Mr. Wood
I am not sure about MTD. But most mowers have 4 bolts that hold the cap of the motor onto the block. Remove them and the cap will come off. Or should any way once you have removed the cap turn it over in the middle should be a plastic or metal disk that's where the rope in wound back after the mower is started. You need to turn the disk clockwise. Each time you turn the disk it will take up 3" of rope space. So measure the rope and divide by 3 to know how many turns it will take to retrack the rope back into the cap when you start the mower. Once you have turned the disk the number of times you need to add 2 to 3 more turnd. this will keep the rope from coming slacked.Now you are ready to install the rope back into the head. There will probly be a pieace of old rope in the disk. This is where you need to put the rope back and tie a up. There are a few tricks I have found our that will help. 1 befor you insert the rope you will need to take a rag and a match to melt the end of the rope to a point. While the end of rope is burning take the rag and cover the rope end pulling it away fron the end. This will cause a point and keep the rope from expanding causing you anger trying to insert it into where it need to go. 2 Once you have the rope through the the thick eyelet in the head and into the disk pull the rope through the disk and let the disk trun a few times to hold it while you use the rest of the rope to tie a knot in the end. Once this is done semply pull on the starter rope handle and the rope will slip back into place and should rewine back into the cap. Replace the cap and start mowing. Good luck and I know this will work for you.
Lester (chetsbro1@cs.com), September 2004
