Replace gear box oil and tighten cables. Full details are covered in video. This mower is nearly non-destructible, so if you fix the self-propelling, you could use it again for many more years. Mine is nearly 40 years old

@@DIYLifeSkills I hear ya, a very interesting project, thx again for great video and personal encouragement!

@@bl9531 Initially I thought it would very difficult, but in the end, it was just all loosening bolts and tightening them back. There was no technically complicated work and you don’t need any special tools. Just some elbow grease and sweat. 😅

@@DIYLifeSkills thx so much for your time

Update: my Honda is actually an HR215 so not exactly the same as yours. I followed all the same steps as you suggest. Like you, I drained the old dirty oil and found the gears looked perfectly fine … I did use Honda bond to seal the gearbox though. The HR215 has a removable cap to make it easy to add gear oil. Started it up and bingo … the transmission works … not sure how that can be to be honest but … it just is. Thx for your videos and your words of encouragement

Mine is nearly 40 years old and it just refuses to die. How old is your’s?

I do not know as I bought it used but it has been a good machine. Funny thing is I just got it out yesterday to go over lawn to clean it up before grass starts growing and third pull it started. It have always had gas additive in the fall and it starts easily every spring. I wish they would have put a drain plug on the as I am not to sure I want to tackle what you did as it is working just fine. Could it be split with out taking the cables off ? You can still buy the drive wheels from Honda for yours. I live in Ontario Canada near Sarnia/Port Huron@@DIYLifeSkills

@@twotalljones4790 Nice pick up as this will last forever. I studied the possibility to replace the trans gear oil without disassembling and it’s just not possible. But I did it after 40 years only when the self-propelling wouldn’t work any more. I was going to just sell it as is if I couldn’t fix it…but voila it’s working again magically.

@@twotalljones4790 I already checked the wheels and they are going for $50 each for new ones and 20-25 each for used ones. With extra washers it’s good for few more years as I don’t want to invest more money as I don’t know how long this will last. LOL If I can find a same used mower cheaply then I may buys it just for swapping parts. I think they sold this from mid to late 80’s, so your is at least 35 years. Just out of curiosity, how long ago did you buy it for how much? BTW, mine always starts also with 1 or 2 pulls all the time. Can’t remember when I have to pull 3 times. Also I use it in winter time also here in Houston TX to pick up leaves on lawn.

@@twotalljones4790 I already checked the wheels and they are going for $50 each for new ones and 20-25 each for used ones. With extra washers it’s good for few more years as I don’t want to invest more money as I don’t know how long this will last. LOL If I can find a same used mower cheaply then I may buys it just for swapping parts. I think they sold this from mid to late 80’s, so your is at least 35 years. Just out of curiosity, how long ago did you buy it for how much? BTW, mine always starts also with 1 or 2 pulls all the time. Can’t remember when I have to pull 3 times. Also I use it in winter time also here in Houston TX to pick up leaves on lawn.

@@tastyfishsauce4410 I’m not 100% sure as I did both at the same time. That said, I know the cable stretched and there was not enough tension to move the level down to shift into higher speed gear. So I would try to tighten the cable first since it’s simpler work. But if that doesn’t fix it, then do the fluid change. The oil can’t be good after 35-40 years and it had a lot of metal shaving residue in it. So if you haven’t changed the oil, you probably should change it so that you can keep this going another 10+ years.

@@tastyfishsauce4410 Also, my wheel hubs cracked and was loose. So this could have taken some rotation power as well. You can see in the video, when I lift up the back side, the wheels did rotate but when I sat it down, it didn’t have enough power to thrust forward. Actually, this might the easiest and first thing that you should check. Let me know how it goes.

@@tastyfishsauce4410 At this point, I feel the engine and transmission is pretty solid and the weakest point is the cracked wheel hubs but these are like $100+ for two rear wheels. So I’m constantly looking for someone selling this so that I can buy it for parts and keep this going for a long time.

@@tastyfishsauce4410 If you look at my channel, you can see I’ve worked on many lawn mowers and had the chance to change it to a newer one and sell this but I feel 35-40 year old Honda was more solidly built so I sold others. Starting from the deck, it’s solid and thick and has no rust whereas newer lawn mowers that I fixed and sold the deck was thin and nearly all of them had rust starting although they were only about 10 years old.

Let’s find some time and talk

I had to do 3 things to fix my lawn mower self-propel that appears to be working but wasn't strong enough to move the lawn mower forward: 1. The rear wheel was partially cracked and wouldn't engage the rotating mechanism tightly. 2. The cable stretched and wouldn't shift properly to engage the gear. 3. Had to change the gearbox oil that wasn't changed in nearly 40 years, so it was very dirty and bit low.

It's very common for cable to stretch over the years, and it needs to be adjusted (tighten) so that it can push down on the lever show on 14:15 when shifting into (fast) second gear. If it's not able to shift into second gear, then you know even the first gear is not properly engaging. Without full engagement, the wheel may be able to rotate if you lift the lawn mower in the air, but it's not strong enough to push the mower forward.

If your's is old as mine, it's not worth taking it to a repair shop as repair cost may outweigh the value of the mower. But since this mower is nearly indestructible, it's worth giving taking 1/2 day to give it a full service like I did, and you could probably use it for another 10+ years. Honda stopped selling in North America recently, and used ones are still several hundreds of dollars.

​​@@DIYLifeSkillsso I've actually got the exact same mower as you, it was given away for free to my mother-in-law. Problem with it was it was severely smoking, they brought it to a shop they couldn't figure it out, what i noticed is they had too much oil in it. So I took care of that, but this mower is a lot heavier than my previous mower, so having self propel would be very nice

Looks like my slow speed and fast speed was messed up too. Not that I would know since it doesn't pull, but when you put it into fast speed the arm by transmission pushes the pin down, but then it doesn't come back up. I fixed that, all that's left is to open the transmission