Ok I'm trying to understand what is going on with the spring. I turned the pulley as much as I could until it became very difficult and I thought it was fully wound but saw that there was still about 8 inches left in the cord. So I tried to give the pulley one more turn and halfway through there was a click and suddenly the tension dropped to like half. When released it wound back with the same 8 inches extra in the cord. Originally the old cord and handle were tensioned against the case pretty strongly and there was no slack in the cord.
For now I trimmed the new cord to give it some tension and get about three full turns when pulled. Is the spring broken and by some miracle is it binding in just the right way to work somewhat?