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How to Restring a Lawn Mower
How to Restring a Lawn Mower. Push mowers utilize a recoil pulley mounted under a shroud located on the top of the engine. A string wraps around the pulley. You pull the string when you want to start the mower. The string, in turn, rotates a pulley which rotates the main shaft of the mower. This brings the mower to life. The mower string, usually...
Push mowers utilize a recoil pulley mounted under a shroud located on the top of the engine. A string wraps around the pulley. You pull the string when you want to start the mower. The string, in turn, rotates a pulley which rotates the main shaft of the mower. This brings the mower to life. The mower string, usually made of nylon eventually starts to fray. When this happens, you must restring the mower to ensure the string does not break and leave you without a working lawn mower.
Things You'll Need
Screwdriver
Nylon string
Utility knife
Cut the string just in front of the plastic handle with a utility knife. Pull the piece of string out of the handle, as you will reuse the handle when putting the mower back together.
Remove the screws that secure the recoil pulley shroud onto the top of the engine. In some cases, to reach all of the pulleys, you must remove the gas tank. If this is the case, the same screwdriver will usually work. In other cases, you need to use a socket and ratchet to remove the tank.
Pull the recoil pulley off the main shaft of the engine. If it will not come off, unwrap the string from the pulley and look for a setscrew. Loosen the setscrew and then pull the pulley off the main shaft.
Remove the string from the pulley. The string extends through a hole drilled in the bottom side of the pulley.
Cut a new piece of nylon string to the same length as the old string with a utility knife. Tie a small knot into one end of the new string.
Thread the new string up through the hole in the bottom side of the pulley, slide the pulley onto the main shaft and tighten the setscrew if necessary. Wrap the string around the pulley. Leave the same amount of string unwound as you had with the first string.
Thread the string though the eyelet hole on the shroud and then mount the shroud onto the top of the mower.
Thread the string through the hole in the plastic handle. Tie a knot in the end of the string and then pull on the handle to seat the knot into the hole on the top of the handle.
Mount the gas tank if you had to remove it during the uninstall process.
