Thanks – I figured somewhere in the 20-25ft.lb. area, so I set it at 25. The pawls don’t quite lay flat against the edge of the nut at that setting, so I’ll go a little more to assure the pawls stick out as far as possible to catch the ratchet on the recoil.

Well, I put some gas in her and she fired on the first pull!! Pretty amazing for a 69 year old motor. There were a few problems. The shut-off valve on the bottom of the tank leaks unless I open the stop-cock all the way, and if I hold the prime lever more than a few seconds, gas runs out the top of the carb where the float pin comes through. Should I adjust the prime lever so it doesn’t push the float pin all the way down? Not quite sure how that should be adjusted. But for a first try, I’m happy!

Well, I got all the parts for the starter mechanism, but I still can’t get the pawls to engage the ratchet on the recoil. They just barely make contact. I did some measuring, and it looks like the recoil sits about 1/4" too high, so the ratchet doesn’t fully engage. I tried adjusting the front gas tank mounting brackets to their lowest position (without hitting the flywheel) but it’s not enough. The starter pulley shaft is properly centered. I tried removing the tank and setting the recoil directly on the flywheel, and the ratchet engages the pawls properly. It’s like the tank is too high or the recoil is too high. Any ideas?

No, the flywheel is fine and if it were any higher, it would scrape the bottom of the gas tank. I’m wondering if maybe the recoil starter is the problem? They apparently made more than one in 1947. It bolts on the gas tank perfectly, and looks like the right one. I wasn’t able to find a part number on it. I noticed there are different part numbers for the Sportsman and Zephyr model starters.