Must be an easy answer to this one!

[TonyK]

Got a cheapo petrol strimmer which only had about 6 hours use before the pull cord snapped. Ordinarily straight back to DIY shed waving receipt except this time the machine is over a year old and the receipt disappeared long ago. Having got a length of decent cord from Hewdens I dutifully removed the old one only to have a 4 foot length of sprung steel whip out across the garden.

So, how the hell do I wind this back up looping one end to the plastic wheel with the cord on it and the other end into the notch on the strimmer housing whilst the whole thing is in tension! There must be an easy answer is this this just a hopeless task?

Since its demise I've bought a decent Kawasaki (sp) with brush cutting blades et all but I'd like this one as a lightweight machine for strimming weeds and grass.

Any bright ideas?

Ta

Tony

[Nige]

Can't you assemble it slack and wind it up?

[Lee]

Exactly what I did when it happened to our strimmer. It's easier than it looks, just need patience... ;)

Lee

[Dave Liquorice]

And make sure that it can't leap out at you again. Mind those fingers there can be quite a lot of energy stored in a spring...

If the spring sits inside a cup start at the outside end and just push the spring in, rotating the cup until all the spring is in the cup. Then start winding it up drawing the spring in to the middle and away from the cup sides.

[Ian Stirling]

And eye protection.

[Terry]

Recommend eye protection just in case it 'get's loose' on you! On a smaller scale I recently had to repair and rewind the pull out electric cord for a canister type vacuum cleaner. Before I fixed it there was about half a metre of wire that wouldn't retract. Had to rewind the spring so that when fully retracted there was still sufficient tension on the wire. Also, in the past had to do same with the pull starter on a chain saw. Agree takes a bit of time and patience.

[Lee]

Sorry, I should have suggested wearing eye protection myself.

The spring did jump out a couple of times, which is why I did suggest patience ;)

Lee