Hydrogrower87 There have been a lot of suggestions, from a lot of different perspectives, so let's first start with the inheritance - do you know if/when this last ran? cedgo's suggestion, removing the spark plugs, eliminates cylinder compression as a possible cause. This should make the engine MUCH easier to rotate (turn-over), so much so that you should be able to turn it over by hand pretty easily. I doubt if this is the cause, as you mentioned that you could turn-it by hand, just with resistance for the last three-quarters. In all likelihood, that's cylinder compression building-up. This is an easy way to rule-out mechanical issues as preventing the engine from turning.. If the starter then works, and/or the engine turns freely by hand, the next step would be the electrical wires and connections. A couple questionable ones will introduce enough resistance that your starter can't get all the juice it needs from the battery - much like when you kink a garden hose. That bend restricts the flow of water, and you get a trickle at the end. While cleaning the connectors, check the wires for exposed conductors, or wiggly ends, suggesting the wire has lost it's integrity. A garden hose that breaks down inside will restrict the flow through the hose, or a leaky connector won't let all the water flow through the hose. If it still doesn't work after this, try jumping with a car battery - CAR NOT RUNNING. This will introduce extra current, enough that if the battery was bad, things would work as they should. This is a shadetree mechanic's approach to load testing the battery. If you get this far, and things still don't work, it might be the starter itself. Or, it might be beyond your "mechanical skill of a pencil", and taking it to a small engine mechanic would be the next step.

Nope it's regular pencil eraser. It's a film I guess that the eraser left. If you've ever done it you would know what I'm talking about but it's hard to explain. I remember doing the same thing as a kid on my desk at school. An eraser will leave some kind of residue when you use it to write or draw with on plastic that is almost impossible to get rid of. Maybe on plastic it is almost like a scratch it leaves but I'm not sure. I really thought the magic erase would do it but it didn't. Maybe I'll try alcohol or maybe even furniture polish just for kicks and giggles.

This one is from my own sweet mom, who is mother to 9 of us. To save on bathroom storage space ~ which, let me tell you, was at a premium with 9 kids! ~ she gave us each a simple, inexpensive, plastic tool-type caddy to keep our own personal bathroom necessities (toothbrush, comb, brush, etc. ) in. They were stored on a shelf in our bedroom closets, to be carried in and then back again, as we needed them. This helped a lot to keep our bathrooms uncluttered and organized. Mom also bought one of this type of plastic baskets for each kid to catch of our dirty laundry. She wrote our names on each of them. The plastic made it easy to keep clean and the holes kept our dirty clothes somewhat aerated . . . which really helped with our brothers' stinky things (LOL). The handles made them easy to carry back and forth to our laundry room. Lynn

I buy the cheapie #2 graphite loaded mechanical pencils but seldom use an eraser. Not sure why I use pencils. Getting less and less use. I sometimes will use an erasable pen but I seldom erase with pencil even. I still cross it out and change it. When I did more drawings and layout work I'd use pencil more but I don't do that much anymore and now I do more of that on the computer too. I use the computer more and more so a lot of the time I am copying from computer notes so I usually don't need to erase. With checklists I'm scratching things off anyway. All in all I find it easier to write with a pen than a pencil. A decent pen that is. Just flows smoother.