On Oct 25, 9:23*am, "Don Phillipson" wrote:
"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote in message

...

8 year old Honda lawnmower just decided it wants to be pushed. What's the
first thing to check? The cable, maybe?

Honda makes the engine, not the wheel transmission, which is
the second thing you want to inspect. *(#1 is to remove ignition
wire from spark plug for safety.) * We do not know whether yours
has belt drive or mechanical drive. *If you have no owner's manual,
look for one on line and see what its Troubleshooting page says.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)


I had a Honda Harmony and it too quit moving. It turned out
to be the transmission, where a key bearing on the main
shaft had failed. Bad news was that the price for a new one was
$135. And while I do a
lot of my own work, let me tell you, getting it out required
removing a lot of small, specific parts, etc. I even had to go
buy a new set of snap ring pliers because I did't have ones
small enough. If you had to pay someone to do it, I would
not be surprised for it to run up two hours in labor. In the
end, given the cost and some
uncertainty in getting it all back together correctly, I decided
to buy a new mower. Found a brand new Sears on Ebay
for $170.

The good news is the Sears uses a simple variable speed
belt drive. It's
now 5 years later and it's still running fine. The Sears also
stopped moving a couple years ago. I removed two cover
screws above the belt and found that the end of the tensioning
spring had broken. One cable tie and 5 mins
later she was going again. The Sears has more power
and will go through taller grass. On the other hand, the
Honda did the best job of mulching I have seen and it
also left the grass with a finer cut. But given the price
premium for the Honda versus their crappy tranny design,
I',m not about to buy one again.