I cannot get pull cord to retract.

There is a spring under the dog ear plate it's probably broke there's a hook on one in of the spring that hooks on to the housing and and the others end hooks to the starter pull it's self take bolt out of center of pull start and take a look be easy the spring sometime likes to fly out its not a typical spring per say it's a coil spring wound up

If you don't know how you will need a manual, it is kind of tricky.
Remove the rope. Feed the spring from the outside of the housing and connect to the recoil housing. Turn the wheel using a 3/4 " rachet extension and the spring will feed ito the housing until the end of the spring connects to the ouside of the housing. Keep turning until the spring is tight, back off about 1/2 turn and feed the rope from the outside, be carful here, if the extecsion comes out the spring will uncoil and you get to start off all over again.

This happens all the time. To fix it is not to bad. You have to take off housing around where then pull cord is, then when you get to the pull cord pulley, sometimes you can just untangle where cord is. The pull cord is in like a spring housing , this is what retracts it. It is all spring designed to pull and retracted. You will notice that when you take off pulley, there our little tabs that are bent in, that is designed to hold rope pulley in. There is a spring set up behind that. If rope is just tangled or crisscrossed then can carefully untangle and put back together . If not take that whole piece in and they can replace spring that has worn out or jammed. Hope this helps, I had it happen to me on a edger , was not to bad of a home project. Thanks, mike from fixya

I assume that you are speaking of a pull start mechanism.
I can not imagine how to put a put pull starter back on "wound tight". Your pulling on the cord tightens a spring which pulls the cord back in. They go back together with the cord fully wound onto the spool.
Usually, I only take these apart to replace the cord. Wind the new cord onto the spool without handle. Reassemble, then pull out on the cord a little when attaching the handle to the cord. This is the only way to get tension onto the spring at the fully retracted position because the catch for the spring is on the machine and the spring itself is on the underside what you are assembling.
If you do not wish to shorten the cord or replace it, then remove the handle, assemble enough to catch the spring, wind one turn tighter then feed rope through hole and reattach handle. Easier said than done.
If your spring is broken, then you will be needing a new one.
:o)

Many of these small saws have what is reffered to as an e start, the section that engages to the flywhell is seperate to the rope pulley, and is joined via a round coil spring, the idea is to soften out the compression and help to spin the engine over when cranking, one end of the spring fits into the outer flyheel engagment pinion, the other ends fits into a hole in the starter cord pulley, it does not fit into the main recoil spring, the securing screw for the assembly is a shoulder screw the idea is not to pinch the rewind mechanism when tightened, as this only screws into plastic it is very easy to over tighted and make the pulley post swell and stop the pulley rotating on the shaft, you may now need to leave the screw just a little slacker, the black plate under the starter is a conductor plate, this helps blow the cold air from the flywheel over the cylinder, this plate should always be there. When assembling the starter on the saw, keep pulling the rope as the cover goes on, this will ensure the pinion engages properly with the flywheel pawls.

Pull cords are all pretty similar so if you've seen one then etc.....
Does the cord retract?
If it's a broken spring then the pull cord would not retract.
If it is retracting then it's probably dirt, grass clipping interfering with the spring loaded locking lever.
Either way the only way to be sure is to remove the top cover and inspect it visually and clean it out and spray some lubrication on it.
You should be able to do this without taking apart the actual cord and retracting coil spring. It should come off as a unit.

Once you have inspected it if you you have any other questions please let me know.
Hope this helps.

If the spring is unwound.
Recoil Spring Rewind
I invert and secure the starter housing and rewind the spring large coil to small (need eye protection and both hands). I am right handed so I tension the spring enough to insert it inside the previous coil while holding what has already been installed with my left about 180° from my right hand. The tension will hold the spring in the housing once completely rewound. Then bend slightly the inner most part to engage the starter spool. It will require about 2 turns of pretension for it to retract properly.

If the starter cord needs a pretension, this works quite well.
R² Starter Rope by SmallEng.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRyy3MlsjVo

If you have more questions or need additional help please reply below and I will get back to you. Thank you for using FixYa and Good Luck. HTH
Lou

the rope and spring both have thier respective place in the housing for thier mountings they can be rewound by hand and reassembled with success,hint oppisite end of spring has a anchor point on the housing while one end is secured by a cup like screw mounting,to create the retracting force for retrival of the pull start rope its tricky if haven't done it before but you learn by trying Good luck Steve

I had the same problem. I had to take it apart and rewind it manually. To do this:
Step 1:
There are 4-bolts to remove on the orange plastic section the screw into the motor housing (one of them is hidden inside the orange plastic housing, you'll see an opening for it). There are also 3 screws in the black plastic exhaust housing that screw into the orange plastic housing, find those and remove.

Step 2:
Carefully remove the engine from the plastic housing. I didn't disconnect the throttle cable or the electric wires (points) just kind of worked around them.

Step 3:
The mechanism is kind of crappy. There are two black pieces with a spring in the middle, and a metal disc on the bottom with a ribbon coil on the underside of it. The top plastic piece is what turns the flywheel when you pull the cord. The spring in between connects the two plastic piece. This is probably what popped out. There is a piece sticking up on one end, which inserts into the hole in the top black plastic piece. If you remove the little guardrail things you can probably remove just that piece. KEEP TENSIONS ON THE PULL CORD. Once you remove that top black piece, it should start to recoil.

Step 4:
If it did recoil, put the spring back in the top plastic piece, and then put the plastic/spring combo back into the the bottom plastic piece, there is a little groove for the bottom of the spring to slide into. Then put the little guardrail screws back on. Make sure the big metal wire thing hasn't slipped down into the shaft of the weed whacker. That needs to go back into the motor, as it is what gets spun and in turn spins the strings. As you start to put the motor back in, you may have to pull on the pull cord a few times to get the flywheel and plastic piece to line up. Once you hear the motor start to catch, then you should be able to wiggle it back into place and put back all of the screws. Then give it a shot. If it pulls out again, you may have to drill a new hole into the top black plastic piece for that spring to slide into (this is the crappy design part).

Step 5:
If the pull cord didn't retract, you need to remove the other two pieces (lower black plastic piece and metal disc with ribbon). The metal ribbon has a nub on the outside that hooks onto a plastic piece in the bottom of the orange plastic housing. You'll need to wind it around once or twice to "charge" the ribbon, then wind the string back on the black plastic piece. The black piece should slide into the center of the metal disc and catch the inside of the ribbon. Once you get these two together, again, make sure the metal ribbon piece is wound once past normal and then you have to slide both parts together down into the housing catching the metal ribbon loop over the orange plastic nub. It's tricky, it took me a few tries. Once you get that you can try and test the pull cord, you'll see it pull out and feel it retract due to that metal ribbon. Then go back and do step 4, where you put the upper black plastic piece with spring back into place and replace the little metal guardrails.

This whole thing took a few tries, and the pull cord still gets stuck out. It's a major pain to say the least, but after the 5th time fixing it, you'll be a real pro.

the end of the spring may be broking you can fix it by taking it out and heat it with a small fire until it is red hot and bend it