 1969, it was with a 1948 Locke that you had to wrap the starting rope around the pulley every time you needed to start it. Mom gave herself a black eye once when she tried to start it. One time I was sent over to my aunt’s house to mow her lawn. Her mower was a small rotary that used a folding crank mechanism instead of a recoil starter. The crank wound up a spring and then when the handle was folded back on itself the spring would spin the engine. That was the only one I’ve ever seen like that so I guess either the mechanism didn’t last very well or it was way more expensive to produce.
Since it's the woman's job to mow the lawn anyways, there is no reason why those shouldn't be still sold today. She can keep the safety engaged, while you start the mower. Fortunately, nobody is looking over my shoulder while i type this.
I had a mower with the Spin-Start on it when I was a kid. It was never worth pushing the mower to the garage when a pull or 2 would start me on the spot. The most practical starting system from that era was the Toro key start which had a Nicad pack mounted on the handle plate that you put on recharge with a wall-wart charger. The engine had a conventional starter on it and you would start it from the "safe zone". It also had the variable speed drive self propelled system that let you vary ground speed independently of engine speed. The mower was the well made cast aluminum shallow deck. IMO one of the best walk behinds ever made.
my grandmother had a lawnboy like this one.. only was a whiter color and itr had actual electric start with a little lead acid battery.. it didnt charge itself you had to charge it after using the mower..
My dad bought my grandmom that same mower, she like mowing her own grass. Be cool to hookup a modern lithium battery to that old Toro. I remember those ni-cads from my RC airplane days😊
I'm an RC pilot myself- 61, been flying since I was 12. It doesn't seem that long ago electrics were the "new thing" and they're now 95% of the model world. I have a bunch of giant scale stuff, love my 50cc twin cylinder Beaver but we have lost so many clubs recently and now remote ID (Do not comply). It's hard to find a place to fly these days. I still fly a lot of sport quads, and wonder why the why the major players don't sell keystart mowers that use their batteries. Probably the "gas is evil" narrative is discouraging them. Sad that things are worse now than 50 years ago.
I didn't know Lawn Boy made a keystart model. I had a couple through my youth and they were great mowers albeit not super torquey. I rebuilt the battery pack on that old Toro with sub C Nicads which were the standard RC electric power back in the late 70s@@tcmits3699
Holy Schmoley! I have one on an old 2T Lawn-Boy! This mower was a curb find and had a thick rope tied to the handle. I always assumed it was just an adapter for a 1/2' rope to wrap it a few times around the cup. I'll have to dig out my Daisy Duke cut-offs and find a drill cup adapter.
My grandmother loved those old 2 stroke Lawn Boy mowers. She was rather disappointed when they quit making them and couldn't buy a new one. She mowed her own lawn with a push mower up into her 90s.
Thank the EPA! With all the green renewable nonsense (go do some research and some math) 2 stroke engines are almost totally gone forever, barring chainsaws and hedge trimmers and they are coming for those now too. KTM still makes a little 2 stroke bike. Last one out there still making a two stroke. Light powerful, and you can refuel it back up to full in 30 seconds or less.
I love my lawn boy! I got an old 21” 2 stroke that I got for free! So simple, cleaned the carb up and runs great, looking to get a new air filter and blade to start using it next cutting season!
as an Australian, i loved these oddities videos, we never saw gadgets like this. with the advent of cordless drills this is something that could make a comeback, none of my push mowers have a bail, but i have seen those styles.
I converted my old Murray to start with my drill (not self-propelled). 1. Cut a hole in the top over the rope pull housing. 2. Take that housing off and remove the rope and its retraction spring. (I did this because the spring was fatigued and not replaceable.) 3. Get a 1/2 drive socket big enough to go over the end of the blade shaft where it comes into the housing. In my case it was square but fit a 3/4" 16 point socket. 4. Use your 8" extension with the socket. That adds mass to it's controllable by hand. 5. Adapt a wood spade bit to fit diagonally into the 1/2" socket (grind the point off) and chuck it. 6. Put all 3 parts together. 7. Stabilize the 8"x1/2" extension with one hand. It's heavy so it won't get away from you. 8. Put your drill on it's slow speed setting. 9. Pull the trigger and when it starts immediately lift the whole assembly off the shaft. This mower was purchased in 1995 and is still works every summer.
