I have broken the Honda gx390 starter pull cord. The engine appears to have a small mesh cover to keep plant debris from entering the air-cooling system. How do you recommend replacing the cord? What are the specifications for the cord? Cord diameter? Cord length? Strength? Can one buy rope at the hardware by the foot and not pay the Honda parts price? Advise.
BCS605 powered by GX390. Starter cord replacement
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travlitt
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I bought a small spool (150') of starter rope at the hardware store for that very reason. Measure the two broken ends of your rope for the correct length.
farmerboybill
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You have a grass cover on the recoil to prevent debris buildup on the cooling fins. Remove the cover, then remove the recoil. I recommend you get the stronger rope that is made for recoils. I see guys put the cheaper rope not made for recoils. That stuff wears out four times as fast. Recoil rope is more expensive, but worth it.
The most common cause of recoil rope breaking is not pulling as straight as possible through the hole and causing friction wear on the rope, When pulling the rope, pull straight as possible through the hole. Pull slowly until the starting dogs engage, then give a fast, hard, short pull. Don't pull to the end of the rope. Your recoil will outlast your engine if you follow these rules.
The most common cause of recoil rope breaking is not pulling as straight as possible through the hole and causing friction wear on the rope, When pulling the rope, pull straight as possible through the hole. Pull slowly until the starting dogs engage, then give a fast, hard, short pull. Don't pull to the end of the rope. Your recoil will outlast your engine if you follow these rules.
Hi 
Although this thread has been quiet for some time, I think my post relates well to the content here. The advice given by farmerboybill above ist also still valid and worth remembering today.
I have had my BCS 740 for 13 years now, and it has served me well for more than 400 hours without ever letting me down. Recently I broke the recoil starter cord/rope though, and had to replace it.
As one might expect, this didn’t happen in my garage with all my tools at hand, but on a remote meadow far from any civilization. Without the recoil starter it is tough to get the engine running, but I always carry a small toolbox, and was able to get the engine started, and got the job finished.
Replacing the starter rope on a recoil starter isn’t exactly rocket science, but as always, there are useful hints available from people who have done it already. I have never done it before, but remembered that some years ago I saw one of the very useful videos presented by Joel Dufour from Earth Tools on this topic:
As always, I can only recommend his videos, and thank you very much once again Joel for sharing your knowledge with all of us!
One of the questions asked in the original post is what specifications there are for the starter rope. I haven’t been able to find specifications from Honda online, and the owner’s manual isn’t very helpful either. I did my best to measure the broken rope, and found it to be around 4.5 mm. I happen to have some 5 mm rope, and after I widened the little eyelet in the starter a little, it fits perfectly. I found that 1.5 m (5’) of rope will fit on the starter pulley, if the starter spring is at its maximum tension.
As I had the engine bumper and the starter off already, I also removed the fan cover and cleaned the cooling fins:
After seeing how much grass had accumulated, I will try to clean the fan and fins more often in the future.
Best regards
Jens
Although this thread has been quiet for some time, I think my post relates well to the content here. The advice given by farmerboybill above ist also still valid and worth remembering today.
I have had my BCS 740 for 13 years now, and it has served me well for more than 400 hours without ever letting me down. Recently I broke the recoil starter cord/rope though, and had to replace it.
As one might expect, this didn’t happen in my garage with all my tools at hand, but on a remote meadow far from any civilization. Without the recoil starter it is tough to get the engine running, but I always carry a small toolbox, and was able to get the engine started, and got the job finished.
Replacing the starter rope on a recoil starter isn’t exactly rocket science, but as always, there are useful hints available from people who have done it already. I have never done it before, but remembered that some years ago I saw one of the very useful videos presented by Joel Dufour from Earth Tools on this topic:
As always, I can only recommend his videos, and thank you very much once again Joel for sharing your knowledge with all of us!
One of the questions asked in the original post is what specifications there are for the starter rope. I haven’t been able to find specifications from Honda online, and the owner’s manual isn’t very helpful either. I did my best to measure the broken rope, and found it to be around 4.5 mm. I happen to have some 5 mm rope, and after I widened the little eyelet in the starter a little, it fits perfectly. I found that 1.5 m (5’) of rope will fit on the starter pulley, if the starter spring is at its maximum tension.
As I had the engine bumper and the starter off already, I also removed the fan cover and cleaned the cooling fins:
After seeing how much grass had accumulated, I will try to clean the fan and fins more often in the future.
Best regards
Jens