My Dyson animal won't stand up??? The stabilizer stand won't lock down? It looks like the pin in the red foot pedal is not in the right groove???

This video will show you the fix

The DC25 Animal has a design flaw where part of the Duct Assembly (main part of the vacuum) where the Red lock bar goes over breaks off the Duct Assembly and it causes the DC25 to not be able to stand up normally. There is a short Youtube video describing this flaw.

Unfortunately, you can repair this except by replacing the entire duct assembly.

here is dc18 foot repair video

here is a video how to repair the pedal

I am having the same issue in 2022. Dyson says I have to buy a new machine. EVERYTHING else works perfectly and I can vacuum the floors IF I hold it almost upright. Who can clean a 2,000 square foot house with hardwood, tile and carpet like that?? Not me! I cannot believe this can't be fixed in this day and age. Am I to take it to the recycle center? What about the perfectly good 8 attachments I have for it? If I get a new one, it will come with 4 or 6 of the same attachments. This is a total waste of money in this day and age -- to say nothing of disposing it in the landfill!!! I AM NOT HAPPY with Dyson at the moment.

That spring thing goes where the pedal screws into the side. When 'facing' the dyson in the front, it's on the left side. The spring's circle part and short stem section goes into a divot area on the pedal. The other end is tensioned (braced) against some housing piece, but once you insert the spring part in the pedal end part, you should be able to figure it out from there.
This darned spring makes the pedal 'tensioned' to where it pops back up vs. flopping nonsensically.

Have a look atwww.dysonmedic.comwhich has some great info on repairing your machine.

After speaking to the Dyson helpline I repaired this problem easily. Lay the vacuum on its front. Looking at the pins either side of the red foot pedal you will see they have popped out of the groove into a square pocket. Flex the pedal to guide the pins back into place. This is made easier with a second person pulling the grey frame outwards.

My Dyson DC 25 animal had this problem earlier today, all of a sudden it wouldn't go back into it's upright position. I looked on the bottom and the red pedal has two metal pegs which are supposed to be in a hook shaped track. one peg had slipped into a hole outside of the track (leaving a little scratch indicating the path it had taken), and all I had to do was wrestle it out of that hole and back in place.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JX7axXoYfIc
The red foot release pin jumped track and is stuck in a square