MTD starter gear

MTD B&S 12.5 motor.
Are there different starters for the single cylinder motors? Recently I've managed to strip the teeth from two starters. Given that my machines are kept going by me grabbing anything that will keep them going. I wondered if there's some kind of mis-match between the ring gear and the starter dog?

There are some with 16 tooth plastic gears, and some with 14 tooth metal if I am not mistaken.

Got the model/type/code for that engine?  Maybe we can help decipher the correct one. Should be stamped up by the spark plug or on a plate by the flywheel.

That would explain things! The current one was plastic and has absolutely shreaded.  Worked ok for a coupleof weeks too....

AYE... that was helpful. Briggs shows 3 possible starters, plastic, steel and aluminum gear. Do you think you have the original starter?

The flywheel, is it's gear Aluminum or Steel. Aluminum, it takes a plastic gear. If steel, then the steel gear is my understanding.

It's a steel flywheel. So I'm going to have to hunt out a metal starter dog. Many thanks for your input on this!

That has been my understanding.