OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Engines Questions On Honda Engines Is it too complicated

I just pulled a 2 speed Honda out of the shed to have a look at and get it going, I new it had had ethanol fuel in it when I looked at it quickly 6 months ago. Today I checked the oil which was very clean but I had to drain 650mm out of it before I could get it to stop smoking. Is it too hard for people these days to just Google how much oil to put in a motor mower or how to read the oil level on the dipstick, it isn't too complicated. Anyway I have a nice running GXV140 motor sitting here now, and I think the 2 speed might be working as well, it seems to engage ok. Bit of a win here

Even that is too complicated for some now a days. One of the first things that a new owner does here is to file the owners manual in File 13.

Even with all the pretty pictures they still do it.

Hi AVB,
I don't think people were this dumb years ago. People have so much information at their fingertips these days there is really no excuse for making silly mistakes like this. I obviously ended up with this mower because it was smoking like a bush fire. At least with me smoking up the shed every so often the spiders move out, they don't like it

Hi Norm and AVB,

I've been given a few mowers that were overfilled and when the owner gave me the mower they said their son has overfilled
the engine with oil , so I think people just don't care about doing any maintenance they just use equipment and throw it away
when it's a few years old ,I guess that's consumerism these days.

I've spoken to a few people that can't change a spark plug and don't know how to undo a bolt ,I don't think they
want to know how to repair something when they can just buy new equipment .

Cheers
Max.

What really surprises my Max is the disregard so many people have for Hondas, bit of maintenance and they will go for years. I pulled three out of the shed yesterday and with a carby clean all fired up with no problems. Much cheaper than buying a new Honda

Speaking of, I have a Briggs Quantum.with a filth ridden carby that was full of greeny brown sediment and foul smelling old petrol. I pulled the bowl off as well as the needle and float and shot cleaner through all the holes I could see. Made no difference. Motor refused to fire and only does so when you give a squirt of ether.
I notice petrol oozes out the primer bulb as well.

I hate those Quantam primer type carbys MF, give me one with a choke anyday

Scrapping the bludger then!

I just converted one over to a choke type on an Ariens and it starts first pull now

Did you poke out the jet in the bowl nut with wire several times? Sounds like the needle and seat are past it if the primer is dribbling petrol

If you want the motor, throw one of these on it https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/354356775601?

It was shockingly dirty inside. The jet looked clear when I peeked.

Thanks loads for the info and link. I was going to look into a new carb until NormK mentioned his dislike of the primer system. Unfortunately it's difficult to convert to choke as the primer is part of the filter housing.

Sorry MF, but it is easy when you have boxes of Briggs bits and on that mower I had fitted a new carby which ran ok but needed a squirt of starter fluid to get it going. I had just pulled all the choke assembly and carby of a Briggs that started and ran fine but was smokey so it was pretty straight forward

Sounds like I need to change it over to choke system somehow.

Here's a Briggs I've got from the 80s with a choke system. If it were to bolt on, I'd also need to fit all the plastic covers and fuel tank from the older engine as the filter housing is longer than the primer bulb housing.

It all seems too much trouble and I certainly don't want to spend on a new carby only for the primer not to do it's job.

Pictures showing the old engine and the mower with the Quantum.

Hi MF,
if you open the throttle, does it close the choke butterfly If so ok and you may be able to use the existing filter housing, just ignore the primer but then you would still need to get a new choke type carby The other alternative is to get one of the carbys Tyler put up and take a chance that it works

The main problem I have had with getting these to prime is the bowl lip being too high and bottoming out on the carby body before sealing the o-ring (hence the pressure leaks out before it can force fuel up the venturi. Test this by tipping it on its side and seeing if petrol leaks out of the bowl seal. Found this is common on chinese quantums.

I ground the lip down on a flat surface with sand paper and it worked

The other is needing 2x gaskets on the air filter housing and evenly torquing down the bolts progressively. The crap plastic housing warps and the air pressure leaks

I guess the new carb comes with only one gasket or with non?

The existing one forget it as it has an 8mm piece missing. Maybe a call to the mower shop will be required to get the extra gasket.

I have 10 of the things sitting on the table next to me that arrived the other day

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/402755799112?var=673000512100?

I'm guessing that 10 pack is about the same cost as a single one in a mower shop, or at the very least represents way better value than one or two at a retail outlet.
EDIT: I was only going to go ahead with trying a new carburettor if the cost is below $20. Getting the gaskets will blow that out. Maybe it's just not worth it, especially as this engine is likely to be Chinese made, being on a Tornado base.

MF,
I usually give them a squirt of starter fluid and if it fires and sounds ok no rattles or bangs then I usually try to get them running. I probably have 10 Quantams here that I have test run and seem ok but all will need carbys to get them running again

I wouldn't spend money on these mowers as you spend more time fixing them than what they are worth .

I would make a gasket, the gasket paper 30 cm x 100 cm is around $27 on eBay and will last you a few years or
just cut a gasket from a cardboard cereal box..

Out of hundreds of mowers I mostly never have to change a carby unless it's broken or worn out ,
the first thing I do is remove the bowl clean the parts ,if there is a jet in the bowl bolt clean that as well ,then
poke some fuse wire up the main jet to clear any blockages ,no amount of compressed air or cleaning fluid
will clear this jet sometimes only a bit of fuse wire or a oxy tip cleaner will clear a stubborn blockage .

