How to Fix a Recoil Starter

It's Saturday morning and time to cut the grass, use the gas trimmer, or start the chain saw to cut that firewood. Put on safety glasses and ear muffs for hearing protection first.
So far, so good. You set the choke and give the starter an energetic pull.

As luck would have it, only one GOOD thing can happen, and that would be the successful operation of the starter, and your machine starts.

Sadly, several bad things can also occur, and often do.
Which kind of starter failure was it? You have your choice:

1. The rope seemed to come out okay when you pulled it, but the motor did not turn, Nothing happened. You pull it again, same thing. Who used this thing last?

2. The rope untied itself from the handle, and with a nice zippy sound, the rope disappeared into the hole quicker than a wink. It's too far in to reach with needle-nosed pliers.

3. The rope came all the way out, all right, but the far end disconnected completely from the rest of the machine and it is now blowing gently in the breeze.

4. The rope simply broke. The handle came off. Yes, and no wonder, it looks frayed, black and rotten.

5. You pulled the rope and there was a discomforting, squawky, springy sound like a broken alarm clock unwinding fast. No wonder it sounded like that, the spring was unwinding fast because it IS broken.

6. The rope came out, turning the motor over and actually starting it, but the rope won't go back IN. This is the best of the bad things, because at least you know the machine starts. Shut it off, you have to fix it anyway, it's UNSAFE to work with a starter rope dragging.

7. You don't even have a rope? Maybe you have a wind-up' spring crank starter type.
It doesn't work either. The spring won't wind, or the spring is broken. Maybe you should have stuck with rope recoil model, just as your spouse suggested?

Regardless of symptoms, your recoil starter needs to be fixed.! Please note that if you are NOT mechanically minded at all, it may be safer and better to take it to a qualified repair shop. If you are reasonably mechanical, proceed further.

To fix a recoil starter, you need to understand how it works.
A recoil starter, in the simplest form, is a mechanical arrangement including a spring that causes the re-winding and retraction of the starter rope. When you pull on the rope, you wind the recoil spring tighter,

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