We still sold (a version) of this at Sears when I worked there about 10 years ago. It was for some of the Craftsman Leaf Blowers, Weed Whackers etc. Same concept, and I believe it was even called the same thing, wonder if there is a connection? The Sears equipment came with the flywheel adapter from the factory, and you could optionally purchase the drill bit.
I remember an early 60's add on electric lawnmower starter that stayed on the mower. It was corded, I remember it because it was pretty big, about the size of an electric windshield wiper motor. It replaced the recoil start mechanism.
It still would be a good idea today. Some of those easy start mowers are a farce lol. Not many mowers have electric start still today. As far as the bail, that's what zip ties are for lol !!
Taryl, you should have discussed the Lawn Boy mower also .. Thats an oddity on its own .. Offset front wheels ? Does it get around trees better? did it work?
That thing at the top of the handle looks like a safety bail. Either that or a self propelled clutch bail. When I was a little kid my neighbor had a tiny 2-stroke mower with a rope wind pull start. I thought that mower was so cool and wished we had one. That was before I was old enough to be conscripted into lawn mowing. Would have taken forever to cut a large yard. But I loved the way it looked, sounded and smelled.
we saw these at the Louisville lawn and garden trade show in 1981 and added them to our show room display . we sold a lot of them in the Madison WI area. When a customer came to buy a new push mower. We never had one fail or be returned
I remember the old wind up start, probably before the spin start! Just another pain in the chops! You could spend your life and all your energy cranking and winding up that thing, think the pull start is far better than all of them!.
This kinda reminds me of the speed start that Troy-Bilt and Craftman had on a lot of 2 cycle equipment, I had a Craftsman weed wacker that had it, it came with a drill bit that was designed to spin in one direction to avoid injury and there would be a special spot to use it on the back or side of the engine
Anyone who owned anything with a Tecumseh engine on it from the 70's thru the 80's is VERY familiar with using a drill motor to start them with whatever adapter they could rig up. The taper drive is a much better and safer option than anything I ever used anyway.
I have a Toro (I think) weed wacker that has a feature that allows a electric drill to start it. A special one-way adapter fits the drill and then is inserted into the rear of the engine to start it. There was a battery version available too, that would replace the drill. It works great and can save a lot of cord pulling.
Pretty good idea. If people had cordless drills at the time it was offered, I think it would have been a big hit. People would be wiring their bails open.
It would not have worked with cordless drills of the past. Not enough power or speed. Only the really nice ones with giant lithium batteries will do it today.
@@ryanroberts1104 Oh no, the good 1990s nickel metal hydride battery drills will crank over a lawnmower. Until about 1988 or 89 cordless drills were just like todays cordless cars and they were just as useless. You had plug the dill in and wait 6-10 hours to use it for 2 hours. Then some genius made detachable battery packs. Game on. An old nickel cadmium Makita stick drill MIGHT have been able to crank a mower over, when it was brand new out of the box. Fast enough? Maybe? It would probably have to be in low gear.
@@sethburgin5994 No. I already explained this. I was there in the 90s. I did this. It does not work. Period. Will it turn the engine over? Kinda. It's not going to start it. Also, power tools never used NiMH batteries. The replaceable batteries you speak of were filled with NiCd batteries until they flipped to lithium about 10-15 years ago. You had to charge them for many hours to get minutes of use. Being replaceable or not had nothing to do with how fast they charge. Even a cheap shit cordless drill from today won't start an engine.
Really liked lawn boy mowers. Much lighter weight, due to the aluminum deck and 2 stroke motor. Never had an issue with any of their 2 strokes and never wore one out. The wheels, axles, etc. would always go out before the motor.
I've had the flywheel nut loosen when drill starting engines with a socket. If you think about it, the engine is trying to overspeed the drill and the nut loosens up because you are holding onto the drill
If you put a breaker bar ratchet adapter between your drill and the socket, the engine can start and not rip the drill out of your hand. Used them for years on generators, that are sometimes hard to start after long time sitting.
I remember seeing those ads. If I had bought one, my brothers would tell me “you’re lazy” for using one. I can now tell them I’m not lazy, I had Lyme disease back then.
In the mid 60s my grandparents had a Briggs that had a flip out crank on top that wound a spring. The tension on the spring was released by a lever and that would spin the motor.
that's a good idea, they should sell them again , just zip tie the bail back so this would work then just slip the zip tie off the side to kill the mower. all I see wrong with this gizmo is after a time the rubber might wear to the point where it wouldn't grip anymore.
