Starter rope wont retract

I was out yesterday and at the end of the day the starter rope on my 1974 20 hp Merc decided not to retract. So now it is just haninging there like a hot dogs tongue mocking me. It is fully out but still connected to the wheel. Can I just rewind the rope or is there something differnt that I need to do? This is the first time it has every done this. Thanks in advance for your help.

You may have sprung your cable. Try just hand rewinding and it might retract on its own. My merc occasionally hangs up but I think my rope is too small.

Spring. Sorry there is no cable

Could be a broken spring or it could just be in need of a cleaning and some lubrication. I had a 75 that had the same problem. After flushing the dirt out of it with some water, I sprayed some lube up around the spring area and it worked great again after that.

So, do I just unbolt the top cover and go from there? That is the only way I can see to get into the area that I need to get into. I just want to make sure I do not make matters worse. Thanks.

Yes, just remove the 3 bolts that hold the recoil starter on so that you can invert the whole assembly to get access.

Mike,

I got everything off and lubed up the coil and when I put it back together it was worse than when I started. Do I need to rewinf the coil? If so, what is the best way to do it. It has to be something simple because I got the rope to retract all the way back in before I took it apart. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Tim

Tim, I never had to take mine apart. Mine was suffering from dirt dobbers building nest in it. After breaking off all of their visible nest I experienced a similar problem to yours in that it got worse. The dirt and grit would move around and make it worse at times. By continuously flushing it with water and working the pull rope in and out, it finally worked all the dirt out. After that I let it dry out good and then lubricated it as best I could. That motor belongs to a good friend now and it's going on it's third year of use since the cleaning and still working great.

See if this helps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Q3NjVomUQJM

I ended up taking it to the shop. They replaced the rope and rebuilt the assembly for me. Some of the internal parts were beyond repair. He also fixed the issue with the motor jumping into forward or revevse from neutral. He had to do some rebuilding there also. $41 for parts and $160 for labor but I am back on the water.