01 mxz recoil question

[carpshooterdeluxe]

ok so i got a little overzealous starting the sled for the last time this previous winter and pulled the rope clean through the recoil. 2001 mxz 600...rope appears to not have broke but maybe a knot came undone? how tough is it to rewind the rope and what type of time commitment am i going to need to fix it? any help would be appreciated...all this snow in south dakota has me itching to get the winter toys ready. fishouse is done now i just gotta get the sled ready to tow the (Contact US Regarding This Word) thing!

[hanson]

Should be about a half hour to an hour project, maybe a little longer if you've never done it before.

Not knowing the exact placement of the engine, pipe, recoil in your sled, I'm going to generally say you need to remove your exhaust pipe or pipes to get some room to work on the recoil. Just get a good pliers, vise grip, or my favorite tool (Robo-Grip) and pop the springs off that hold the exhaust pipes at the exhaust manifold and wherever else there may be a retention spring.

The recoil is probably held on with 4 bolts, maybe more. Take the bolts off and the recoil housing should just come right out.

You'll see a plastic pulley (lack of a better word) that the rope wraps around. There should be a hole in the pulley that you can feed the rope through. Tie a good knot in the rope and get it seated into the spot where the hole is at. Wrap the rope around the pulley until you have about 12 inches left.

The next part is tricky. There most likely is a notch in the outside of the pulley. Hook the remaining length of rope into the notch and you'll have to preload the spring for the recoil by turning the pulley. I believe you need to go counterclockwise to wind the spring. When it starts getting tough, feed the rope back out through the hole in the recoil housing. You can now pull on the rope and see how well it pulls back into the housing. If you didn't get the tension right, you'll have to add a couple more rotations to preload the spring.

Thats it. The trickiest part is getting the tension right on the recoil spring without loosing your grip on the rope and having to start over again.

Handy piece of equipment to have is a small Vise-Grip to clamp onto the rope once you pull it back through the hole in the housing. That way, it won't get sucked back into the recoil.

[carpshooterdeluxe]

thanks for the very descriptive information. i can almost picture in my head the process you spelled out. was going to tear into this tomorrow (saturday) but work forces me to stay in sioux falls for the weekend and the my sled is on the farm back in minnesota. thanks again for the advice.