Starter Rope

The starter rope broke, as well as, I found out when I disassembled the housing, the pulley / spring assembly had also broken. I removed the entire shroud / cover, cleaned the assembly, removed the old pulley assembly and inserted the new one. Feed the starter rope into the pulley and tie off.
Have a screwdriver handy and turn the pulley assembly counter-clockwise until its taught, insert the screwdriver to keep the spring from unwinding and mount the shroud back to the engine. Once that's done, remove the screwdriver while keeping tension on the cord.
Reattach the cord to the mower handle.

1. Removed starter recoil assy. from the engine by removing the 4 bolts with a nutdriver.
2. Pulled the starter rope all the way out of the recoil until it was fully extended.
3. Inserted a small screwdriver to keep the recoil from winding the rope back in.
4. Removed the old starter rope by cutting the knors off of both ends.
5. Measures the new rope to the same length as the old one and cut to proper length.
6. Inserted the new starter rope into the hole in the recoil adn tied a knot to prevent it feom coming out.
7. Inserted the otehr end fo the rope into the pull handle adn tied a knot to keep it from puling out.
Note: I always heat the knots with a lighter to just begin to melt them so they cannot untie.
8. Remove the small screwdriver to allow the recoil to retract the rope.
9. Chrck to be sure the rope recoils all the way in and it pulls out smoothly.
Install the recoil back on the engine with the four bolts that were removes in step 1.
10. Test to be sure everythign is working properly.

I watched You Tube posts of similar repairs to try to pickup anything that I had not thought about.
Removed the engine cover, removed the recoil assembly. I had to approximate how far to wind the new rope by looping it on top of the recoil assembly and added a full turn. Tied a knot on the end of the rope after inserting the end through the recoil assembly and wound the recoil five full revolutions.
Reinstalled the recoil assembly and checked the rope length, then replaced the engine cover.
I had a more difficult time figuring out how the primer bulb held in the carburetor. I could find no videos to guide me on my particular part. Finally figured out how it was installed and replaced it.

Remove the engine shroud and then remove three bolts holding the gas down. Loosen another bolt left rear & down of the gas tank and you can tilt the gas tank back w/o removing it completely. Then remove another bolt holding the oil fill tube, pull up slightly and turn to the side so that it clears the engine cover. Remove 4 bolts holding the engine cover/pulley spring assembly and lift it up slowly(make sure you recall how it is mounted over some engine flanges). Remove a bolt holding down the Pawl friction plate over the pulley spring assembly and lift up on the assembly carefully as it contains the recoil starter spring. I then discovered that my new pulley spring assembly had the anchoring loop (the one that anchors on the center tab of the engine cover) looping to the right. My original spring looped to the left. I then had to use two needle nose pliers to carefully grab the spring loop and bend it around to the left making a new anchoring loop. This was very time consuming as you have to be careful of the spring not uncoiling. Once you done the new loop, bent the spring loop towards the center of the coiled spring so that it can catch on the center tab of the engine cover. Once you insert the pulley spring assembly, turn it counter clockwise until tight and then turn it back one turn to release some tension. You have to stick a small screwdriver in-between the pulley assembly and one of the slots in the engine cover to keep the spring from uncoiling. You them align the rope hole in the pulley with the rope hole in the engine cover and insert the new rope, grab it with needle nose and pull it, giving you some slack to tie the knot. You can now release the rope slowly (make sure you have the pull rope handle attached to the other end of rope) until the rope winds completely. You now attach cover back onto engine, making sure it fits correcting onto its location. You can now reattach all other parts in reverse of how you took them off. If you have a digital camera or phone, take pictures before or as you unassemble the engine, so you can remember what goes where.

Stripped lawnmower down to clean and repair. Painted deck and repaired drive system. All parts fit perfect.

1. Remove starter rope from the engine
2. Remove old rope
3. Wound the starter pulley all the way up and secured it
4. Threaded the new rope into the pulley and tied it off. Reattached the starter handle.
5. slowly let the rope back into the starter and reattached the starter to the engine

watched a 5ea youtube's on rope replacement and recoil spring winding (1hr)
removed and replaced rope,
adjusted pull length

replaced carburator and air filter. used carb cleaner to clean gas tank float cavity

put the new pulley on the shaft so the spring was hooked then wound the pulley a few turns counter clockwise and held it in place with a screw driver. Fed the new rope in and tied it the held the rope and slowly let the pulley wind the rope on to it. Then put the fly wheel cover on the engine and started the engine with one pull.
A small sheet of instructions came with the parts so no mistakes were made on winding the spring.

Completely disassembled engine cleaned all parts and repainted
honed the cylinder, regrind both valves
reassembled all parts by changing out all ordered parts.