# Recoil starter very hard to pull after off season maintenance



## fredct (Jan 9, 2017)

I did a minimal off-season maintenance after the first partial year with my snowblower. All I really did was drain the gas, oil and put new oil in, and follow the instructions about removing the spark plug checking the spacing, putting some oil in the spark plug cylinder, putting the plug back in and pulling the recoil starter to distribute the oil (with the plug boot disconnected). However, when I do that, the recoil starter is very hard to pull. I can do it with good deal of effort. After it gets through the first few inches it slides smoothly, although it can take a couple tries or a sustained force.
Could that be normal because there's no gas in the tank? Could I have screwed something else up? I check the oil level and it seems good and I didn't really touch anything else. I don't want to try to start it up in the fall and have it blow itself to pieces. I am pulling gently because I don't want to get it anywhere near starting of course so could I be being paranoid (tried again... no, I really don't think that's normal)? Any advice appreciated.


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## Tom Burns (Apr 26, 2017)

Remove the plug and pull the starter rope and see what happens. It should pull easily.

If it doesn't , try spraying WD-40 or some other kind of lubricant into the center of the pull starter and see if that helps.

By the way, what machine and motor are we talking about?


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## fredct (Jan 9, 2017)

Tom Burns said:


> Remove the plug and pull the starter rope and see what happens. It should pull easily.
> 
> If it doesn't , try spraying WD-40 or some other kind of lubricant into the center of the pull starter and see if that helps.
> 
> By the way, what machine and motor are we talking about?


 Yes, you're right. With the spark plug out it pulls easily. Why is that? What does that mean? If that's normal why wasn't it like that last season? If it's not normal what do I do? 

Its a Cub Cadet 2x26"HP with an MTD 243cc engine.


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## RIT333 (Feb 6, 2014)

You are probably just paranoid, and nothing is wrong. On a outside, unlikely chance, it could be that the compression release mechanism is not working correctly, but probably very unlikely.

Give it a good pull, and see what happens. I doubt if you can break anything.


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## YSHSfan (Jun 25, 2014)

Perhaps too much oil was added to the cylinder and it is getting "hydro-locked"....???


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## 524SWE (Jan 20, 2017)

YSHSfan said:


> Perhaps too much oil was added to the cylinder and it is getting "hydro-locked"....???


Exactly what I was thinking! When someone reads squirt oil into cylinder they frequently use too much. Take out the plug, pull it over 2 or 3 times vigorously and put the plug back in. You should be good to go!


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## fredct (Jan 9, 2017)

I don't think that could be it for a reason I did not disclose earlier. When I originally did my end of season maintenance back in April, I didn't realized how recessed my spark plug hole was and I had no funnel that could get oil way down there. All I could do was drip some oil over the spark plug and put it back quickly so all it got was a "coating". This symptom started happening back then.

Today I took the opportunity of having a scheduled day off to use a new funnel I got to actually do it right, but I didn't put very much. I guess I was hoping that putting more might help the problem, and when it didn't I decided to post. But the problem was happening back when I had almost no oil in the plug hole...

The only other thing I did was change the oil. That couldn't cause this could it? Too much oil? Too little?


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## E350 (Apr 21, 2015)

Oil makes a perfect seal of the piston ring to the cylinder wall. So compression goes up. Which makes it harder to pull the recoil starter rope. Hydrolock means it is literally locked by so much fluid that the piston will not rise in the cylinder due to the amount of fluid in the cylinder because fluid will not compress, only air will compress. So if it is only harder to pull, but you can pull it, you are not hydrolocked. Likely you have a great engine with tight piston rings which you have sealed even tighter with oil which has made the compression higher which makes pulling the recoil starter rope harder. 

Good to go.


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## RIT333 (Feb 6, 2014)

fredct said:


> All I could do was drip some oil over the spark plug and put it back quickly so all it got was a "coating".


FYI - Your snow blower will probably not fire with the coating of oil over the spark plug. You will either have to clean the plug, or replace it - which it probably needs anyways.


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## skutflut (Oct 16, 2015)

If the machine is not hydro locked and the oil is not overfilled, I suspect the compression release mechanism on the cam shaft is the problem. 

I have a B&S 305CC engine with the same problem. Fortunately, the electric starter has the oomph to get it going, but I have to manually pull the engine past the compression stroke sometimes, so that the electric start can get enough momentum to spin the engine. 