I had a lawn boy and the starter was crap so i started it with a socket for years with no problems but would have loved on of them. Kind of how you start model RC Airplanes now days but in reverse
Tore my rotator cuff on my right arm, this would have been a godsend, but instead I now have lawn service, heart trouble put an end to my mowing days. Still have my mower in the garage. Been setting up since 2006. It only had 2 seasons on it. Look brand new lol.
Thankfully, when they had hand crank start, they were smart enough to make two helical slots as to safely release hand crank from pinned crank hub when engine rpm overcame hand crank speed. That tapered hub design relies on friction ie pressure, not good
Taryl Tees, Mugs, Stickers, Tools and MUCH More Here!
www.TARYLFIXESALL.com
Still time to get your Christmas order in!
Hey bud, NWI ?
@@livefreelivewild2 REPLIES
I built a "Franken riding mower" using an engine from an old rider that been in in a pasture for I don't know how many years. I thought the fly wheel screen setup was unusual looking. I didn't realize it had one of these spin starts until I saw this video. Taryl explains another bizarre and unusual item of the grass rat world. Thumbs up!
Just so much fun to have good family friendly entertainment from real, hard working folks. Thank you again.
I am amazed that I had never seen one of those units. Ingenious!!! I have made many assisted start units over the years, and why I never thought of a taper I will never know. I slapped myself on the forehead when I saw the picture, and now my forehead is flat.
A comment and a like to the family that has never failed to entertain! Your hard work is very much appreciated.👍
I had a Lawnboy just like that one once. It was in about the same condition as this one when I got it. That was my favorite mower out of any of them. Smooth, quiet engine and the scent of two stroke in the air made the freshly cut grass smell better.
I pulled an old Lawnboy out of a swamp in the mid 70's, took it home, cleaned it up, lightly ported it, flipped the reed valves over, put a new NGK plug in it, and it still mows better than new to this day...
@@thebegrsshow I’m curious, why was it in a swamp?
@@80SWoods It was an old subdivision once, and when the Highway was built the State used Eminent Domain to evict everyone off the properties. They left their homes and belongings behind for the Bulldozers to take care of.
This is amazing actually. I love the HUGE added convenience that setup gives you. One of the BIGGEST pains one deals with, in my opinion, when dealing with these small-engine tools - is that most of them are all PULL start with a recoil rope! Aside from the safety issues you brought up - which sound like were addressed with the rubber bit - The big problem I see with this now is that it most likely does not support the newer model small-engine based tools out there being sold today. THAT being said - the parts involved on this setup does not look all that complicated - and if you know how to use a metal lathe - and you have a 3d metal printer or two - and you also know how to weld (this includes TIG/MIG/Stick/Fluxcore) You can probably and quite easily fabricate the parts you need to put on whatever small-engine tools you have - and since you're doing the fabrication yourself you can just make them all fit the same rubber bit on the Cordless Drill - that way you can start all your tools with just 1 bit! Say goodbye to dealing with recoil ropes! I am honestly surprised companies that make small-engine tools have NOT adopted this and have made this setup a UNIVERSAL FEATURE!!! Odds are if you own a lawnmower - you also own a cordless drill - and if you don't own a cordless drill - you would be willing to buy one JUST so you can buy the version of the mower that lets you start it with a drill! The only thing people would worry about at that point then would be which bit they are using - and you know there would be companies out there that would sell Universal bits which would work on any recoilless small-engine tool (because you know the manufacturing companies out there that make lawnmowers and whatnot would want to have their own proprietary bit that starts their tools...)
You could cut the grass and your toenails at the same time, what a timesaver!
😂😂😂
Hey Taryl! I absolutely love the Mysteries and Oddities clips! I grew up in the 70's and 80's. I have never seen or heard of this before. Not a bad idea! Keep em' coming!
