Before you do anything, tell us where you are. You indicated zone 10. If that is the case then you are likely seeding bermuda seed. And if that is the case, STOP RIGHT NOW! Instead, you have a full month before you are going to get good germination on bermuda seed. Your soil is not hot enough yet. Even Phoenix is just now getting into the 100s during the day. Soil temps lag behind air temps so even Phoenix won't be ready to seed bermuda for another couple of weeks. Take the next few weeks to try and undo the damage you did by rototilling the soil. I'm talking about getting your fluffy soil settled back down, killing new weeds, and releveling the surface. Do that by watering deeply and letting the soil settle. Then use sand to top off the low spots and drag a piece of chain link fence on top of it to take the tops off the piles of sand. Then continue to water to settle the sand and soil. Do that at least every other day until you are happy that the soil is no longer settling. In fact your soil will continue to settle for 2-3 more years, but you did not know that before you rototilled...unless you had been reading here. Bermuda on a rototilled lawn is possibly the most unsatisfactory turf you can create. Bermuda needs to be mowed at your mower's lowest setting, but the bumpy surface will cause your mower to scalp it here and there. Those homeowners write in here ALL THE TIME. Rototilling is the cause, not the solution. The solution is to settle the soil completely, level it at the surface, and then seed your bermuda. When you seed the bermuda, you do not need anything to cover it up. You need to use a water fillable roller to roll the seed down to make good seed-to-soil contact. Rolling it takes the place of covering it with mulch. You will have the right weight on the roller when you can walk with shoes on behind the roller and not leave any foot prints. If there are foot prints after the roller, add more water to it. I walked over someone's brand new sod a few weeks ago and sunk in about an inch with every step. He's going to have a serious mess this summer. Tell us where you live and what grass you are seeding.

When I read your post, I thought of the time I put chicken wire under the grass. It was the only way to stop our Lab from digging holes to lay in when it was hot. I had to do something as a couple of times he actually dug under the slab on the house. If it has been there for many years why do you feel it is necessary to remove it? If it is plastic you may be able to break it up with an plug aerator. If you want a flower bed or to plant a tree remove what is necessary and forget the rest.

I didn't have to replace the starter. For some reason I had thought the "Bendix spring" was within the starter case. The link provided by bill_kapaun cleared that up...thanks :-) Although my Craftsman manual has the same drawings, those look like they were copied on a 30 year-old Xerox. The original Briggs drawings are much clearer. Once I realized the spring was outside of the starter, I took another look and found a lot of grass and twigs between the plastic cowling and starter. It was clogging the Bendix so badly that it couldn't push the starter gear up into the flywheel. I cleared it by wedging needle-nose pliers and a thin metal ruler in the gap. After five minutes of this, the engine cranked just fine. ...and cranked...and cranked... It woudn't start! The smell of gasoline in my shed told me it wasn't a fuel-delivery problem. Compression sounds from the exhaust told me that the engine was probably OK. That left spark. Pulled the spark-plug wire out and stuck a long screwdriver in the end. Touched that to a metal part on the mower while cranking and saw no spark. Followed the wire to under the engine cowling and found more grass and twigs. There was so much of it that the ignition coil and much of the spark plug wire was buried. Even so, all of that junk shouldn't kill the spark unless they were compromised in some way. So I wound up removing the plastic cowling after all. Why on Earth does Briggs use Torx bolts in front and hex bolts in the back? I didn't have a large enough Torx bit, so I loosened the front bolts with Channel-Lock pliers. The top of the engine was COVERED with grass, leaves, and twigs. It was packed tightly into the cooling fins. I smelled a rat...or more precisely, a MOUSE. Sure enough, I found what was left of the spark-plug wire encased in nesting material. The little bahstud had gnawed the insulator all the way down to the conductor. I guess mice don't like copper cuz that's where it stopped. The damp plant material was shorting the ignition to ground. A spark does little good OUTSIDE of the motor. I could see that Briggs saved money on the ignition system. The ignition module, coil, and spark-plug wire are integrated. To replace the wire I would have to buy the entire module. Instead I repaired it by splitting a piece of old fuel hose down the middle and covering the length of bare wire with it. My dad had bought the hose 15 years ago when car engines were still carbeureted. While it was useless on today's fuel-injected cars, it did just fine as an insulator. I cleaned out the cooling fins with a thin screwdriver. I scraped off more junk around the starter gear for good measure. Little mousey was busy making a home out of my LT3000 yet never paid me a dime in rent. After repairs, the mower started on the first crank. I put it to work over the weekend. The motor ran as well as when I first bought the Craftsman two seasons ago. Not bad for a 1000-dollar lawn tractor. With luck, I'll be saying that ten seasons from now. Thanks for the help and advice! Peace. Marco

I am not familar with that engine, but usually there are 3 or 4 balls under the square pawls, usually there are three little screws that hold the cover on. My guess is these balls are hanging up and catching. If you haven't already or if you style even has these catch balls would be to remove and clean the housing (inside), balls, and the slots they ride in. Reason I say this is I had a old 3HP tiller that would do the same thing, start squealing and the rope would start to come out. My first act was to grease these balls, DON"T do that! They will stick. the idea is for them to be clean so they drop after the engine starts and release I think??? I finely drilled a small hole in the housing cover so I could squirt some wd40 in there to stop the squealing. I don't recommend that cause my tiller was 35 years old and other than point and condenser replacement thats all I ever done to it except change the oil, clean the spark plug and decarbonize the combustion chamber a few times. That's my guess? maybe it will help or maybe not?