Fixing A Honda HRN 216 Mower That Won't Start

i had a knock at my front door and when i answered it it was my neighbor that lives several houses up the street they said they were having issues with their mower and wanted me to take a look at it when i got there i realized they had an almost brand new honda hrn which makes it my first time seeing one of these up close i promptly pushed it home and now i have to figure out why they were having issues with it what's up everyone and thank you for stopping by today's project is this honda lawn mower and the problem is that according to the owner it apparently won't start now i've only seen these at the big box home stores so i'm very interested to look at one of these before trying to fix it the only issue is that from its first impressions this has to be the most cost effective honda mower i've ever seen now i'm going to try and repair this mower however it may not be the exact repair you need to make to yours we'll explore other options later in the video now we're only going to mention what these other options could be we don't have enough time to look into them but if you need more information on these options you're welcome to ask as many questions as you need to so i'm not going to sugarcoat this but someone was trying to under engineer this machine what used to take 45 minutes to assemble now takes 25 minutes and uses half as many parts anyone who's worked in manufacturing will know what i'm talking about management or possibly even accounting then applied lean manufacturing on this new lineup which more than likely increase their profit margin but does that mean we get a terrible mower in the process and the answer is not necessarily from what i can tell even though the amount of plastic parts has increased considerably it's a lot easier to take apart to work on now yes i would have preferred more metal parts but that would have cost a lot of money so those costs would have been passed on to the consumer in the end though we get a slightly larger engine we still get dual blades we get honda quality and the best part at least it's assembled in the usa now would i buy one of these mowers well after i get done fixing it you'll be able to figure that out by the end of the video the first thing i want to check is the gasoline in the tank now it looks and smells fresh so at this point i don't think that's the issue but that might change if we can't get it started and i have to drain the tank now as clean as this thing is supposed to be i'm going to give it a light cleaning now i know it's not going to matter one bit to the repair but i can't help thinking how this is supposed to be one season old and it looks like it's been left outside in the rain at least once so it doesn't look the part sometimes what can happen when you get your mower out for its first cut of the season is instead of using up last season's fuel by the end of the season you'll keep that fuel through the winter to be used in the springtime now depending upon what kind of container the gasoline is in moisture can build up inside the container and when you pour that fuel into your mower that moisture may have collected into a fair amount of water make its way inside the carb and keep the engine from starting however if you have a very good fuel container this is very unlikely to happen especially if you keep your container in the garage versus an outdoor shed or worse just leaving it out in the open another option as to why there might be water in your fuel container is that the gas station the fuel came from has a lot of water in their tanks now a good way to prevent water contamination from getting inside your fuel tank is to buy a certain type of funnel that prevents water from getting through now i'm not endorsed by any brands so i'm not going to mention any names but i'm sure some of you watching are probably using it right now if you are i'd like to hear about your experience with them once the mower is somewhat clean i'm going to check the oil level in its condition it's really nice that they put a sticker on the side of the engine to let you know how to check the oil which in this case is to only press the dipstick against the threads and not to screw it in before checking the oil make sure you wipe the dipstick clean first that way you'll get an accurate reading and by the looks of it there's an excessive amount of oil in the engine which i hate to say is more dangerous than having too little oil now more than likely they didn't change the oil at the end of last season so it's imperative that we change it soon but first i want to try and start it and see what it does and doesn't do so apparently the owner was correct it definitely will not start the strange part is that this engine seems to be low on compression and i say that because of how the engine keeps spinning after each pull typically the engine will stop soon after each pull but on this one it seems to spin about twice as long as it's supposed to now maybe this new engine is supposed to do that but it might be something we may have to look into the next thing i want to do is to manually prime the engine with fuel just in case there's an issue with the auto choke system and to confirm that we have spark and of course compression from the engine so [Music] well that was really interesting the engine started and ran it just apparently needed to be physically primed if i had to guess the problem there was either