Even if the rest of the carby is blocked up after cleaning the main jet and fuel bowl area, without taking the
carby off ,the motor will run fine in full throttle position ,as long as the needle and seat are working.

If the carby is completely gummed up you may need to pull the needle out and clean the needle and seat.

To test if the needle and seat are working you turn the fuel on with the carby bowl off and hold the float up
with your fingers if no fuel leaks then it's shutting off fine then move the float down and make sure fuel is flowing well
into the carby then push the float up again to make sure the flow of fuel stops.

It's interesting just by cleaning those parts I mentioned and if the mower still doesn't run right on idle and intermediate
stages in the carby but rums fine on full throttle ,just by using BP Ultimate 98 and after a couple times of mowing the
lawns on full throttle the rest of the carby has cleaned itself out with the cleaning additives in the fuel and now
the mower will idle fine and run fine in all throttle positions.

Most of the time I don't need to remove these types of carbies as I also blow compressed air down all the orifices as well
and that's enough to fix them.

I guess if you can sell a mower for $100. that you got for free then spending $30 isn't too bad ,but I see people selling good
mowers for $60 now and even a $10 to $20 old Victa 2 stroke will last a very long time.

Cheers
Max.

Max,
I get a lot of mowers that have had ethanol in them and there is no way you can then get the main jet out of a Chonda carby but I can always get them out of a genuine Honda carby, obviously there is a difference in the alloy the body is made out of. I sell my 2 strokes for between $80 and $100 and have no problems getting that for them, only problem lately is I haven't had time to build any because I have been working on other stuff. Hopefully this winter I will just concentrate on building a pile of 2 strokes to sell next mowing season, I have missed this one.

I see a lot of the primer air cleaner bases warped here too. Using two gaskets has never worked for me. Now if make wedge gasket out one and glue it to the other in the area of non contact then I get them to work. I start by installing the first gasket and tightening down the base cover. Then I remove it and check for correct contact impression on the gasket. This way I know where the extra wedge gasket needs to be added. If all else fails it is a new air cleaner base and definitely don't over tighten the screws. Over tightening the mounting screws is one of the reason for the base to warp. Heat and age is the others.

Also on the fuel/float bowl gasket issue Briggs used two different gaskets. An 1/16" and an 1/8" gasket. Most repair kits only include the 1/16 gasket. Luckily the 1/8 is not a commonly used one but I keep a few on hand anyway.

And Norm I get jets and nozzles stuck in too here. It is as if they chemicals they add to gasoline is creating Loctite. Some are simply impossible to remove.

Regards the air filter pre filter, is that meant to be cleaned and oiled regularly? Can you just use the air filter without it?

Don't oil the quatum pre filter, it will wick into the paper filter. you can use it without it - what I have personally done is cut a square of old bath towel or tea towel and used that as a prefilter on the quantum - works really well

That sounds like my kind of solution. The prefilter really swells up the price. How do you keep it in place though?
Is there a seller on EBay you recommend? One with 100% positive feedback wants $9.95 for one with free postage and another has five for $2 more with 99%.

I add pre-filters to any filter system when possible and make them from vacuum cleaner bags cut to shape, held in place by tape or string or whatever.

Just cut it a little oversize so the edges can cover the ends of the paper filter, put it in the plastic housing and screw it back together. Holds itself fine

I recently found a decrepit Rover with Quantum motor and after swapping out it's carby and air filter base onto the Victa, it started but with a persistent smoking exhaust, but after running it and using it to mow the nature strip out the front, it seemed to gradually clear, although it got dark so was hard to tell for sure. We'll see tomorrow.

I tested it today and the smoke cleared. Got myself another engine now.

My friend was asked if he knew of anyone who might want a recently replaced mower which had always started and run well but had got old. This Rover Combat turned up here this morning - with a catcher in excellent condition.

Throttle cable broken, plenty of rust in the deck, front axles wired on, blades far past worn out.

Take a look at the "filter" ! It fell to pieces when taking it out of the cover. Perhaps never been cleaned ? The plug wasn't much better.
After some TLC it is now purring nicely, cable all sorted, will get a new set of blades soon.

I really like the red cable tie, managed to remove and replace it intact after re-jigging the cable.

Any idea of how old this Rover is ?

MM, it looks early 2000s going by the engine. Very nice mowers the Aussie made Rovers.

Great minds think alike. Not that I use it very often but I have a Honda HRU19R 'Buffalo Buck' (GCV160) that has the terrible B&S style air filter box on the side that takes the rectangular pleated filter. While each filter comes with a thin foam pre-filter this still does a shitty job at keeping dust & particles off the main filter - and after every use it will have significant crap in the airfilter.

Sick of blowing this out with compressed air I took a synthetic cleaning cloth (it's almost like the stuff the surgical masks are made from) - cut to slightly larger size and placed over the filter (removing the foam prefilter as it's near useless).

The fit on those stock airfilters is a bit so-so as well - so I put a very thin layer of grease around the edges to give something of a gasket/sticky edge to trap any dust that does get drawn to it.

In comparison quality airfilters like on the GXV160 engine has near nothing in them - so definitely worth improving with some thin cloth or even a surgical mask material piece to assist keeping the main filter clean longer.

I cut out an old face mask to use as the pre filter after cleaning up the gunk out of the filter cover. Then loaded the cover with a new filter and the face mask material.
A coat of silver tidied up the engine nicely.

So you were worried that it could get Covid? <LOL>

Everybody knows they aren't that effective against covid-1976.