I think using an electric drill to start a mower is slightly daft and fraught with potential problems. It only has to fall the right way and next thing you know, you have a fin knocked off the fan and who knows where that could lodge among the moving flywheel? A drill isn't a starter motor. Why not just sort the starter first before anything else?

Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!