Been there, Done That!
I don't know what you know and what you don't know.
I'll share a tidbit of information I discovered when I went through this same situation with similar equipments.
Most of the springs can be ordered as replacement parts, pre-wound and secured until installation. That's the route I took and was so glad to discover it.
The job was made much easier for me. :confused2:
Wishing you well on your project...Enjoy your week!
Deamer1
I guess if I was working in an actual shop somewhere I wouldn't hesitate to just order the part and be done with it. Running this business on my own and learning more as I go is part of the reason I do things the way I do. The spring was basically just unwound.. Sure, it may have been worn from use but, I'd bet it's got plenty of life left in it.
I'm pretty much trying to recycle decent parts and keep them out of landfills, which my customers seem to appreciate a lot. I take in a lot of equipment that isn't running and try to buy them outright from my customers. That way, if I can't get them running again, the customer isn't put off by it, they've got more than they would have got dropping it off at the GoodWill or local metal recyclers.
Some can be simple fixes, others take a bit of time. I've fixed plenty of recoil springs already but, this one had me puzzled and I knew there was some way to make it right again.
If you want, I can make you a great deal on a stack of Ryobi weed eaters that I really don't see spending the $25 a piece on carb rebuild kits, only to sell them on CL for $35-50. Those aren't worth my time and I probably won't take many more of them in even on trades unless there's something else in the trade that I'm interested in.
With that leaf blower, I picked it up for $7.00. A guy came by yesterday with a 5hp lawnmower in the back of his truck and said he also had a riding lawnmower that he wanted to use as partial trade on the blower. I was only asking $50 for the blower. I took both mowers off his hands. He also paid me $30 for the leaf blower..
The push mower: Owner said carb probably needed cleaning
Cleaned the plug on my wire wheel bench grinder - 5 minutes
Cleaned the loose paint from underneath deck with wire brush on cordless drill and applied coat of spray paint to stop rust - 30 minutes
Replaced front wheels with donor wheels I had from another deck - 10 minutes
It's on CL for $60
The riding mower is a John Deere XR75: Owner also said this carb needed cleaning
Worked on putting battery from my own JD Lawn Tractor and charging it.
Started mower with starting fluid to insure it would run.
Engine would stop after a few minutes, moved hand up the gas line and found petcock in closed position.
Opened petcock, riding mower runs great
It's on CL for $175 and doesn't have a deck.
The only new parts I usually buy are spark plugs, primer bubbles, and gas lines and it's been going pretty well.
I hope to get my step van on the road here soon and provide a mobile small engine repair service in this part of the state. I'll also use it for going to yard sales and looking for small engine equipment that's for sale in non-running condition.
Before all this, I was in engineering for over 30 years and to put it bluntly, cubicle life sucks. I'd much rather spend 3 hours refining my skills on something like that recoil spring than sitting in an 8x10 box looking at computer screens and worrying whether you'll be laid off at any time because your company can't find any more multi-billion dollar jobs to bid on anymore.
I'm also trying to get on with Home Depot in their tool rental shop so I can get benefits and learn even more, maybe even something from factory reps, to improve my home business.
OK, that's what I know and don't know..
