Chainsaw Repair

Many a time we have the recoil spring not cooperating in being put back. This happens more in those narrow and deep covers, and big hands or thick fingers seem to be a liability.
I have had one of those for a very long time, around 18 years and the owner never came back.
Recently I was going through the old stuff and found this little Castor (which recently I found was Alpina Castor from Italy)
It was a fine example of such a saw. With the virus causing a near 90% drop in business I had time enough to have a go at it again.
After 2 days of bruised fingers, ego and frustration I was ready to bring the curtains down on this little Castor . But, I hesitated because it looked barely used.
After racking my brains I hit upon a possible solution. And it worked!
Winding the spring inside the cover was the problem. Why not do it outside the cover and drop it in?
So I wound it up outside, used four bits of binding wire to hold it in place, dropped it into the cover. Went in easily. So far so good. All I needed to do was remove the binding wire now. Easier said than done!
After the second wire was out, the spring jumped out and tied itself in knots.
No good that method.
So I now knew the spring needed to be wound outside, needed to be restricted outside and dropped in, without risking the removal of the restriction. A tall order. That was what I thought. But then the Redneck bulb flashed
Why not try the covers that come on some chainsaws? And to me the 038/380/381 was the best example. It was just a few minutes work to locate one in my garbage pile ( the metal stuff is never thrown out, one can never say when some use will arise for the junk)
It took 2 minutes to wind the spring into the case 10 seconds to drop it into the starter cover and a few minutes later the starter was assembled
And 5 minutes to fit it back on and try it successfully.
But the saw had been lying idle for such a long time that the tubes had disintegrated. So I checked it out by squirting some fuel down the carb and at the 5th full the saw came to life!
But I spent a day on it and it finally is up and running.
I have posted a link to a video in my Google drive as another topic
This is that post http://chainsawrepair.createaforum.com/chainsaws-not-listed/castor-chainsaw-first-start-after-a-very-long-time/new/#new

But here are the pictures of my recoil spring fix, which should work for other saws too.