I cannot pull the rope on my gas pressure washer locked up, do all the hoses have to be hooked up and water running for the rope to pull

i assume you put gas and pulled the rope an its running
and have water connected and running

if all is running an water is on an the pumps not pulling then the pump is frozen

Whoa! Wait when water pressure is at hose you have to pull the trigger on wand to release pressure so the engine can turn freely. It has so much pressure at wand that it will not let you turn enging over. If not It may have froze up. Check the oil first , no oil then it is locked up. If not you can remove pull rope cage and try to turn it manually.

Looks like the pump has failed; most times caused by freeze damage. If you store over the winter, you need anti-freeze in pump.

If you tip the unit the wrong way you can get oil into the head area which will cause a hydro-lock as the piston can not compress a liquid. Pull the spark plug out and then try to pull on the recoil rope. Make sure you are not near the spark plug hole because if there is oil in there it will spray out.

First. Turn off the water....Release all of the pressure off of the hose and pressure washer. Try and pull again. If it still won't pull check to see if there is oil in the engine. The engine may have locked up.

My power washer started doing that after the pull-cord mechanism broke.
I took off the hoses to make sure there was no back-pressure caused by the pump.
And pull rope was still frozen.
We took off the pull rope cover on top of the machine.
The cover came off easy.
After that we lifted out the spring-pulley where the rope is attached the spring unwound and we couldn't get it back together so I bought another one.
We should not have lifted it out ... we should have tried to get it to move first without lifting it up.
In any case the washer worked fine after the replacement.

When you store a power washer, be sure to drain the water and disconnect the hoses.
Don't leave any gasoline in the engine or it will gum up the carburetor.
Never turn a gasoline engine on its side or upside down or the oil will run into carburetor, and carburetor will need work.

Disconnect hoses.
Look for kink in water hose.
Check incoming water connection for filter washer
Replace filter washer
If you don't have a filter washer, put one in.
Hook up water, and turn on
Water should come out other side of pump.
Turn on machine.
Do you get pressured water out of pump.
If no pressure, then pump is suspect
Hook up washer hose without gun
Does pressure come out of washer hose
Finally, the gun trigger may be bad.

We had to buy guns now and then.
Search for pressure washer guns
Following link shows guns we used:
http://www.ultimatewasher.com/pressure-washer-trigger-guns.htm

Your water system is plugged with "gunk"
You will need to slush it out with water and air pressure if you can until it runs clear

ok i assume it is a gas powered pressure washer, if the pull rope wont pull out at all you either have a locked up motor or pump if it is out and wont go back in or recoil then the spring under the engine cover has either broke or come unwound.also if it wont pull out do youhave water applied to pump? if so turn off water and disconnect water hose to relieve pressure and try to pull it then then if it starts then apply water.

1) Disconnect the garden hose and pressure hose to the pump. This will ensure there is not a pump pressure load on the engine.
2) Remove the spark plug, check it's color. Brown/Dark Brown is OK. Silver/Aluminum coating, engine is siezed.


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