[G.T.]

Hi Hannah, Prior to my venture into Arizona, I spent the major part of my working life as a mechanic and service manager in a marine dealership....in the 30 plus years that I worked on small engines, mowers, outboard motors, snowmobiles, etc, I encountered thousands of recoil starter repaires that involved flat coiled springs....one of the problems with flat spring that resulted in more failures then any other was a dry condition (usually caused by engine heat or absolutely no maintainence) which we labeled as spring bind...Instead of the coils turning freely throughout the full range of the spring travel, they would drag on one another similar to a brake shoe on a brake drum. This in turn would over stress the spring ends and cause them to fail. Or it would break the retaining pins if they were the weak link in the system. Also strong coil springs have a nasty habit of flying out of their housing and smacking you right in the face just at the time you are patting yourself on the back on your clever installation! I would make sure that the spring was well lubricated with a fine light oil, 3 in 1 oil, a good grade of gun oil, BUT NOT, WD-40 or any other type of chemical lube...they don't last, and have little resistance to corrosion! So, you don't have to take it all the way apart, just make sure it is clean (solvent & high pressure air) and well oiled in the spring coils...and you will be good to go! til...later...G.T.