Husq 41 cord won't retract

Working on a little Husq 41, the cord doesn't retract properly. Took it apart, rewound it against the spring nice and tight, after a few pulls it'll make a snap sound (I assume it's the spring working loose from the sprocket) and eventually it'll be loose enough that the cord won't pull back in.

Does this sound like a case of a bad spring or....? The sprocket doesn't look broken but in all honesty, I'm not sure what it's supposed to look like

I would examine the spring closely and make sure the end hasn't broken off.

From the look of it your spring clip on the outside is canted, and under load I bet that it is spinning around and loosening up when you pull on the starter. Bend the outer spring clip at the end more so it is at 90 degrees and locks the spring in place.

Or, I could just say use the Stihl!?

That did the trick! Only problem, I tried bending it back while it was still in the housing and the whole spring came out. Spent about 10 minutes trying to wind it in by hand with no luck (and sore hands). Used this guy's technique and had it back together in a few minutes!



Thanks again!

(would use the stihl but don't even have any wood to cut right now! Just tinkering in the garage )

Slick trick! Thanks for posting that!

That's a lotta work to rewind a recoil spring.

Having never had to rewind one yet I wouldn't know, only that the OP and the guy in the video talked about how much trouble they were having to do it "by hand". I can already see how to improve upon his technique a little in the video (finishing nail, one large tie). I'm sure you have developed a great technique to do this yourself, care to share it with us for the day when one of mine comes popping out and snaking all over my workbench. I know the first order of business is to "don't let that happen in the first place". But how do we head down the road to recovery!

How do you do it? I tried winding it by hand and putting it in but I couldn't get it tight enough. Then I tried winding it in to the frame by starting at the outside, but couldn't get past the first coil and it would keep slipping out and coming unwound

Most of the time I wind 'em in the starter housing from the outside in. There are exceptions tho. Also when you buy a new spring for many of these units, it comes pre-wound in a case. Line it up, push it out of the case into the housing and reassemble the starter.