HELP! I should know this but I don't.................

In all honesty, I can't remember my first Babe Bee(1956) nor my first Pee Wee(~1957) having them...I think they came later.

It is my understanding that the originals came from Davis (DDD), but that is something I read so it may be false. I think they appeared ~1959 if memory serves. The rachet type came much later.

I don't like either of them but occasionally I bow to them. I used the ones that came on my TD .010's. I dislike the rachet type the most; something about it bouncing against the drive plate on a running engine just seems to annoy me. I have used them on initial runs of Sure Starts though.

George

Edit: The first spring starter I got was on an Olympic .15 which I bought ~1959...which reminds me, I have to find that spring and ship it to someone who has a Sportsman.

I know there are Snap Starters and zero drag spring starters. Snap Starters use a cam and automatically engage when the prop is rotated opposite of the running direction. Zero drag spring starters are engaged when the spring is looped over one blade of the prop.

For the Snap Starters, the first version used a cam that was simply placed on with the prop and could be used on round driveplates. The second version is the cam that fits on the hex shaped driveplate. The hex shaped one is the latest of the Snap Starters. The zero drag spring starter was the first.