We gotta get a rebuild going keep Taryl on his toes Grass Rats forever
I have 2 push mowers I tow behind my 4 wheeler. Both have 15/16 nuts on the flywheel. Our dragbike ( 250+ hp) has a 15/16 nut on the cank . It is started with a high torque car starter that has a special socket thats cut so when the motor starts it kicks the sockt off. I use a cordless impactor to start my mowers. A drill won't start them! Love the show. 👍👍
Taryl, I bought a cheap swivel head ratchet wrench from *Harbor Freight and cut off the handle so I could put it into my drill motor. With the swivel all duct taped so it couldn't go very far from straight including the socket, I made up a very viable way to spin any engine over w/ out the nut coming loose or the socket flying across the room. What drove me to it was a chainsaw I had that didn't start good cold. It had a bolt holding the clutch on, so a way to drive the crankshaft was readily available. Then I started using it on my other chainsaws that after I removed the starter rope/ blower housing, but they needed to be turned Counter Clockwise. and as with any flywheel nut, I didn't want it coming loose when it started. So I needed a reversible ratchet head to run backward. My first try I didn't have the socket taped on the ratchet head and it stuck to the flywheel nut then came off as the engine revved up. It flew clear across the room and ended up behind the Oxy Acetylene torch bottles. BUT IT WORKED! When I was young I put a straight drive into my Dad's drill motor and tried to start my Go-Kart engine the same way. Catastrophe! It was a 3 1/2hp Tuk-Um-Suck and when the engine started the nut came loose and the flywheel split at the key way and exploded into a million Al U Mini Um parts! I found another flywheel, but I never tried anything like it again until my shoulder got Arther's itis in it and I just couldn't stand there and pull and pull and pull. *I do not advocate buying Chinese Communist Slave Labor tools. ben/ michigan
My grandfather had the socket one on his John-Deer mower. He would not allow us, grandchildren, to start it with the drill for the same reasons you mention. The kick-back was not fun. So, I learned to pull start that deer mower, which help me with my other grandmothers mower who had the very same lawn boy you had the adaptor on. 😊
Another classic Lawn Mower Mysteries & Oddities!
My father did small engine repair for over 30 years and I remember him using an air drill to bench start engines back in the day with one of those. And yes, Lawnboys were his favorite! I still have 1 of those models today.
Wow, those shorts are like the ones we had to wear in gym class in the 70s!
Love that old Lawn Boy
Great video thumbs up, would like to have seen Taryl using a worn out corded drill like they had back in the day,
I remember seeing kits like this in the late 90s/early '00s either in the Northern Tool catalog or the Harbor Freight. (Remember they used to sell Briggs engines? LOL!) When I was a kid I just used the drill and a socket on my go kart and lawnmower. We didn't really have safety yet.
Late 80s, i mowed my old neighbor's lawn in Southern Iowa with his similar lawnboy. I remember when he installed the spin start and made the hard cold starts so much easier! I was probably too young as he always used the drill for that first start. That light lawnboy was so much easier to push than dad's heavy snapper.
Super. My first lawnmower was a Montgomery Ward self propelled rear wheel drive 20 inch 3 horsepower gas engine machine with a wind up starter where the pull start is on most mowers, (And a lock-maintenance, wind-start, and release-run lever.) and I would hook my wagon to the mower and ride around behind it while I was mowing. Back to the subject, I liked to make go carts as a hobby, for fun, and I got most of my stuff from the dump, back when that was alright, usually finding an engine that had a rope pull starter, and I ALWAYS cut the cover off, took the pulley and rope and stashed it on the go cart just in case the motor died somewhere, and just used a 1/2 inch drill and an impact socket welded to a 1/2 inch extension that was cut down and an aftermarket 12 volt to 120 volt inverter to power the drill from a battery. (I saw this idea in use on another engine, not my invention.) I tried a 3/8 inch drill, but it was a little hard on it. These were fun carts, not racers, or professional, and some had unique features, like three gearless speeds (Gears?) in both forward and reverse, accomplished with two drill press pulleys, (Three different diameter pulleys, one casting) and three left pedals tightening three seperate idler pulleys on three seperate belts. (It worked great.) Reverse was a small riding lawnmower forward-neutral-reverse transmission that also changed the verticle to horizontal and belts to a chain. I also made a 10 foot long "limo" out of two 10 foot long 2×6 boards once, and this one had "remote starting" in that I installed a pull rope that was about six feet longer than normal and ran it under the seat to the steering column brace and positioned the handle so that you could pull start the cart while you were sitting in the drivers seat. 🙂 One last item was an old, small motorcycle "kick" starter that had been welded to the top of a verticle Briggs and Stratton three and a half horsepower engine on a push mower that I borrowed once. It was funny because you had to kick or pull it sideways, but it always started the mower. P.S. Good way to get your toes mowed. 💙 T.E.N.
Love the intro.
I like the woman's shorts in that Ad ..
