Replacing recoil starter spring, 1958 Lightwin

[lindy46]

Anyone have a good tip on tightening the new recoil spring down small enough to fit in the housing. The new one has a band around it to keep it from uncoiling, but the diameter of the band is much bigger than the housing where it needs to go. Maybe a youtube? It’s been awhile since I replaced one of these and it doesn’t look easy.

[sailor58]

We learned as kids that them things would hurt ya… I remember putting the sheave in a vise, and winding up the spring on it and pinning the end with a #6 finish nail in the little hole in the sheave, and then installing the sheave in the housing. Same system for all the twins.
Larry

[frankr]

Forget about pre-winding the spring. Turn it loose from that band (stay out of the way as you do). Then put the outer eyelet over the pin in the housing and wind the spring in as you would when coiling up a garden hose.

[chris-p]

Agree with Frank, I gave up long ago trying to put them in pre wound. Cut the bands, let it go straight, then start coiling CCW, ALWAYS keeping one hand on the spring to keep it from popping out at you

I put the housing upside down on a lazy susan, If you have a second person around makes it real easy if they turn the lazy susan while you handle the spring, but after a couple you learn to do it alone.

I personally find it easier to spin the housing, rather than the spring, as you don’t want that spring whipping around as you coil it in.

Of course, I use the lazy susan as most time im doing this it is after a full paint job and restoration and don’t want to scratch the paint on the recoil housing. IF you don’t care about that, just spin the housing around on the work bench.

[Mumbles]

A new spring will lay out straight for its length so I like to use a folding table or truck bed when working on them as I don’t have any room on the work bench. Freshly painted housings can be rotated on a clean towel to avoid scratches and as the spring goes in, I like to lightly grease it for two or three feet at a time. Having a third hand would be handy but I manage to do it with one and a half hands. You might want to wear some safety goggles to just in case…

[ed-sam]

I like to use a small block of wood (.75 x 1.5X 4) to keep the started length of spring in the housing. Keep one hand on the wood and then rotate the loose end under the block forcing the spring into the housing until it is all wrapped up. I have done this several times and it works great. Ed

[lindy46]

Got her done – found a video which worked well to rewind the spring. My wife helped – two extra hands were needed to wind it tight enough. Dropped the pre-wound spring in the housing and slid off the nylon tie and job was done!
https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/v … ction=view

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