My Stihl FS40C is just over a year old and the pull rope snapped on me the othernight. I went to replace it yesterday and can't figure out for the life of me how to get the thing to rewind again. Every video I find online shows a unit with different guts where my starter rewind coil seems to be sealed.

Do I need to rewind the unit by hand or something or does anyone have any advice to I don't have to take the darn thing in and spend as much as it was new to have this issue fixed?

Thanks in advance!!

 

Pretty sure warranty on Stihl trimmers is at least two years, so I'd have the dealer fix it.

 

Pull rope is not a warranty item.
Rewind the spool by hand then thread the rope in.

 

You turn the rewind in the direction it would turn if you were pulling on the rope, when you have turned it as far as it will go back it off until the holes for the rope are aligned, now hold or clamp it there and feed the new rope through the holes, tie your knot,, release your clamp and let it rewind itself, reassemble and you are done. Have a good one. Geo

 

So I was finally realized that I could to remove the rewind/recoil cover off and rewound the recoil by hand and bent the loop a bit to have it protrude out into the opening of the clear plastic cover as I believe the shaft wasn't catching the rewind. I tried attaching a photo but it keeps failing....

I'm curious if this is something that just happens or what is the proper way to rewind the spring to make sure it's as tight as it should be as I was only able to get it re-wound so tight by hand plus it was quite awkward and kinda rough on the hands.

All seems to be well the only thing I noticed is that the pull rope seems to stay about an inch short when rewinding but when I turn the trimmer off the pull rope rewinds completely. That being said should I look at picking up a new rewind/recoil spring and be proactive or see if I have any other issues?

 

As long as you have enough rope on it for a good pull and not reaching the end, just pull a bit of rope up through the handle and tie the knot a bit shorter so it rewinds fully on its own.

 

I didn't know if the fact that it wasn't rewinding all the way meant I didn't quite do something wrong being it wasn't retracting all the way especially since I actually reused the new pull cord since the old one broke at the very end of the rope, basically right at the knot.