How I replace the Yamaha F2.5 starter rope. Follow the servicing manual if you have it and all precautions in there. Caution – Spring will be under tension, protect your eyes and anything else which may be damaged if it springs out.

The cord you need is 156 cm knot to knot 3 mm diameter pull cord. Mark the knot locations with a marker pen 156 cm apart and leave about 75 mm either end for the knot so basically a length of 3 mm lawnmower pull cord, 3 mm diameter, about 171 cm long

You will need a few tools

10 mm socket and short extension to remove the fuel tank and starter assembly

Pair of pliers to help remove the fuel hose clip from the carburettor so you can remove the fuel tank

17 mm open ended spanner to remove the choke assembly from the starter assembly

A knife/scalpel or good snips to cut your rope

A lighter so you can melt the end of your rope

To replace the pull cord you will need to remove the fuel tank and then the starter assembly

Drain and remove the fuel tank

Remove 3 starter assembly bolts

When lifting up starter assembly take care to disconnect choke operating wire from the choke, you need to guide it out from the little black plastic lever on the carburettor, it should be obvious how to do this.

Turn starter assembly upside down and remove the choke assembly by undoing the plastic nut and withdrawing the whole choke assembly out of the starter assembly.

Remove drum cover screw.

Take off cover and remove the 2 x pawl drives

Lift out the drum –  Be careful there is a coiled spring in there which will come out with the drum, cover the whole assembly with an old towel while you are lifting it out, if the spring unwinds at least it’s contained.

If you are really lucky you will have something like this

It’s more likely you will have an unwound spring and the drum without the spring fitted, if this is what you have, just put the spring to one side for now but bag it up as it will most likely be covered in grease and you don’t want garage “cack” to stick to it.

Remove the old rope now by simply cutting the knot off the end and pulling it through

The next stage is optional, if your spring is still fitted I would suggest removing it, inspecting and greasing it now but you don’t have to if you don’t want to bother but if you have the assembly removed to replace the Yamaha F2.5 starter rope, there is no better time than now.

Optional 1 :- Using an old towel or something, cover the spring and remove it from the drum, it will unwind so do be careful.

Take a look at the uncoiled spring, it needs to be clean and corrosion free, if all’s good, give it a light coating of marine grease.

Prepare both ends of your rope by melting it and tapering the ends

Pass the drum end of the rope through the drum.

Tie the stopper knot to align with the mark you made at the drum end of the cord leaving a tag end of about 5 mm

Snug the rope into the drum and make sure the tag end isn’t going to interfere which it won’t do if you have left the 5 mm tag end.

Place the drum on the bench the right way up as if fitted.

Wind the starter rope around the drum twice in the direction shown and place the rope into the cutout on the drum

Turn the assembly upside down again

Take the spring which has already been cleaned and lightly lubricated.

It’s not too much of a pest but you have to coil the spring until it’s a small enough diameter to sit inside the drum, again, take care, there is no doubt it will unwind a few times while you’re trying to do this so make sure your eyes etc are protected.

When it’s coiled place it inside the recess in underside of the drum, hooking the end of the spring into the cutout on the drum.

At this stage you have the spring coiled inside the drum, the drum end of the rope tied off and snugged into the drum, the rope wrapped 2 times around the drum and the rope placed in the slot on the drum.

Place the drum with the spring fitted into the starter case, it’s a little bit of a fiddle but you need to make sure the hook on the inner end of the spring engages with the cutout in the starter case

Fit the pawls (x2) and the drum screw and tighten up the drum screw

You should now have something looking like this

Thread the handle end of the rope which you have already tapered through the starter case, the damper and the handle.

Making sure the rope is not twisted. tie up your handle end on the rope at the mark you made earlier using the same knot. Make sure the rope sits within the cover and has 5mm tag end, snug up the handle end of the rope.

Read through the next 2 stages fully before starting them so you understand the stages

You now need to pre-tension the spring, basically you need to wind the drum 3 rotations without winding the rope onto the drum, which is why the rope is still in the cutout on the drum. Doing this will be winding up the spring so you will need to keep a tight hold on the drum.

Keep the tension on the drum with your hand, unhook the rope at the drum end from the cutout and take up the tension by pulling on the starter end of the rope, when you have taken up the tension, let go of the starter drum and allow the spring to unwind slowly, controlling it by keeping tension on the starter end of the rope but allowing the spring to slowly unwind the 3 turns. This will the leave the spring mostly relaxed but the 3 turns of cord will be wound around the drum.

The starter handle end of the drum should look something like this with the handle pulled into the starter assembly with a little tension on it.

Pull test it a few times to make sure the pawls come out when you are pulling and that the rope is coming in and more importantly going back in smoothly. If it gets a little “Floppy” don’t worry, pull the whole starter cord out through the handle, tie in a safety loop.

Shorten your rope length by untying the knot and moving it back down by about 1 cm, untie your loop, allow the spring to unwind itself and try again, keep repeating until you have that little bit of tension on the rope when it is fully wound in.

Refit the choke assembly to the starter assembly

Refit starter assembly making sure choke wire is properly engaged

Refit fuel tank

So that’s how I replace the Yamaha F2.5 starter rope. If you have an small outboard engine you would like me to show you how to replace the starter rope on, let me know via the contact us form and I’ll see what I can do.