In the early 80's here in 🇦🇺, the brand name was Trackers. If you wore copies you weren't so cool🤣 (even the guys)
We should be seeing some snow blower vids soon!👍👍
When I started cutting the grass, circa 1969, it was with a 1948 Locke that you had to wrap the starting rope around the pulley every time you needed to start it. Mom gave herself a black eye once when she tried to start it.
One time I was sent over to my aunt’s house to mow her lawn. Her mower was a small rotary that used a folding crank mechanism instead of a recoil starter. The crank wound up a spring and then when the handle was folded back on itself the spring would spin the engine. That was the only one I’ve ever seen like that so I guess either the mechanism didn’t last very well or it was way more expensive to produce.
Thank you for sharing.👍
Dean Kane = Taryl? I like mysteries and oddities. Really enjoy your videos. Keep up the great work 👍
I would buy a set up like that today!!
Since it's the woman's job to mow the lawn anyways, there is no reason why those shouldn't be still sold today. She can keep the safety engaged, while you start the mower. Fortunately, nobody is looking over my shoulder while i type this.
Only Taryl would have a lawn boy that can start that easily.
A well maintained well tuned lawn boy starts first pull
I enjoy mysteries and oddities episodes!
I had a mower with the Spin-Start on it when I was a kid. It was never worth pushing the mower to the garage when a pull or 2 would start me on the spot.
The most practical starting system from that era was the Toro key start which had a Nicad pack mounted on the handle plate that you put on recharge with a wall-wart charger. The engine had a conventional starter on it and you would start it from the "safe zone". It also had the variable speed drive self propelled system that let you vary ground speed independently of engine speed. The mower was the well made cast aluminum shallow deck. IMO one of the best walk behinds ever made.
my grandmother had a lawnboy like this one.. only was a whiter color and itr had actual electric start with a little lead acid battery.. it didnt charge itself you had to charge it after using the mower..
Toro had awsome mowers back then before corporate greed lowered quality 😢 ❤
My dad bought my grandmom that same mower, she like mowing her own grass. Be cool to hookup a modern lithium battery to that old Toro. I remember those ni-cads from my RC airplane days😊
I'm an RC pilot myself- 61, been flying since I was 12. It doesn't seem that long ago electrics were the "new thing" and they're now 95% of the model world. I have a bunch of giant scale stuff, love my 50cc twin cylinder Beaver but we have lost so many clubs recently and now remote ID (Do not comply). It's hard to find a place to fly these days. I still fly a lot of sport quads, and wonder why the why the major players don't sell keystart mowers that use their batteries. Probably the "gas is evil" narrative is discouraging them.
Sad that things are worse now than 50 years ago.
I didn't know Lawn Boy made a keystart model. I had a couple through my youth and they were great mowers albeit not super torquey. I rebuilt the battery pack on that old Toro with sub C Nicads which were the standard RC electric power back in the late 70s@@tcmits3699
Holy Schmoley! I have one on an old 2T Lawn-Boy! This mower was a curb find and had a thick rope tied to the handle. I always assumed it was just an adapter for a 1/2' rope to wrap it a few times around the cup. I'll have to dig out my Daisy Duke cut-offs and find a drill cup adapter.
what a great idea...wonder if they made them for snowblowers too....could've saved a lot of pulled muscles at the beginning of the season
My grandmother loved those old 2 stroke Lawn Boy mowers. She was rather disappointed when they quit making them and couldn't buy a new one. She mowed her own lawn with a push mower up into her 90s.
Thank the EPA! With all the green renewable nonsense (go do some research and some math) 2 stroke engines are almost totally gone forever, barring chainsaws and hedge trimmers and they are coming for those now too. KTM still makes a little 2 stroke bike. Last one out there still making a two stroke. Light powerful, and you can refuel it back up to full in 30 seconds or less.
I love my lawn boy! I got an old 21” 2 stroke that I got for free! So simple, cleaned the carb up and runs great, looking to get a new air filter and blade to start using it next cutting season!
I like this idea!
Taryl…. All of these Oddities and Mysteries is really getting me paranoid 😮😊
as an Australian, i loved these oddities videos, we never saw gadgets like this.
with the advent of cordless drills this is something that could make a comeback, none of my push mowers have a bail, but i have seen those styles.
I converted my old Murray to start with my drill (not self-propelled).
1. Cut a hole in the top over the rope pull housing.
2. Take that housing off and remove the rope and its retraction spring. (I did this because the spring was fatigued and not replaceable.)
