Recoil rope broke on your small engine? Here is a guide to repairing a lawnmower, chainsaw, outboard motor, snowmobile or weed eater recoil. The pull start assembly is usually easy to get to and will not take long to repair. Generally there are up to four screws that will need to be removed for the recoil assembly to come off. Once the housing is off you will see that the rope knot is probably still tied inside the inner housing. To make things easy try to pull the string through the hole of the recoil where it previously or still passes through. pull the rope and count how many times it turns. If you were lucky, that may be how many rotations you will need and won’t have to wind the new rope more turns. When the rope is tight see if you can stick a screwdriver all the way through the recoil slots so it won’t unwind. Slowly release the rope and make sure it won’t unwind. Carefully untie the recoil rope knot located close to center of the recoil and inline with the hole the rope passes through. When replacing the rope only use a rope made for recoils. A new general purpose recoil rope is literally only a few dollars.

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Regular rope will break MUCH sooner, sometimes after 2 or 3 pulls. Now insert the new rope through the hole from the outside into the hole where the knot was. Only tie one knot and don’t make it very tight. Slip the other end of the rope through the rope guide if there is one or through the handle. All will have a handle, some will tie the knot around a metal rod others just through the hole. Remove the screwdriver while holding the rope and slowly let the rope back in the hole. Did the rope pull tight to the recoil housing or the loop on the mower handlebar? The way it originally did? If so, tighten the recoil housing back onto the engine. Then pull the engine to attempt to start it, hopefully the rope comes out far enough to spin the engine a few times. Remove the recoil assembly again. If it was o.k. put another knot in the rope and make sure they are tight. If it wasn’t o.k. pull the rope until it’s tight like before. Then use the screwdriver to hold it in place again. Remove the knot carefully then grab the center piece which rotates. Rotate the center and hold it securely, now remove the screwdriver and rotate the center one revolution. Re-align the rope hole and stick the screwdriver back in place so it can’t turn. Try the knot and rest of the procedure again until the recoil length is right. Don’t forget to finish with a tight knot!