Does the engine have a mounting flange to bolt on a starter motor?
IF it does, you'd still probably need a lot of parts like-
New flywheel/ring gear.
Stator
Regulator
Battery
Starter switch
Misc wiring
Probably stuff I can't think of off the top of my head.
I'm not sure what the expense would be vs a new engine w/ ES.
Post the engine numbers and maybe someone with more knowledge about TEC's can help.

Installing electric start on your motor may require changing the flywheel as it may not have the gear needed to match the starter.
Parts needed to add electric start may include most if not all these,
starter
flywheel with gear
starter bracket
charging coil
solenoid
wiring
starter switch

Thanks Bill & Trip. Probably not something for me to tackle. I'll check with a shop & look at new engines. Either should be cheaper than $1100 for a new gen w/ES. Thanks again

Frank1964:

The other thing you could try is to take the fan cover off and use a battery powered drill with the correct size socket to spin the main nut in the fans center to start the engine.

It is fairly safe for those of us that know how to do it, but you have to take your wife's ability and dexterity into consideration.

Fairyprincess

It's an 11 HP MOTOR! There's no way I'd try that with a drill!

A trick that might help your wife is this. Some engines have high compression hence the difficulty in hand starting. One trick I learnt on my dads mower when I was small was not to pull on the starter rope right away. The tough bit is to get over that "compression" hill if you like.

What you want to do is to pull the rope slowly and feel for the compression. Try and judge it so that the cylinder is almost at maxium compression. This is easy to do because you are pulling the rope slowly and only short pulls at a time. When you think you have the cylinder near the max compression, let the rope rewind.

Now give it that fast pull.

Because you do not have to compress the cylinder much if at all, it should be easier to deliver that fast pull. Without this technique, I found that I would try and give it a fast pull, and when the compression hit the rope would be pulled right out of my hands.

Hope this is of some help.

Best, Mike.

Thanks Mike, that will help - don't know why I didn't think of it.......we'll work on that. It is a big cold natured motor, I usually have to pull on it 8-10 times before I can get it running (it's been that way since new). I see b&s engines with elect start going for 400+ - I'll hold off on that until maybe this one blows up or I finally get that whole house generator I've been askin santa for.....Thanks again, Frank

My 18 hp tractor is cold natured in the fall and early spring.
It starts with very little cranking however,
IF you leave the throttle at idle and choke it full.
Since your hand pulling your motor naturally you're pulling slow. - Try not opening the throttle wide and see where that gets you.
-br

If you know a guy who can do motor controls, all you need is a 12v battery and a couple inexpensive relays and a little time and you can turn the AC motor into a DC Shunt motor if there is access to the Terminal Tap Can. This is how most old generators were started. It turns the Electric Generator into a motor temporarily and switches back to a generator after the motor is started. It is an easy install within the hour.

Ask me for diagrams
Ewarren91@hotmail.com