3. Get a 1/2 drive socket big enough to go over the end of the blade shaft where it comes into the housing. In my case it was square but fit a 3/4" 16 point socket.
4. Use your 8" extension with the socket. That adds mass to it's controllable by hand.
5. Adapt a wood spade bit to fit diagonally into the 1/2" socket (grind the point off) and chuck it.
6. Put all 3 parts together.
7. Stabilize the 8"x1/2" extension with one hand. It's heavy so it won't get away from you.
8. Put your drill on it's slow speed setting.
9. Pull the trigger and when it starts immediately lift the whole assembly off the shaft.
This mower was purchased in 1995 and is still works every summer.
We still sold (a version) of this at Sears when I worked there about 10 years ago. It was for some of the Craftsman Leaf Blowers, Weed Whackers etc. Same concept, and I believe it was even called the same thing, wonder if there is a connection? The Sears equipment came with the flywheel adapter from the factory, and you could optionally purchase the drill bit.
I remember seeing these advertised in the back of Popular Mechanics Magazine.
I had the pleasure of using that Lawn Boy a few times. My friend had it for over 20 years.
Pretty cool little find you have there…👍👍
Love those roller derby short shorts and the Dorthy Hamill hair do on that 70s chick!
Yes Iam a Grass Rat, this is another very educational & entertaining video, cheers from Taxachusetts. MERRY CHRISTMAS 2023
Woooooooo got to love this video!
Taryl, build a time machine and bring that drill lady back! Love her shorts
I remember these being advertised in Popular Mechanics magazine back in the day.
I didn't even get a chance to say "Fireit UP!, Fire it UP!, Fire it UP!".
I remember an early 60's add on electric lawnmower starter that stayed on the mower. It was corded, I remember it because it was pretty big, about the size of an electric windshield wiper motor. It replaced the recoil start mechanism.
Awesome video
It still would be a good idea today. Some of those easy start mowers are a farce lol. Not many mowers have electric start still today. As far as the bail, that's what zip ties are for lol !!
Taryl, you should have discussed the Lawn Boy mower also ..
Thats an oddity on its own .. Offset front wheels ? Does it get around trees better? did it work?
Wow that is cool. I would love to have one of those...
Law Suit City is what I'd think it could become. Broken wrists, arms, pop-knots on heads, the list is endless.
That thing at the top of the handle looks like a safety bail. Either that or a self propelled clutch bail. When I was a little kid my neighbor had a tiny 2-stroke mower with a rope wind pull start. I thought that mower was so cool and wished we had one. That was before I was old enough to be conscripted into lawn mowing. Would have taken forever to cut a large yard. But I loved the way it looked, sounded and smelled.
we saw these at the Louisville lawn and garden trade show in 1981 and added them to our show room display . we sold a lot of them in the Madison WI area. When a customer came to buy a new push mower. We never had one fail or be returned
I had one of those in the original packaging, never opened. Sold it on fleabay a few years ago.
Very cool
You're awesome bro
I remember the old wind up start, probably before the spin start! Just another pain in the chops! You could spend your life and all your energy cranking and winding up that thing, think the pull start is far better than all of them!.
This kinda reminds me of the speed start that Troy-Bilt and Craftman had on a lot of 2 cycle equipment, I had a Craftsman weed wacker that had it, it came with a drill bit that was designed to spin in one direction to avoid injury and there would be a special spot to use it on the back or side of the engine
I have a Troy Bilt edger and Troy Bilt trimmer that use that set up. Works better than pull starting.
Anyone who owned anything with a Tecumseh engine on it from the 70's thru the 80's is VERY familiar with using a drill motor to start them with whatever adapter they could rig up. The taper drive is a much better and safer option than anything I ever used anyway.
I have a Toro (I think) weed wacker that has a feature that allows a electric drill to start it. A special one-way adapter fits the drill and then is inserted into the rear of the engine to start it. There was a battery version available too, that would replace the drill. It works great and can save a lot of cord pulling.
That lovely model on the brochure didn't cut her grass very often with her white sneakers because they are immaculate.
That’s pretty cool.
Pretty good idea. If people had cordless drills at the time it was offered, I think it would have been a big hit. People would be wiring their bails open.
Don't we do that anyway.😂😂😂😂
@@shawngegelman6041 I even remove or invert the drag bars on electrics, so I can mow near obstacles. (Get the gov't out of my lawn mower!!!!)