One of these years, I will have to tear down the engine and replace the camshaft, but that's a process I prefer to delay until there is no option.


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## NJHonda (Feb 8, 2013)

YSHSfan said:


> Perhaps too much oil was added to the cylinder and it is getting "hydro-locked"....???


thats exactly what is happening


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## fredct (Jan 9, 2017)

Sorry I haven't replied. I've been busy for a few days... I have quite a few different opinions coming my way. Let me ask reply one by one to try to narrow it down.

E350 suggests that nothing is wrong at all!


E350 said:


> Oil makes a perfect seal of the piston ring to the cylinder wall. So compression goes up. Which makes it harder to pull the recoil starter rope. Hydrolock means it is literally locked by so much fluid that the piston will not rise in the cylinder due to the amount of fluid in the cylinder because fluid will not compress, only air will compress. So if it is only harder to pull, but you can pull it, you are not hydrolocked. Likely you have a great engine with tight piston rings which you have sealed even tighter with oil which has made the compression higher which makes pulling the recoil starter rope harder.
> Good to go.


Would it make sense that this only starting feeling this way after I did the oil change? Is this theory consistent with the evidence that it gets easier to pull when I remove the spark plug?




RIT333 said:


> FYI - Your snow blower will probably not fire with the coating of oil over the spark plug. You will either have to clean the plug, or replace it - which it probably needs anyways.


Tangential to the main topic but something I was curious about anyway. Is that not the intent for off-season storage or does that mean I put too much on? I really did try to use a fairly light touch, but I didn't measure. P.S. I've only used it for a couple hours so I was thinking the spark plug should really make it another season, not that it's expensive to replace.




skutflut said:


> If the machine is not hydro locked and the oil is not overfilled, I suspect the compression release mechanism on the cam shaft is the problem.


Well the oil definitely wasn't overfilled when it first started happening… I started to fill the oil up in the engine but I was having a problem that pouring it it was leaving a coating of oil down the sides of the where the measuring stick goes, so when I tried to measure it the stick was coating in oil all up and down.. So in order to measure the oil level, I had to pour some in and then wait 5 minutes in order for it to run down enough for it to be able to get a clean reading.
I got bored waiting for that every time and decided to do the oiling of the spark plug cylinder in the meantime. This was the time I didn't have a long enough funnel to really reach the spark plug cylinder so I could only get a little oil there as well. While the engine was moderately, but not fully, oiled I put the spark plug back in and gently pulled the recoil starter to spread the oil around. That was the first time I noticed it was hard to pull.
However, if it's the release mechanism on the cam shaft, why would it have started just when I changed the oil and did the mini plug cylinder oiling? Would it get better when I remove the plug if that were the problem?


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## skutflut (Oct 16, 2015)

Hard to say exactly what it is, but that compression release device on the cam shaft can fail at any time, maybe the last time you started the engine before it got difficult to pull. 

With the plug out, there is basically no compression to overcome since the air blows out the plug hole. Should be easy to turn it over without a plug. Also, if it were overfilled in the combustion changer and hydrolocked, pulling it over with the plug out would blow that oil out of there and relieve the problem. 

With the plug in, no escape for the compressing air (or liquid), except through the valves. On my B&S, the compression release operates on the exhaust valve by bumping it open just a bit when the engine is rotating slowly, ie when pulling the cord, or when its turns by the electric starter. As soon as it fires, the increased speed moves compression release out of the way by centrifugal force so that its not bumping the exhaust valve anymore, and the engine runs.

Have you checked valve clearance on your engine? Might be your valve clearance is excessive which would affect the bumping effect of the compression release since excess lash would be limiting the amount the valve would be bumped. Could also be a bent pushrod. As far as mine is concerned, I checked and the valve lash is on the button, so I have deduced that my problem is the centrifugal weight gizzmo on the cam shaft. I read that it is not an uncommon problem on these engines. It still runs like a top however, so I'm going to live with it until I can't anymore.


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## RIT333 (Feb 6, 2014)

fredct said:


> All I could do was drip some oil over the spark plug and put it back quickly so all it got was a "coating".


The reason I mentioned hard starting, is because of what you said about dripping oil "over the spark plug", which will stop the spark from being created and starting the engine.


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