a small amount of water that made its way to the carb and was sitting at the bottom of the bowl or there was a small blockage in the jet that finally came loose after we got it started either way it seems to be running now and we'll check on it here again as soon as we take care of the oil now the first oil change is the most important one you'll ever make now this oil doesn't look all that bad but it does have some color to it so why change it well this is basically it's break-in oil there's going to be metal particles in it and if you leave it in there through its life the engine won't last for a very long time if i had to guess two to four years depending upon how much you use it that sounds about right for when you would have to buy a new mower but if you change your oil every year a 400 investment could last you about 10 years now they have a couple of trees in their front and backyard which explains why there are a few small gouges on the edge of the blade now these blades aren't sharp anymore and just to be nice i'm going to remove them and so i can put an edge back on them i don't show how i do this because i don't see any point showing me using a grinder if and when i get a sharpening rig then i'll consider showing how that works after an edge has been put back on them i'll reinstall them now the underside of the mowing deck is very clean and i would hope so seeing as how they only used it a handful of times last year but there are a few clumps of grass stuck to the central part of the underside to help improve how your mower cuts and mulches i would try to keep the underside as clean as possible so it looks like the oil has stopped dripping but i learned something new today if i put the mower back on its wheels for a few seconds then tip it over again more oil will pour out of it i'm only showing you the third time i've tipped it over but the first time i did this i had a couple of ounces of dirty oil come out so i might have to do this trick more often like i said i know the oil doesn't look terrible but it's what you can't see in there that i'm worried about the last step is the most important one and this is where they made their mistake according to the owner's manual this particular engine only takes 12 to 13 and a half ounces of oil which is a surprisingly low amount of oil to be honest the older engines seem to take around 18 to 21 ounces so this is quite a change i would assume the engine's oiling system has also changed to work with a lot less oil as well now you could just pour the exact amount of oil into the engine but i would always check it using the dipstick to make sure you didn't overfill it now the dipstick is really tough to read especially with clean oil but it looks like it's at the full mark so we should be okay to try and start it but before i do try and start it i want to see how much oil was in the engine what i'm going to do is pour the old oil back into the empty bottle and see how much was in there is this really important to know and the answer is i think it is i'll let my neighbor know that way they can try to avoid this from happening in the future so we should have gotten around this amount of oil out of the engine but as you can see it looks like we're able to drain about three quarters of a quart of oil from the engine which is around 24 ounces of oil and that is definitely too much oil for this engine the next thing we want to do is to turn the fuel valve on and try starting the engine [Music] so it looks like this mower is starting just fine and i do believe priming it manually with fuel cleared up any starting issues with the oil at the correct level we don't have to worry about this engine being damaged by having too much oil in it the blade is sharp and the underside of the mowing deck is mostly clean so it should be ready for the next mowing season another option as to why this mower wouldn't start is of course a clogged fuel jet which to be honest i was prepared to work on now to fix it you'll have to remove the carb and the jet so you can clear it but it turns out this one was a pretty easy fix so my question is would you buy a newer model of the mower you have now knowing they made it with a lot more plastic and with fewer parts personally it depends on the brand i have one brand in mind where i believe they're making their products they'll only last a few years before you have to buy a new one i'm not going to mention any names but as far as this brand goes yes i would still buy a new honda knowing there was some cost savings involved thank you for watching i really do appreciate your time here please feel free to ask me any questions about this project or your own projects and i hope to see you in the next video you

Channel: INSIDE HOUSE GARAGE

Views: 34,731

Keywords: mower, honda, husqvarna, poulan, toro, troybilt, troy, craftsman, craftsmen, 216, 217, harmony, lawnmower, won't, start, will, not, starting, starts, run, running, runs, work, works, working, problem, fix, grass, mow, yard, yardmachine, home, garage, inside, house, air, filter, spark, oil, gas, carb, carburetor, clean, rebuild, ultrasonic, bowl, nut, jet, clogged, clog, clear, wheel, deck, blade, pull, rope, cap, line, bag, clooged, water, easy, simple, mountfield, stiga, snapper, self, propel, commercial, exmark, Tecumseh, transmission, drive, cub, cadet, lawn, HRN

Id: 08g2VUNTFpM

Length: 9min 56sec (596 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 22 2022