Snapper SP80 push mower primer thing is terrible.

I have an SP80 12BVB2A2707 that has the worst priming mechanism I've ever seen. It's a little bulb with a hole it in that apparently just uses air pressure from you pressing it to prime up for a cold start.

The problem is that they don't work worth a damn as it ages. There's a gasket behind the primer that does a terrible job sealing up and you don't really get any air pressure even with brand new parts.

Are there any workarounds or mods that can be done to fix this junk? I'm due up for rebuilding it yet again and before I keep buying shit engineering I wanted to see if anyone had any good mod ideas here to make this thing actually prime well