I appreciate all the replies. The saw seems to opperate perfectly. I bought it on ebay for 100 bucks shipped and the unit looks like new. Ive looked at the exploded diagram and nothing is listed which looks like the spring on the shaft. Bmack, my blade locking mechanism is working perfect, with spring tension, and this spring im asking about is too large to fit inside the lock...so I dont think it has anything to do with the blade lock assembled incorrectly. Im just gonna cut it off and run it.