Re: starter recoil spring 1957' Johnson fd-11
Turtles,
Just so you know, noone wants to help on this because it's one of those things that is easy to do, but not easy to write how to do without taking a chance on it flying up in your face and cutting the crap out of you.
Use Eye protection!!!!!!!!!!!
Is your spring in good shape on the ends?
I hold mine in my hand and coil it up a little in the direction it wants to go and then grab it with my right hand so that all the coils are in between my thumb and 1st finger. Then I pull the end so that it coils up tighter and then coil the slack I've pulled while holding the already tight coils with my right hand around as well until I have a nice, tightly coiled spring. Once I get it coiled good and tight, I install it into the recoil shell and carefully let it go so that it stays on the pin and in the housing. The middle, of course, is going to unwind. Now, I put the spool on top of the spring, aligning the pin on the spool on the loop of the spring. I loosely install the nut and bolt. I then pull the cord which should already be wrapped around the spool and the cord through the eye of the housing, and make sure the spring tries to rewind it. I then pull myself a little slack on the cord just behind the eye of the housing, and put a little preload on the spool so it will fully retract the cord. You'll be able to make the spool turn and the rope go around it because the bolt isn't tight and there will be some play between the spool edge and the housing. After you have your preload and it does what you want, tighten your nut down on the shoulder of the bolt and you're good to go. Be careful upon reinstallation of the spool. You're going to want to lift up on that loop in the coil in the center and put it on the pin, but try to resist that temptation because that's when it will come unwound and hurt you. The key is to have that end loop in the spring in the right place so the pin on the spool will fit right down on it.
If what I've wrote makes no sense to you, then please disregard and don't try it. Like I said, it's easy to do but not easy to describe.
Good luck,
JBJ
BTW, if it's on both pins but wedging the spring, you may have the rope spooled in the wrong direction, or your bolt is binding the spool somehow or another. If the housing is upside down, spool up, then the rope should be spooled counterclockwise, I believe.
Fortunately, I'm pretty good at rewinding these things......after fighting several of them myself. Ones of this particular model are simple enough to rewind, it's just threading the pull rope in and out the spool, which is a fun task. And yes, I second the motion...WEAR EYE PROTECTION These springs can really get ya.