after driving myself crazy trying to fix my recoil starter and getting it back in the housing without the spring going all over the place I came up with a quick and easy fix, at least it worked for me. All you need is a vice, drill and two small drill bits. First wind the spring in the metal "cup" in a counter clockwise direction and get enough tension on the spring to retract the starter rope. To do this you need to use the starter rope pulley to wind the spring. When you have done this put the unit in the vice with the tension on the pulley. Drill a small hole through the pulley and out thru back of the metal retainer, remove the drill but leave the bit in place, do the same thing 180* and now you can remove it from the vice and it will stay in place. You can now reinstall it in the cover and with a needle nose pliers hook the other end of the spring on the tab in the cover. No I didn't have any trouble drilling through and hitting the spring, it seemed to move the spring out of the way. I had to rewind the spool a second time as I didn't get enough tenison the first time and I was able to line the holes up with no problem. Hope this helps. However I still can't get the damn thing started
KG, August 2009
