Help Needed - Yard Machine Weed Wacker
 

My FIL asked me to look into an issue he has with his Yard Machine weed wacker.

The problem: When you pull the cord it won't retract.

BUT when you loosen the screws that hold the cord retractor part it retracts.

I took it all apart and nothing looks broken or overly worn. I was thinking it was the plastic part that the cord wraps around. Just because it's the ONLY plastic piece and everything else is metal. Plus it looks worn, but not too bad.

Any ideas or solutions?

It has to be wound. Some times they come loose and then have to be rewound to work right again.

Funny this comes up.

My weedwacker conked out this week, too. Maybe eight years old.

They are so cheap ( $75-200 ) I just bought a new one.
Time, parts and labor, I can't see how it would be worth it to fix an old machine.

We just picked up another Craftsman today. Weeds beware!


KT

Hard to say without seeing it, but the spring may have broke or came unhooked yet is still under a slight amount of tension.

Here's the update from tonight:

I pulled out the plastic string holder and the spring came out like CRAZY. Ok, so I rewound the spring an put a lot of tension on it so it pulls the cord back in with a lot more force. SWEET! So I hook up the pull cord thing to the engine and same thing. If all the screws are tight it won't retract but if you loosen a few screws a little bit then it retracts very quickly. Also, when I pull the cord it definitely feels VERY lumpy like three revolutions instead a nice smooth pull.

Here's the weed machine in question:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1210465917.jpg

You are going to need to figure out what is binding.... Maybe you can shim the cover out with some small washers?

I'd have to go with Tim on this. Sounds like the housing is causing the drag. I'd try shims or a couple of gaskets.

Tim - Thanks a lot for the idea of putting some washers in there as shims. For some reason I never thought of that. I put them in and it started right up and the cord retracted just like normal. Thanks again! SmileWavy

On to the next project............