[benhogan]

Honda Harmony series mower ( not sure what HR it is).. i replaced the control cable, the drive belt.

customer says the self propelled works fine when cold. it gets worse and worse then after 30 minutes, the self propelled power is all gone. the person is now the self propeller.

does this point to a bad transmission? what do they normally run?

 

[rscurtis]

I think you'll find that the cost of the repair will me more than half the cost of a new machine. I see a lot of Honda's in the junk pile on my visits to LI at a dealer where I used to work part-time. IMO, Honda mowers are highly over-rated. I'll take an old Snapper any day.

 

[RED-85-Z51]

Yeah, if its a Hydro-Harmony, then yeah....bad tranny.

I avoid hondas, like curtis said..WAYY overrated, but the engines are decent as long as they are the GXV series...

 

[benhogan]

Red-
How do I know if the tranny is a Hydro?

I the transmission control has a 1-2-3 on the lever. Is that the hydro?

 

[RED-85-Z51]

Hydro will have an infinitely variable shifter, like SLOW>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>FASTER

Whereas a gear drive will have 1....2.....3.....4.....etc

if its a gear drive, and the belt is neaw and adjusted right, only thing I can imagine is there is some kind of friction drive clutch in the unit that has worn out or something, Ive taken trailer loads of Honda Harmony mowers to the scrap yard with blown trannies...

 

[blackbri]

it is not the hydro. you would probably need to check the shiftier arms for wear and check to see if the cable is adjusted right. the two gears that engage the transmission may be slipping out of sync because of warn transmission engagement arm or a warn shifter arm. if their is a lot of wear on the arm it will let the transmission engagement gears slide apart.

 

[benhogan]

it is not the hydro. you would probably need to check the shiftier arms for wear and check to see if the cable is adjusted right. the two gears that engage the transmission may be slipping out of sync because of warn transmission engagement arm or a warn shifter arm. if their is a lot of wear on the arm it will let the transmission engagement gears slide apart.

i guess i should have inspected the transmission engagement arm when i installed the new cable.

i assume the transmission engagement arm is the thing the cable hooks into, right? I don't need to take the transmission apart i.e. this is not inside the tranny box right?

 

[blackbri]

it would be easier if you did but just check this out.

their are other utube that deal with the honda transmissions.

 

[rscurtis]

I was at Shank's lawn equipment in Marion this morning, and there was a landscaper complaining about the same thing, that his high-end SP Honda would only last a year before the SP mechanism was worn out. Granted, perhaps he uses it more than it's designed for, but it wasn't lasting any longer than a cheaper mower. Perhaps he should have been looking at the $1000+ ExMark in the next aisle.

 

[benhogan]

Blackbri-
Man, I learned a lot from that youtube video. It was fantastic! I had no idea a transmission was so simple!

Clearly, my problem is the shifter arm like the video shows. Too much play. I priced the part at around $13 plus shipping. The guy in the vid welden a shim.

Thanks for sharing bro.

 

[RED-85-Z51]

question is, what would cause it to slip only when warm, because the assembly is of the "in our out" style...its either engaged, or disengaged.

 

[benhogan]

shoot I don't know. maybe when it it cold the grease is thicker. it thins out when it get hot. who knows. I will report back with pictures!

 

[WNYTractorTinkerer]

question is, what would cause it to slip only when warm, because the assembly is of the "in our out" style...its either engaged, or disengaged.

If it's belt driven the belt is heating up & slipping.. Look there..

 

[RED-85-Z51]

If it's belt driven the belt is heating up & slipping.. Look there..

He said he put on a brand new belt, so i dunno....

 

[tomw0]

benhogan... If you want to experiment, you could 'flip' the lever that engages the dog clutch instead of cutting a shim like the u-tube video shows. Even drill holes 180 off for th springs, etc. If you don't want to go that far, try trading the hi-low shift lever for the engage lever. It would let you test...
FWIW, the hi-low shaft shown in the video seems to have a LOT of play in the housing, so there is a bit of wear letting the lever flop around, or it was designed to be loosey-goosey from the get go. I ain't a Honda engineer, so can't say. Cannot also say about the pinion gear shaft as it seems to be supported by one bearing, which would allow the gear to get out of position relative to the spider gears as things wear. Belt tension pulling in one direction all the time would lead to bad things. Guess I'm saying that as simple as the gearbox is, it was designed to a price. Maybe I'm too paranoid, and there's only fractional hp being transferred, but having a shaft with one bearing is not good design in my view.
I'd bet the pulley on the mower you have is allowing the belt to slip as it warms up from use. New may fit properly if the bearings are good and tight, but that design shouts about the belt loosening under use if the bearings have any slop at all.
Wiggle the input pulley to check for play...
tom