I just completed the replacement of the timing belt on my 1990 Honda 4514. I am the original owner and the belt had not been replaced in 20 years so I felt like I was mowing on borrowed time. I got an estimate of $600 for labor alone from the local Honda Power Equipment dealer. That's when I started researching doing it myself and came across this forum which provided some helpful information. Of course you can't believe everything you read. I came across one comment elsewhere which said you didn't have to remove the engine. No way is that the case. I have pretty basic mechanical skills so I thought I could share a few things I learned doing this job. First, I would not try this without a Shop Manual. My manual was issued in June, 1990 and while helpful is not perfect. The section covering engine removal indicates that the cooling fan and PTO clutch must be removed. I disconnected the PTO clutch cable from the PTO lever but left the clutch in place which worked out fine. I also left the cooling fan in place. I put a socket on the fan attachment nut to hold the crankshaft in place while removing the drive shaft bolts. The manual also says to remove the steering column screws and front floor mats which I did not do. I was nervous about removing the flywheel. I borrowed an electric impact wrench to remove the flywheel nut. That worked very well. I tryed pulling the flywheel with a 3 jawed gear puller put felt like I was exerting too much force on the flywheel perimeter. I found a tool on the internet which worked great. It is a Harmonic Balancer Puller. It is a steel yoke that bolts on to the flywheel using the driveshaft bolt holes. I was able to borrow one from Advance Auto Parts at no cost. The one I used was from PowerBuilt and even had the proper sized mounting bolts for the driveshaft mounting holes. After snugging up the yoke the flywheel popped right off with about one turn of the center puller bolt.
The old timing belt looked pretty good although there was excess slack in it and of course I replaced it after all the work to get to it. I had seen comments about the hidden water pump mounting bolt in other posts and sure enough you wouldn't know it was there by looking. It does show up in the manual diagram but would be easy to miss. You do have to use a screw driver to pry the flexible material away from the bolt to get a wrench on it but I probably only loosened it about a turn.
Well thats about it. Everything went back together. No extra parts and the Honda runs like new and I won't have to replace the belt again until I am 84.
The old timing belt looked pretty good although there was excess slack in it and of course I replaced it after all the work to get to it. I had seen comments about the hidden water pump mounting bolt in other posts and sure enough you wouldn't know it was there by looking. It does show up in the manual diagram but would be easy to miss. You do have to use a screw driver to pry the flexible material away from the bolt to get a wrench on it but I probably only loosened it about a turn.
Well thats about it. Everything went back together. No extra parts and the Honda runs like new and I won't have to replace the belt again until I am 84.
