Finally huh! There are 2 pages of topics on this forum from the past of people trying to figure out and easy way to wind up that dang recoil spring in their sled. Well I did it and this is the trick that allowed me to do it in under 2 mins.

But don't worry, before I figured it out, I threw it across the yard with a few 4 letter words also!

First... Put on glasses!

You have your spring and housing in two seperate pieces and you need them to join together again.

Take two nails and pound them into wood about 1 inch apart(I used my landlords work bench ).
The part of the inner loop has that bend it it. Put that around the bottom of one nail like seen in this picture

Now, with the other nail also inside that inner loop, place a board over the spings and start wraping it around. The board will hold all the springs down and prevent it from poping up in your face like its dying to do.
The reason for the second nail is to keep the spring from just going around in a circle which would prevent you from wraping your spring. You want to wind it TIGHT.. so that the end result is small enough to fit into the holder. If its too big, you will have to rewind it again (not a big deal)

Now that you have the spring all wound up, put a set of vice grips on it. Put it on by the part that has the bend on the ouside part as seen in the picture. This will allow you to nicely place it in the case that holds it. Before you go to remove the spring, bend the nail inward (as shown) so that it won't get in your way when pulling the spring up with the vice grips. Make sure them grips are tight. That spring is now under a good amount of pressure and you don't want it to slip away.

After you get the spring up and off, place it in the holder and put the bent part of the outer spring in the slot on the holder. CAREFULLY let the vice grips off while your pushing down on the spring.


Walla! now you got it in, you didn't throw it, and it didn't pop out and spill your beer over.


Now all you gotta do is put the plastic in there with the rope installed and wind it up. Thats pretty simple to figure out so I won't keep going.. the coil is the p.i.t.a. part. The last nut that goes on that holds everything together is important. Don't put it on too tight or your recoil will not suck the rope back in.

Here is a little assembly I modeled up on my PC and an animated assembly movie to go with it


Movie:
http://www.snowmobilefanatics.com/gallery/_Images/Member%20Videos/Miscellaneous/200718203454_521.avi

Also, a schematic from an online site


Some scans !!

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way to go matt...just remeber to put the spring in the right way before you release the vice grips or you have to do it 2x

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Why couldn't you post this about 6 months ago?? LOL I said every inappropriate 4 letter word in the dictionary and I even made some up. That recoil spring is a HUGE P.I.T.A. It took me about 45 minutes to finally get that thing in there. This how-to will come in handy. Thanks a million ACM.

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^^ sorry hah... no problem! I see someone posting today about their recoil, didn't take long for this "how to" to be put to use.

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Can this be sticky mods before it gets buried?? Or does it not qualify?

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hey thanks matt i did not click on the link the first time i saw it but now i did so whaen i go to my dadf im goin to do that and see if she fires up

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No problem... your learning quick. Now, when you learn from doing yours, you can help the next guy. Thats how we all have learned what we have learned. Let us know how it turns out!

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WOW!!! Thanks for the tip. I have been dealing with these springs for a long time and this might be the best way to do it. I did it in about 1 minute compared to the old way of about 2 hours. Thanks again.

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^ No problem buddy.. thanks for the positive input!

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Alright got my spring reloaded..

Now just need to know how much of the rope I put back on the spool and how much I leave out

and

how much do I wind the spool up, once its on?

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^ I think you need 6 - 6.5 feet. Your dealer will tell you that.

Wind it up, pull out 2-3 feet and put vice grips on the rope to keep it from going back into the recoil. Feed the rope up thru your tube and out the hole and into the pull handle, tie up the knot. take off vice grips, install recoil.

bingo bango done baby

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awesome ...ill finish 'er up this evening.

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^ Be sure to let me know how it went.. I am glad I put the time into this how-to.. it has to be one of the most used how-to's on this forum haha. I get messages on it and see it in threads all the time.

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Got it done.

Took about and hour and 4-5 tries. First time had spring backwards. Then couldnt get the roller to grab the spring. Finally got it. I do have a little bit to much slack(5 inches before starter engages) but it is not going to get caught on anything and handle stays in tight in cowling so F-it, done!!

Thanks again ACM

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This how-to gets used very often.. thats cool

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umm another way to put the recoil on is to put it on the outside clip it on or whatever and recoil it back in by hand into the middle. but anyways i have a mxz 670 and i cant get my dogs to work how do i get them to work? i cant figure out how to put the spring on to it the right way. not the recoild the spring any info? if i had a pic thats all i would need

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^ Is it not like the cat pictures above? Spring 7 on the drawing? It only goes in 2 ways.

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this really helped me thanks for posting it

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^ No problem, Good to hear!

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Awesome man, I've been fighting with a spring like that in a Briggs and Stratton engine for months. That looks like the best way to wind the spring though, I'll give it a try when it warms up.

Kevin

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One question, step 7 of page 8-4 (in your above scan) what is the proper way to preload the return spring? Someone gave me a recoil that is all apart and I am trying to piece it together.

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There is no "preload".. just put one end in the hole.. and the other end grabs the pawl. When the pully rotates, that pawl comes out. If it does that while your testing it in your hand , you did it right.

Who is thinking I should design a new recoil that will never need to be taken apart like this?

This summer.. when I have my recoil off.. I am going to be doing some work to it and modify it for rope replacement :)

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So the drive plate moves to make the prawl come out? It looks like to me that the clip on the drive plate moves against the return spring to make the prawl go in and out? Am I correct here?

Thanks for all the help!

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^ I am confused.. maybe you have a goofy type of recoil assembly?

The model I made and pictures should explain it all.

Sorry.. but your welcome!

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