Yeah, I feel somewhat annoyed with the benefit of 20-20 hindsight, since I suspected the vibrator in the beginning, but the motor didn't sound right either under load, so I had to make a call on where to begin. I actually thought I'd go the easy path and swap the motor for another one, I had a Briggs on-hand with a clutch on it that I spent some time to get running, only to find that the mounting holes in the foot were not quite the same, so I couldn't even try it. By that time the Honda was unbolted and on the bench so I got stuck into that, finally coming around to following the first thought and getting the solution. Attached are some photos of the vibrator that I have marked-up with info labels.
All-in-all I don't regret spending a little time on the Honda motor, cause I have learnt some new stuff and found some great people on here with good advice offered promptly (thanks everyone who replied to the post). Hope to be poking around on here from time to time and maybe be able to return some help to someone else.
