The rope doesn't pull smoothly. I removed the

depends on what machine it is your trying to fit the rope to!! some you have to take off the spring tension and remove the pulley in order to feed the rope into and put knot on bottom of pulley, however most briggs and stratton and honda recoil starters you can pull the rope completely out and remove rope then fit new rpe and let spring pull it back in

remove coil cap look at the rope pulley pull old rope forward till you get to end knot hold pully pull not out with the rest of the rope then wind pulley up till it wont go any farther back off one turn alighning the cover hole with pully hole use ascrew driver stuck between the slot on cover and pulley ten get your rope take a lighter and burn the end of the rope the take a rag pul the end of burt end of the rope shuold leave a pointed rope then take rope and stick through pully hole then the housing make the rope about 70 iches long it will be to long i no but just do it tie a knot in tend on the back of pully take lighter and heat it still it melts a very little the knot that is pull rope on through pulley hold rope remove screw driver slowly let rope wind up on pulley still it stops you will have rope sticking out reistall pulley cap then put handle on rope put handle all the way down to cap pull rope one turn push handel down to cap atie a knot in rope as close to to handel as possible heat not like the other end cut rope with 1/2 inch of rope sticking out of knot

you have to remove the recoil from the engine. you will see where the previous rope was tied off. remove old rope and turn spring assembly until tight then back off 1 complete turn. after tying your rope, put through the passages until it comes out the housing hole pull rope all the way through and tug on it to make sure that your knot stays. holding the rope let it recoil in slowly. pull on rope a few times to make sure action is smooth. install handle and adjust rope to proper length

Remove the four screws securing the starter to the saw. take a piece of starter cord 3.5mm diameter approx 86cm tie a knot in one end, Remove the single crew securing the rope pulley and remove, feed the new cord through the hole in the pulley, re fit the pulley to the cover, make sure the spring engages into the back of the pulley, feed the cord through the hole in the cover and re fit the the starter handle, now hold the cord in the cit a way in the side of the pulley and sart to wind the spring up by rotating the pulley, allow the pulley to re wind pulling the cord in,

Make sure the brake is off and retest. If brake is off and still difficult to pull, remove the side cover, chain, bar and retest. If still not right (remove sparkplug), remove the muffler and make sure that the spark arrest screen is clean and verify that the cylinder and piston look clean and smooth by looking into port. You can clean the cylinder by spraying wd40 and pulling the rope untill it all comes back out. Verify that the rope pulls smoothly before you reinstall the spark plug. If all looks good, reinstall muffler and retest. If the compression is normal, it should be rather hard to pull thru the compression stroke. Reinstall bar and chain for final test.

Starter rope is sold at home centers like Lowes and Homedepot. It is important to buy the same thickness of rope so that an ample amount will fit into rewind spool(starter rope is sold by size from 3.5 to 6.5) . Remove the starter cover /fan cover if the starter is riveted to fan cover (or just remove the pull rewind if bolted on). With cover removed, notice how the rope enters thru bushing and ties onto spool. Visualize in which direction the spool turns when you pull the rope. This is the direction that you will be winding the spool. Fish out the old rope and wind the spool in the direction mentioned above. The spool will get tighter as you wind. When the spool will not wind another turn, back-off one turn and align hole in spool to bushing on cover. Insert rope thru bushing into hole and tie knot (any knot that will not obstruct motor parts). At this point allow the rewind to take-in the rope to stop at handle. Test your work. The rope will break if you try to start the washer under load. Press trigger on wand to release pressure. Also the rope is stressed when the operator has a very long strong arm and pulls out the rope to bottom out at the knot. Good luck with your repair

Don't drill out the rivets. You have to remove the larger cover as one unit. There are several screws, some of which might be covered by labels. When you go to replace the rope, you have to pre-load the spring. You can do this by winding an extra long rope on the pulley, extracting about half of it through the normal hole (thereby winding up the return spring), and cutting off the extra rope that you have extracted. Be sure to tie a knot in the rope before you cut it so you don't lose the end of it back inside. If the pulley doesn't provide enough room to wind the extra rope, you can also preload the spring by turning the pulley (in the direction that would "push" the rope out through the hole) about 5 revolutions before you put the end of the rope through the hole. Good luck! Al K

Take off the three-four bolts holding on the starter cover and lift it off the engine. Make sure you dont leave the oil dipper attached too.
Remove its bolt at the cover so it doesnt come out of the engine block and make a mess.

Flip the cover over and you should see the pulley the rope rides in. Pull out the broken end piece of the rope from the inside-center of this pulley. Get a new piece of rope from a power equipment store. Make sure you get enough to cover the length needed to make it all the way out to the handle! Snake into the recoil cover from the outside hole into the pulley *(you align the pulley with the hole in the cover) with small needle nose pliers you can pick the rope through the pulley hole and then tie a knot to secure this end of things. A butane lighter is good to use on the frayed end to "melt lock" it. Nothing crazy now...just melt the tip where you see the frayed material.

Then put the t handle on the other end and tie it off too. Also melt the frayed end before pulling the rope into the t handle.

Now that the rope is in place all you need to do is prewind the pulley. This is done by using a small section of the rope near the pulley to turn it in the direction of starting about 6-8 turns and then carefully release the pulley so it winds the rope onto it. You can do this slowly by keeping tension on the T handle and slowly walking it into the starter cover. Be careful. You dont want to get your fingers caught on anything spinning or pulling here. The rope will be twisted so the person holding tension on the rope can help by untwisting the rope so it can rewind smoothly.

That is about it. You can then pull the rope a few times to make sure you put enough prewind on it so the rope doesnt stop pulling even though you have more rope to pull *(this is to prevent causing the recoil spring binding from insufficient prewinding)

Put the recoil cover back on. Put the t handle back into the fixture on the mower handle. Thats it! Start her up and go cut some grass!

Good luck and be careful!

the part that's riveted to the motor isn't to come off. You need to take the flywheel cover off; that't the whole thing, and it's held on by 3 bolts. Once that's off, you can get to the nylon pulley. easiest way to do this, is to take the screw out of the center that holds the pulley in, gently lift the pulley out just enough to get a hold of the rope, thread it back through the hole, and put the pulley back in place. Then pull the rope all the way out, and hold the pulley once it's out. you can then either pull it out from the knot inside the retractor, or you can cut the knot off, and pull the rope out. now, you want to turn the pulley the same direction that the rope pulled it out, until it gets tight. Back it off enough that you line up the hole in the cover with the hole in the retractor where you knot the rope. push your new rope through, tie a knot in it, and take up the slack. now you can let go of the retractor, and let it pull the new rope in. when it's done, put the cover back on, measure out the new rope to end up at the holder on the handle, and cut it and put the handle on the rope.

If I understand what you are saying... The starter pulls smoothly with the starter cover removed or when installed and the plug removed (no compression or spark). If this is correct I think your saw's timing has slipped or maybe a defective decomp valve. Time to visit your neighborhood chainsaw seller/mechanic.HTH
Lou