Tecumseh vantage 50 - broken pawls
Al-Ko BM 875 II
Bought this brand new, but on Ebay from a guy in Italy, less than half
the price including delivery. Unwanted or surplus stock or maybe he
worked in the factory and he has access to the factory rejects......
who knows, I certainly don't.

It took a while to start at first, but once running it was ok, and
after running a few times it became easier to start. Then the
problems came....... often during starting the pull cord would come to
a complete and abrupt stop causing me pain. After only a few hours
running & starting it stopped starting, removing the starter cover,
both pawls broken out and lost. Amazed to see they were only located
in a plastic pulley wheel with thin plastic walls 2mm thick - the
plastic walls had broken on both pawl housings. Found new starter
assembly online but reluctant to buy and fit as surely same problem
will happen again? What to do? Why does engine yank on the starter
cord like this?

I just had a thought maybe the sudden yank on the cord was the starter
spinning without the pawls going oput then all of a sudden the pawls
sprang out to engage - that would do it, but I don't know if that is
mechanically possible, I mean I can't remember how the pawls opened
outwards whether by cetrifugal force or was it just by tensioning the
pull cord they came out without any spinning/centrifugal force.

The alternative was the compression stroke on the engine was jamming
it up.

I guess it's hard for you guys to offer advice without further
investigation by me...... i.e buying a new starter mechanism and
fitting it and trying to come up with more answers as to what the
problem is, so we can finally solve the problem.

The other solution I'm loooking at right now is making my own fixed
pulley which I'm going to securely fix to the crank/starter cup and
then there won't be any pawls to fowl anything up

Any thoughts?

Thanks