It would not have worked with cordless drills of the past. Not enough power or speed. Only the really nice ones with giant lithium batteries will do it today.
@@ryanroberts1104 Oh no, the good 1990s nickel metal hydride battery drills will crank over a lawnmower. Until about 1988 or 89 cordless drills were just like todays cordless cars and they were just as useless. You had plug the dill in and wait 6-10 hours to use it for 2 hours. Then some genius made detachable battery packs. Game on. An old nickel cadmium Makita stick drill MIGHT have been able to crank a mower over, when it was brand new out of the box. Fast enough? Maybe? It would probably have to be in low gear.
@@sethburgin5994 No. I already explained this. I was there in the 90s. I did this. It does not work. Period. Will it turn the engine over? Kinda. It's not going to start it.
Also, power tools never used NiMH batteries. The replaceable batteries you speak of were filled with NiCd batteries until they flipped to lithium about 10-15 years ago. You had to charge them for many hours to get minutes of use. Being replaceable or not had nothing to do with how fast they charge.
Even a cheap shit cordless drill from today won't start an engine.
We used to sell and install those in the late 70’s in our shop
Very neat
Really liked lawn boy mowers. Much lighter weight, due to the aluminum deck and 2 stroke motor. Never had an issue with any of their 2 strokes and never wore one out. The wheels, axles, etc. would always go out before the motor.
Wow I need one of those . I old and tired of pulling to start my mower
Broke the chuck retaining bolt in my cordless rigid when a pressure washer recoil failed. Its a left hand threaded bolt too.
Needs to make a comeback
100% agreed. simple idea well made. and even the Elite Very Special Stupid person could use the spin Start. without getting hurt. too bad
Nice!
Good rig!
I was thinking exactly what you said toward the end. That switch was dangerously close to a spinning piece of sharp metal.
I've had the flywheel nut loosen when drill starting engines with a socket. If you think about it, the engine is trying to overspeed the drill and the nut loosens up because you are holding onto the drill
Pretty cool 😎
It is a bit like an electric rc airplane starter but the rubber part is inside the tapered cone, and runs on 12v DC.
Mustie1 had a pretty good injury spin starting a small dirt bike.
If you put a breaker bar ratchet adapter between your drill and the socket, the engine can start and not rip the drill out of your hand. Used them for years on generators, that are sometimes hard to start after long time sitting.
I remember seeing those ads. If I had bought one, my brothers would tell me “you’re lazy” for using one. I can now tell them I’m not lazy, I had Lyme disease back then.
In the mid 60s my grandparents had a Briggs that had a flip out crank on top that wound a spring. The tension on the spring was released by a lever and that would spin the motor.
The rc car company Losi uses an electric starting system for their nitro engines called spin start.
Hope you're saving all these mower antiquities.
Damn safteys, took all the fun out of it! 😆
that's a good idea, they should sell them again , just zip tie the bail back so this would work then just slip the zip tie off the side to kill the mower. all I see wrong with this gizmo is after a time the rubber might wear to the point where it wouldn't grip anymore.
Used to have a lawn puppy just like that started it by spinning the flywheel with my hands
Was involved in go kart racing 25 years ago. Commonplace to start the karts with a cordless drill.
Taryl I use a SNAP ON TOOLS 3/8" Drive 20-Tooth Ratchet Adaptor F67B BREAKER BAR RATCHET HEAD works great !!!! Thanks Taryl.
Cool idea and much safer compared to using a socket.
i like it when you going to remake it and sell it in your online store
I use the clutch on my drill to prevent it from kicking back
I had a lawn boy and the starter was crap so i started it with a socket for years with no problems but would have loved on of them. Kind of how you start model RC Airplanes now days but in reverse
Tore my rotator cuff on my right arm, this would have been a godsend, but instead I now have lawn service, heart trouble put an end to my mowing days. Still have my mower in the garage. Been setting up since 2006. It only had 2 seasons on it. Look brand new lol.
Spin start is smart
Man, I want one!!!
I still use a corded drill. If you have a good drop cord there's no substitute.
Thankfully, when they had hand crank start, they were smart enough to make two helical slots as to safely release hand crank from pinned crank hub when engine rpm overcame hand crank speed. That tapered hub design relies on friction ie pressure, not good
I love that they now do this to upper class weed trimmers like on my Crapsman...........
Even with corded drills this is still a good idea. I do not know why it it did not take off.