How to Repair a Backyard Mower Pull Cord

Supersede a broken starter rope in a half hour.

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Introduction

Supervene upon a broken starter rope on your lawnmower quickly and hands by following this unproblematic footstep-by-step procedure.

Tools Required

Materials Required

  • New pull rope

You lot tug one last time to get the lawnmower started, and suddenly the rope breaks and the end goes spinning into the hole. Don't blow a gasket. If you have even a tinge of mechanical aptitude, replacing a starter rope is pretty like shooting fish in a barrel. If the spring breaks—a rare upshot, according to our repair expert—the fix is a lot harder, and we recommend you accept the mower to a repair center.

Bank check out what to do if your lawn mower won't kickoff.

Project stride-past-pace (4)

Step ane

Remove the Old Starter Rope

The offset step in repairing a pull cord is to remove the rewind assembly from the lawnmower. How you do this will vary depending on your lawnmower model, but it's normally held on past iii or more than screws.

Some mowers take a shroud covering the top of the mower. On these, you'll accept to search for and remove the screws that hold the shroud in place. If your rewind unit is held on past rivets instead of screws, encounter "No Screws?" beneath.

  • After y'all remove the rewind unit, flip information technology over and look inside to find the knotted end of the broken rope.
  • Grab it with a pair of needle-nose pliers and pull it out. You'll thread the new replacement starter rope through this hole.

Remove

Step 2

No Screws?

Sometimes, rivets concord the rewind unit of measurement to the metal shroud. To access this kind of rewind unit, remove the bolts that hold the shroud to the engine. If the rivets are loose, drill them out and supercede them with bolts and locknuts.

Tips to Winterize Your Lawn Mower

Screws

Pace three

Install a New Rope

Earlier you install the new rope, you lot take to rewind the spring by twisting the rope caster in the same direction it goes when you lot pull on the rope. You'll know when you lot're turning the pulley in the right management because it volition get harder to plow.

  • Keep turning the pulley until you feel resistance and it won't turn easily.
  • Then let it unwind nearly one-half to one revolution until the hole in the pulley lines up with the hole in the rewind housing.
  • Wedge a screwdriver against the pulley to keep the spring from unwinding while you thread the rope through the holes.
    • Pro Tip : With leather gloves on, cook the end of the rope with a match. While the plastic is hot, give it a quick twist to create a pointed cease so information technology's easier to thread in.
  • Push the cease of the rope through both holes and tie a knot.
  • Heat the knot a little bit with a match and pull information technology tight to continue it from coming undone.
  • Remove the screwdriver while you keep force per unit area on the caster with your finger, and gradually permit the rope current of air onto the wheel.
  • You may have some actress rope to cut off later on everything's back together. Mount the rewind unit and reinstall any shrouding or other parts you lot had to remove.

Replace

Step 4

Tie a Knot

  • Put the handle on the rope and necktie a knot. Position the knot so that at that place'southward a little tension on the rope when you release the handle.
  • If the rope on your lawn mower extends up the handle, make certain to place the rope handle in its final position before tensioning the rope slightly and tying the knot.
  • Let the caster air current the rope back into the rewind.
  • Reinstall the rewind unit of measurement and any other parts you've removed.

knot

Originally Published: June 04, 2022