Honda mower HRR216 (2005)

This mower is seeing its 7th season starting and have only replaced the drive clutch lever cable a couple seasons back other than the usual oil, air filter, blades, spark plugs.

Problem is now occurring though in which the self-propel feature isn't working as it should. When engaging the drive clutch lever, the mower doesn't start to move. If I lift the back wheels off the ground though, they start spinning as they should. But if set back on ground, get nothing. It seems like there just isn't enough torque to get moving. Any idea what could be the problem or where to start to poke?

Was hoping to get another couple years at least out of this mower...

 

A little late for a reply, but in all likelihood the pinion gears are stripped out. That's what happened to mine. The real question, however, is why are they stripping. That, I have yet to figure out.

 

I've had the exact Honda mower now since 2002. It always started on the 1st pull from day one! My issue was starting though but from reading the troubles your having with your HRT216 I think they are related.

With my starting issue I couldn't pull the 'start rope'. But once in awhile I'd be able to pull on the rope to get it started and then one day it was so hard to pull that I thought I'd break the rope or the handle would come loose.

My mower was especially dirty so before I decided to tear it apart I like to clean things before I work on them. I pressure washed the outside. Turned the gas switch to off and turned the '216' on its side and began blasting the under side which has had years of 'built up' CRUD. When I stuck my pressure washing gun inside the transmission area the water backfired on me. There are 2 areas you can get to to clean that area out and both areas were blocked. So I got in there with my hands and I had to use a screwdriver to help poke and prod to loosen the grass clippings that had built up since 2002. It was so caked in there chunks of grass clippings stubbornly stuck to each other keeping the transmission belt from moving freely. Finally getting it all cleaned out I pulled on the transmission belt and it felt really easy!

Not getting my hopes up I pulled on the 'start rope' and it was really easy to pull on and it started right up.

So reading your 'self propelled issues' could it be that the area by your transmission could be blocked in a way that is interfering with the transmission being able to engage 100%?

When I troubleshoot a problem I'm always looking for easy & sensible possibilities before I tear into a well engineered and quality built Honda mower.

 

Hopefully I had the same problem because I fixed it. My problem was the rear wheels were bent in so much that the driving gear and the gears on the wheels no longer engaged. Using a large crescent wrench I bent them straight again.
I was told this happens to most people who loads/unloads their machine from a truck/trailor. Very poorly designed part of the machine