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I have a fairly new mower that I was working on over the weekend because one of my kids put sand in the fuel tank. Anyway, I finally cleaned out the tank and went to start it by pulling the cord (I have a push mower that you have to pull start) and the string broke and now it's down inside. How do I repair that? Do I have to take the whole thing apart to get to the cord?

Remove the blower shroud and you will see the parts you need to deal with... If you had stated the make of engine and HP, it would have been easy to give more thorough directions. BTW get a replacement rope, the old one will just fail again if you reuse it. KennyV

The bad news is that a lot of recoils can't be repaired they are designed just to be replaced because the parts are rivited together and there is no way to put them back together once you have them apart.:thumbdown:

That could be a good thing for we that have very little mechanical skills! :laughing: My Dad used to fix small engines and could make them sing a tune. I on the other hand did NOT inherit his mechanical skills so the simpler the better for me.:smile:

I wish they still made the old pulls that you wrapped a pull rope around each time...

rip

Thanks KennyV! I guess I'll be taking the thing apart again. My mower is a Craftsman Briggs and Stratton 6.75 torque push mower. It's not the most expensive thing on the block but I just bought it last summer and I'd hate to have to buy a new one already.

B & S engines are all very similar, rather than try to describe how to re-cord and get the spring wound correctly... Here is a pretty good video, a little long but he covers about everything. The steps you will need are at the very end of his video.. KennyV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtok9MJLoQ8

Kennyv - thanks for the youtube link. Very informative. There's also some videos on weedeater and chainsaw repairs. That guy sure seems to know his stuff!
Rich

Wow, am I happy I found this thread. Yesterday my husband went to start our mower and he pulled the pull cord right out of it. The video is quite informative as well, thanks for the link.

It used to be fairly simple but the manufacturers have gotten to the point they want to sell you bigger pieces for more money. If it's riveted on, you have to buy the whole assembly, if not it can be rewound with another cord. When you get another cord, try to get something with a bit of poly in it as it will last a bit longer.

Where would you purchase a replacement cord? I think I should probably replace mine when we try to restring it. I have looked at a few places but they do not carry them.

monica123 said:

Where would you purchase a replacement cord? .

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Any decent hardware store will have what you need.:smile: KennyV

RockHound said:

It used to be fairly simple but the manufacturers have gotten to the point they want to sell you bigger pieces for more money. If it's riveted on, you have to buy the whole assembly, if not it can be rewound with another cord. When you get another cord, try to get something with a bit of poly in it as it will last a bit longer.

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......riveted no problem! just drill the rivets out and re rivet with Pop rivet gun ????
Normf
besides you shouldn't have to take it apart that way I've replaced dozens of
Briggs and Stratton recoil starter ropes by just removing the blower housing from the engine.
takes about 5 minutes.

I've never had to remove rivets either, I just grab the remainder of the cord with thin needle nose pliers and cut it as short as possible, then grab onto the knot and pull what's left out that way. To get a new corn in there I normally cut the new cord on an angle and lightly burn the end with a lighter so it doesn't fray as you try to feed it through the hole.

Vervepipes said:

I've never had to remove rivets either, I just grab the remainder of the cord with thin needle nose pliers and cut it as short as possible, then grab onto the knot and pull what's left out that way. To get a new corn in there I normally cut the new cord on an angle and lightly burn the end with a lighter so it doesn't fray as you try to feed it through the hole.

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Yep great minds working alike Vervepipes !
done this dozens of times especially on B&S
also a breeze to rewind the spring .....yeah !
Normf:smile:

I just noticed in reading this again that I said that I insert a new corn. I never insert corn into my mowers! Cord... "D" and "N" are nowhere near each other on the keyboard...

:laughing:right on most of us do this all the time no problem I usually preview before ubmittin

monica123 said:

Where would you purchase a replacement cord? I think I should probably replace mine when we try to restring it. I have looked at a few places but they do not carry them.

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Try a ship's chandelry(sp?)...yachties use the stuff for ties etc.....

KK

Rip said:

I wish they still made the old pulls that you wrapped a pull rope around each time...

rip

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OH&S kinder killed them off.
That and the guys and gals who caught their clothing in
the quickly startin' engine ;->


KK