Honda Recoil starter problem

"Hello, I have a Honda BF8 an

"Hello, I have a Honda BF8 and the recoil will not engage at times. I now have it off and if I hold it upside down the engagement dogs come out almost every time. However, rightside up , you can pull until you are blue and the fingers will not come out to the engage position. What can I do? This engine is a 1992 and has very few hours. This problem first started when the weather turned cold about 7 years ago and has been getting worse to the point that I must now use the emergency rope to start.
Phil Wilson"

"There is an extra spring that

"There is an extra spring that needs to be in just the right place. Also, the dogs should be clean and grease free so they move easily. It is fairly easy to set up, but the Honda manual shows excellant pictures of how to lay everything out. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words...I think I would need many more than a thousand words to correctly tell you how to do this. I am not sure if the Clymer manual has the pictures but I am sure the Honda Manual does. It only runs about $40 from Helminc.com. It may also be available other places, we just use Helm.

Good luck"

"My Honda Manual (pg 29 &a

"My Honda Manual (pg 29 & 30) fails to mention "grease free" on the dogs or "starter ratchet", they do show grease points in the center of the assembly.

Mine works well, but sometimes you hear a 'ting-ting-ting' while running that will stop if you pull a little on the starter rope. Could that be from excess grease?

My Honda Shop Manual was ordered for my by the local Honda Dealer ten years ago.

They are available (a lot less money) as a pdf download from:

[url=""]http://www.lings.com/lingsc...9&-session=Lings:4703E3841618d29E23yuYs14D599[/url]

But where my manual covers "BF75 * BF100 * BF8A" the site above has "BF8, BF9.9a, BF9.9B and BF10..." and a different one for "BF75 and BF100..." I know that the BF8D is a completely different motor."

"pilotart is right. The grea

"pilotart is right. The grease points are the bolt holding everything together, the bolts washer and the spacer that the bolt goes through. The other parts need to be free of dirt and grease to allow them to move freely. The manual does not state that, but I have just learned over the years of repairing these 8A's.

The little set spring and the friction plate work together to keep the starter ratchets held in when the motor is running.

The pinging comes from the set spring not set just right or the main spring not being wound tight enough to keep the starter rope tight or the starter rope is a little too long."

"Thank you Mike!

Yes, I hav

"Thank you Mike!

Yes, I have installed a starter rope that is way longer than my arm.

The idea was to be able to cut the end when it gets frayed and avoid installing another rope.

I shall shorten it. "

Re: "Thank you Mike! Yes, I hav

Sorry to revive an old thread. I have recently acquired an old B100S (B100S-1401122). I started the engine the other day and the pull cord did not retract and I heard a rattling sound once I gave it some throttle. I pulled the recoil housing off and managed to get the rope to pull back in. It is working fine but still has the rattle from the pawls. Is there any method to getting the starter set spring set correctly to stop this rattling or is it possible somehow the recoil spring doesn’t have as much tension on it anymore? Thanks in advance.