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It took me the better part of the day to figure out how the spring assembly goes together as it came out of the tube in “unrelated” pieces. In essence, the 1/4” diameter rod, with the high density plastic ends, is actually in compression and resides wholly inside the spring, with the cog that prevents rotation of the spring pushed into the smaller diameter spring coils (while the spring has to be stretched to make this work) and bearing internally on the matching rounded male end of the 1/4” rod - while the other end of the rod bears on the opposite spring end that secures the spring to the aluminum tube. Nothing secures the cog to the spring aside from the grip created by tightening the spring. That’s what caused things to come apart when I incorrectly tightened the tube in the wrong direction. The spring coils loss their grip on the cog. I haven’t been able to find a schematic of the spring assembly. Suffice it to say, the opposite end of the awning tube is nothing more than a free-wheeling axle - and it has nothing to do with the spring assembly. My only question at this point is the proper number of turns required to set the tension before I replace my awning.
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