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Yes, that can be repaired. Did the little hook on the end break? I'm so glad the rivet wasn't drilled off because that's what many do believing it retains the spool. Spring-- The broken end of the spring can be re-shaped. Heat the end of it until it's cherry red. That will remove the brittle "spring" characteristics of the steel and allow it to be bent without breaking it. I will get you a pic of what that bend looks like and it's fairly easy using small needle nose pliers. For best results and smooth operation after repairs the spring should be completely removed from the housing and cleaned by soaking and or wiping the old grease/oil off. Also clean the inside of the housing. Recoiling the spring and getting it back into the housing isn't fun or always easy. It can be recoiled right back into the housing or do the coil first and insert it back into the housing. If doing a bunch of them a retainer can be made from 2" pipe which makes installation much easier. Rope Yes it's retained in the spool with the wire. Remove that old wire and find a short piece of wire about the same size to use. I have used a copper strand from electrical wire because it's soft enough to manipulate to get the ends into those tiny holes. Basically untwist just a single strand of the wire off of the larger twisted wire but anything you can get in there should work. I'll post a pic of what the NOS repair wire looks like before it's inserted into the spool. Once you get that small loop of wire inside the spool you will need to poke the end of the rope through it and pull it through. First, Cut the end of the rope so it has a nice clean edge. Use a cigarette lighter or a match to heat that edge of the rope in order to seal it and keep it from fraying. It will melt and do just a little bit at a time. Just enough to melt the edges of the fibers. Once you melt the edge quickly twist it in your fingers to keep that hardened edge the same or smaller size than the diameter of the rope. Too much melted and it will be too big to fit. This is important for trying to get the edge of the rope through that little loop of the wire. I use a small pick tool to push it and pick it from the opposite side to pull it through. Once you get the rope through the wire loop pull it through enough so you can now heat the edge of the rope again. This time melt the edge of the rope so it creates a hardened edge that's bigger than the diameter of the rope. This hardened bulge on the end of the rope will prevent it from ever pulling through the retaining wire once that wire is cinched down. Now pull the retaining wire tails so the loop is just snug to the rope. Then pull the rope back through so that little bulge you created is almost snug to the retaining wire loop. Using pliers pull and twist the 2 tails of that retaining wire to lock the rope to the spool. Be careful not to twist too tight and break that wire or you need to start all over, but it does need to be tight to hold the rope so it has no movement at all. It's a very fine line between breaking the wire and having tight enough. Best to go 1/2 twist at a time once it's close to being tight. Once it's twisted tight and the rope is locked to the spool, cut the twisted wire tail off. Leave about 1/8 inch long of twisted wire Then bend over that twisted tail so it fits down below the indent of the spool. Bend it to the right and the opposite way it is shown bent over in your pic but I'm not sure it makes a difference. That's how the originals are done so I just follow that. Wind the rope onto the spool. You will need to cut the knot off that retains the handle and heat the end just like before to stop the fray of fibers but keep it small enough to fit back through the handle hole. ( There should be a spring inside that type of handle) Just a hole in the newer ball type Feed the end of the rope, after it's spooled up, through one of the openings in the spool with about 3 inches or so protruding out. This will allow the spool to be installed without interfering with the edge of the housing, Insert the spool over the bearing and back into the housing. That little slot on the bottom of the spool must catch the spring and that's why it's important to have that spring bent and properly positioned. It should look just like your pic but it must have the bend in it to catch the spool. There can not be any other part of the spring touching or protruding out from the bearing which would prevent the spool from sliding all the way down and the slot catching the spring. Once the spool is down in place and caught on the spring, use that tail of the rope that's protruding up to spin the spool counter clockwise. Usually it's about 3-4 revolutions to create enough spring tension on it to recoil. Hold the tension on the spool with your thumb when the rope tail is at the top and at the location it goes through the housing and up to the handle stop. Now feed the tail of the rope back through the spool edge and out to the front of the housing. Grab it and feed the rope up through the hole in the handle stop. This is a good time to test the action of the recoil and verify everything is working properly but hold that rope tight. Pull and release the rope quite a few times to get that spring to settle in it's proper place. It should pull and retract with ease and have enough tension that it recoils all the way in. Once you are happy with the performance, tie a loose quick release knot about 6-8 inches down on the rope. This will prevent it from spooling back in while you work on the handle. Send the rope end through the little spacer first, then through the handle and then through the handle spring if there is one. One end of the spring is smaller than the other so that end is the top where the knot will hold and retain the handle. That's all there is to it! Definitely not the easiest thing for the first time doing it This may be a good opportunity and time to make a completely new Recoil Repair Tutorial thread for others to follow as well. It's something I've been meaning to do for a while now. I'll get some stuff together and do one with pics and maybe some video to help explain things. These are NOT that fun to work with and it's one of my least favorite things to work on as they can be frustrating when starting out and doing one for the first time. Much of what was written is is easier said than done and it's a learning curve for sure. They do get much easier to do the more that are done but most people don't have a large collection and just need one or two done. Just don't smash it with a hammer under the frustration! LOL NOS recoil spring bend for center. Notice the tail curves a little. That's to keep it inside the indent of the center bearing That's how they come NOS, in that retainer which makes them fairly easy to install. They can be done without the retainer as well.. but use your thumb to control the unwind speed so it's slow Here's a retainer made from 2 inch pipe