I have a 1980 185 I picked up as a project to work on. It has the usual broken rope in the recoil starter. I pulled it apart and as a temp fix, used a lawnmower rope and handle. Got everything back together just fine and after starting the bike a few times, Mr Rope broke. I figured it would but did get it to at least work.

I went ahead and ordered a rebuild kit for it (rope, handle, dogs, spring, pulley, etc). I was just wondering if there is anything I need to be aware of of maybe do when I do the rebuild. Like number of turns needed to preload the spring/pulley, length of rope or anything else. I've done quite a few small engines in the past but just want to check and see if there is anything different about these. Thanks to all and have a great day!

 

While I`m not sure on what count to use I`d just say do a mock up on it if need be to see how many turns it takes, I did the same thing you did and got a rebuild kit and used the rope it came with only to have it break. I used the most heavy duty rope I could from a place in town and after several pulls it broke, so I finally went to dennis kirk and ordered a steel cable that they carry just for this purpose, it hasn`t given me any problems yet and my engine has a 9.50:1 compression ratio. It was well worth the cost I paid for it.

 

Hey, Thanks for the info. The kit I got supposedly is the correct kit to rebuild these blasted things. The rope looks heavy enough and the handle is the same as the original. But know you have me thinking about rope breakage. Do you happen to have a link for the steel cable you mentioned? And does anyone else have any experience on these at all, rope versus steel cable??

 

The only rope i have ever broke was old rope. I buy it 50ft at a time from walmart. I have rebuilt enough of those to fill up a 26ft. uhaul. As for dogs and springs, i was on ebay about a year ago and i bought a box of 1000 springs for 10 bucks. And the same person had a box of 500 dogs for 10 also. I havent used them all yet.