Can Anyone Tell Me What's Wrong With This XL Rewind Spring?

[edju1958]

I bought this rewind spring from Leon a few days ago & got it in the mail today.I thought "cool,now I can get that XL put together".I had a helluva time getting the package opened,the plastic packaging was like it was shrink wrapped.Anyway here's a pic of the spring as it came out of the package & sitting in it's tin casing.

thumbnail by edju1958, on Flickr

I tried putting this in the recoil housing,but it wouldn't work.I flipped it upside down & it worked fine.I hadf to pull the spring out of the tin casing & rewind it the opposite way.I could've left the spring in upside down,but it's in the tin casing for a reason,that reason being that if it's in the proper way it prevents the spring from chewing away at the pl;astic housing.I don't know how it got wound up in the tin casing in reverse.Not complaining Leon,I know it was no fault of yours,anyone could've ended up with it.Here's a pic of how it should be.

thumbnail by edju1958, on Flickr

[blythkd]

Maybe I'm confused. It's upside down in the 2nd picture. Tin should be on top, not underneath. But the spring appears to be in the correct orientation. So it seems like if you would rewind it the opposite way (maybe how it was to begin with) and drop it in with the tin on top of the spring, it would be correct.

Did you say you tried it that way to begin with?

[edju1958]

Why would the tin be on top of the spring?Makes no sense.I explained it all above.In the XL-12,or SXL there's a plastic shield thaty goes on the bottom of the spring to prevent the spring from chewing into the housing.It makes sense to me to do the same with the XL.

[blythkd]

I can't tell you why. All I can tell you is how they were assembled when new. The tin can was between the spring and the rewind pulley. I wouldn't worry about the spring chewing anything up.

[onlyhomelites]

Yeah, the steel shell is supposed to face up towards the rope drum, at least as the saw was assembled from the factory. The shell is just deep enough that it holds the spring away from the plastic housing so it doesn't get chewed up.

[blythkd]

If I'm not mistaken, some of the plastic housing saws just used a loose spring without the tin can or shell of whatever it's called. I think the loose spring for these saws was a 69217 or something like that. The tin made it a little easier to coil up the spring and install it.

[edju1958]

The 69217 was used in the magnesium casing saws & this spring in the tin was used in the plastic case saws.Look at the XL IPL & you'll see what I'm talking about.

[blythkd]

Agreed, the 69217 shows up with the mag housing saw in the XL IPL but that's not the only application for that spring. It was also used on the plastic housing SEZ and probably others as well. I know we used that part number plenty since I still remember it from my shop days of almost 30 years ago.

It kinda throws the whole use of plastic or metal parts to isolate the spring from the rewind pulley or the starter housing to avoid wear on its ear since the bare 69217 spring was used on both mag and plastic housing applications without anything in between parts. The tin can was useful for winding up the spring and ease of installation but served virtually no other useful purpose. You could wind up a loose spring and install it with needle nose pliers without the tin can and never know the difference.

[edju1958]

Brent,I agree that the tin for the rewind spring was only there for ease of installation of the sprting.I believe the hook on it was a bit different though as the mag & plastic housiongs varied somewhat (so I've been told).My inventory shows that I have 3 of the 69217 springs & when I get to going through it I'll make sure to look & see if there is indeed a difference.

[blythkd]

Yes the hooks on the outer end are different. The one that comes in the tin can has a longer tail on the end past the loop where it hooks in the housing. The loose springs have a simple hook on the end. I'm pretty sure either spring will hook in some if not most housings interchangeably. The little stud in the housings that the spring hooks on is pretty similar on most models if I'm not mistaken.

[charliec]

Leon did a good video on the XL springs a while back. From what I can tell, you have the wrong type spring you need the "hook" style. Please watch the attached video from Leon's vast inventory of "How to Do" podcasts. Personally, I would have made more mistakes that I would care to admit to if I did not watch his videos.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TjhmLfosYI

[edju1958]

I have the correct spring.