Mine had the exact same problem after the first couple of rides. When I asked the service tech he told me it was probably filled with mud and would not be covered under the warranty. I took it apart and that was the exact problem, it was full of mud. I cleaned it up and sprayed it down with silicone and put it back together and it worked great. Just something I think you gotta keep your eye on. Have a great ride!

 

When you unbolt it does it "explode" like a lawn mowers spring will or does it stay together?

 

I don't think mine had any mud in it when I pulled the cord it came out clean until I had to mess with it and get it dirty. I'm going to just spray it and seal it with silicon after I get it working.

 

When you take the cover off it will not fly everywhere like some of the old lawn mowers, it has a plastic disk inside the cover which retains the spring, it unbolts from inside the cover. I didn't see any mud in mine either, just wet and a little dusty.

 

Thanks I will be taking it apart then to oil it hopefully that is all it is.

 

That's odd, I just happened to pull mine Sunday just to see how hard it was to crank, rope stayed out. I pulled it off and squirted some lube of some kind (probably should get some silicone spray), and it worked fine. Not very waterproof to be so low on the machine...

 

Seems to be a problem with all of the 650's, I shimmed the critter and it works fine now. Looks like they made the clearence in there a little tight and any kind of dirt will make it hang up.


All it took was a washer the same diameter of the bolt that holds the spool in place. I removed the bolt, holding the spool to assure it didnt unwind then lifted the locking mechanism and placed the washer in between the spool and locking mechanism. Put her back together, and she works everytime!


Just a little input.

 

My brothers and my 650 both had this problem when we tried pull staring them. We found very little dirt or mud in either one. The ropes were wet but that was about it. We cleaned them up and put a couple more turns on the rope. This which in turn makes the spring tighter so it has more power to wind the rope back in. So far no more problems. I was lucky when I ran my battery down winching the other 650 out. I got one pull out of the rope and it started, saved us from towing a 650 back to the parking lot.

 

I sprayed silicon in mine the other day after the problem and it works like a charm now.

 

Mine does that with the pull starter also. When I took it apart it didn't have too much dirt in it. At least to me it didn't seem to be enough to keep the rope out. When I loosend the nut it loosend up and went right in. So what I did was went and bought a metric lock nut and was just going to leave a little extra play on the pull starter. I would love to tell all of you it worked but, I bought the lock nut about three months ago and have never tried it. My only fear was the nylon part of the nut would not handle the heat well. Anyone know how much heat a lock nut can handle??