Elgin recoil

[A Hoskins]

"PRESS to engage starter" is engraved on a silver button the size of a fat quarter dead center on the top of an Elgin recoil. The motor is an early 50’s vintage 5 hp (maybe) twin. What’s that all about and how is it supposed to work ?

"Fox News" isn't.

[frankr]

On any recoil starter, there is some way to make it engage with the flywheel and dis-engage when the motor starts or the rope is retracting. That is almost always some sort of automatic mechanism. Not so with the Elgin. You have to push the button down to engage it and let it up to dis-engage and recoil.

[jim-moffatt]

It only lasted a year or two. It was replaced with a conventional recoil. The new one can be retrofitted to the push button one.

[legendre]

quote FrankR:

On any recoil starter, there is some way to make it engage with the flywheel and dis-engage when the motor starts or the rope is retracting. That is almost always some sort of automatic mechanism. Not so with the Elgin. You have to push the button down to engage it and let it up to dis-engage and recoil.

Hey, that’s interesting.. a manual recoil engagement mechanism? Haven’t come across that one before.. anywhere!

What era is this motor? I do know that recoil starters were more of a ‘post-war’ invention, in a lot of places.. My late 40’s Johnson motors still have a manual rope pulley sheave, down underneath the recoil starter housing.. so the old-timers wouldn’t throw a fit, having to rely on some new-fangled deal that might strand them when the old rope & stick could get them home.

[terriblecj]

Have it on my late 40’s 6hp. Pretty seldom seen as far as green Elgins go. It takes some getting used to but once you do, it works pretty good.

[frankr]

Yeah, Elgin’s first attempt at a recoil starter. You would have to admit it certainly was simple. As I was thinking about recoil starters in general this morning, most of them were engineering nightmares. By that, I mean complicated and expensive to manufacture. The green top Mercs with the magnetic pawls were pretty simple, but not inexpensive to make. And you couldn’t rope start it in emergency. The West Bend/Elgin 2hp with the three balls were simple and inexpensive. They even worked sometimes. Probably the prize for success goes to OMC with the oval pulley and plastic pawl. Still being used today.

[thepetrolist]

quote FrankR:

On any recoil starter, there is some way to make it engage with the flywheel and dis-engage when the motor starts or the rope is retracting. That is almost always some sort of automatic mechanism. Not so with the Elgin. You have to push the button down to engage it and let it up to dis-engage and recoil.

… And that’s exactly the kind of strangeness that makes me love antique outboards 😆 😎

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