A hand-starting mechanism for an internal combustion engine

A hand starting mechanism for an internal combustion engine includes an axially displaceable starting shaft. The starting shaft has a one way dog coupling which couples the starting shaft to the shaft to be cranked during the starting procedure but which disengages these shafts when the engine starts running. The starting shaft also includes an outer entrainment pin which engages a claw-like frontal recess in the inner rotary part of a freewheel device during the starting procedure. Upon engine kickback, the outer entrainment pin slides over one or more ramps in the frontal recess moving the starting shaft in an axially outward direction to disengage the one way dog coupling.