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 !!