After doing who knows how many thousands of them, it gets easy.
1. Before you begin, look at the pulley. See that little hole, about 1/8″ dia? Find a nail or allen wrench or whatever you have that will fit through the hole and set aside for later
2. Remove rubber handle then grab hold of the knot at the other end of the rope and pull it out of the pulley.
3. Place the outer spring eye over the pin. Now wind the spring in as if coiling up a garden hose.
4.. Check the inner end of the spring. Is it located handy so you can lower the pulley’s pin into it? If not feel free to adjust it. The end of the spring will stand a reasonable amount of bending.
5. Lower the pulley into the housing, aiming for the spring end loop. The rest is easy.
6. Lubricate the spindle with some light grease and slip it into the pulley. then the screw, washers, etc
7. Hold it down to the bench top and rotate the pulley to wind the spring as far as it will go, then back it off a full turn. Then stick that nail into the small hole. That will keep the pulley from re-winding. WARNING!! Be sure you don’t let it get away from you while winding. If it does it will violently unwind, backlash, and destroy the spring.
8. Now, feed the rope into it’s hole in the pulley and out of the recoil housing. Make sure it goes behind the pin beside the hole.
9. Reinstall the handle, hang onto it, remove the nail and let it rewind slowly
10. Lubricate the spring through the holes in the pulley.
11. Done. I could have done the whole job in less time than it took to type all this.
