Honda hr214 handle braces

One of the things that has always bothered me about my hr214 is the handle wobbled a little bit, especially when I would push down on it to take pivot the mower around turns. After a little investigation, I found out that the pin on the  handle stay (the bracket that attaches the handle to the deck) had broken off, causing the loose fit.

At the same time that I figured that out, I had also seen somebody on the MTF forms say that you could add commercial handle braces to the hr214 and that it would make a big improvement. Long story short, I went ahead and bought the commercial braces, along with the handle stay.

So did it get rid of the wobble? Absolutely! The handle feels like its carved out of rock, and is completely stable while i'm walking behind the mower. In retrospect, I'm not sure if the handle braces were necessary, or the stay itself would have done as good a job, but I think with the braces in place the handle stay won't brake again.

Here is what the new stay looks like. Not chrome, but functionally identical.

Honda HR214 Lawn Mower in Famous Music Video!

Some girls at work sent me this video. The music is pop-crap, but if you watch the first 30 seconds you'll catch a honda hr214...classic!

She Lives!

She lives! After 3 months of tear downs, repairs, lots of parts and poring over the official honda manual, my little Hr214 started up on the second try. Pretty sweet-see the video below:

So whats next?

• The Gxv120 surges when its cold. I'd imagine its a carb issue, but will have to check it out next weekend when I have some time.
• The hr214 transmission should be checked over for fluid level (apparently the seals on each end of the axel can go bad...since I don't see any leaks I would guess that I'm either A-OK, or I'm so out of fluid and its about to fail =P
• Check the valve adjustments-I have more power, at less RPM, than before the tear down, but want to make sure the adjustments are good after a couple of uses
• Repair the handle where it meets the deck; maybe add the commercial handle braces that I've seen in the parts catalogue....

Coming Back Together!

First off, all credit to my wife for solving the mystery part issue! Turns out the plastic piece is part of the flow of oil from the head back to the crank case...thats what I get for not taking enough pictures while i disassembled it!

So the motor is back together, and even sitting on the deck right now-sweet! Reassembly notes for those that come after me...

Head-I didn't put in new valve guides, but I did get some Valve Paste in my last parts order from Amazon and did a valve job. According to the internet, the valve seats should be a dull grey, and mine were, so I think I'm OK there. There was a very small amount of back-and-forth detectible in the valve guides when you wiggled the stems, but I'm going to leave it for now. I just can't find any examples of this motor having that sort of issue, and the stems were in spec as well.

Carb-Follow the video on the resources page! These carbs are really, really simple, and it looks like the key is cleanliness. Honestly, I probably didn't even have to take the carb apart, and I probably wouldn't again unless I suspected there was some kind of issue. I discovered the miracle of carb cleaner for the first time...and quickly discovered that I should be wearing rubber gloves when I use this stuff.

BBC- You're going to have to use the Strap Wrench again to hold the flywheel still while getting the Blade Brake Clutch back together. After the engine is on the deck and torqued down, sit the mower on its side on a pair of saw horse to make things easier.

Misc- Pay attention to the routing of the wires, they should be kept away from the cylinder head and exhaust. Take time to re-grease the drive shaft, and line the hole up as described in the manual.

So will she start? Tune in next week...

Tools used to re-assemble so far:
Strap Wrench
Valve Paste
Carb Cleaner
Rubber Gloves (Seriously guys, use gloves when you're using that carb cleaner stuff...)

Honda Gxv120 Rebuild-mystery part?

Boats.net came through on my Honda parts a little more than a week after ordering them. Not bad, and they really did seem to have the lowest prices. So today I picked up some assembly lube, a piston ring compressor, a 3/8ths torque wrench and went to work. First came putting the piston back into the cylinder-not too bad a job, just be VERY careful to align the rings with the mark facing "up." My mark was a "N" instead of a "T" but I think I got it right.
 
Next was the crankshaft (lube it up, drop it in the bearing) and the the connecting rod cap. When you tighten the connecting rod bolts, make sure you are using a torque wrench! The space you have to work in is really tight so I actually went and picked up a new one for the occasion. The sears store only had a 3/8ths drive, but a 1/4" probably would have worked even better if I had thought ahead and ordered it online.

After the crankshaft and piston are back together, move on to the camshaft. Make sure the dots line up, the lifters are back in their slots, and drop it in. I didn't mark the lifters as I took them out...but they appear to have no wear and be identical.

So far so good...until I found a mystery part! Shit, I hate it when that happens! Here is a picture of the little sucker:

This little guy shows up in the parts sheet on boats.net as a "pipe, oil defense" in the cylinder head parts diagram.  Unfortunately, it shows up nowhere in the manual, and in the parts diagram it is off in the corner by itself...no clue to where in the cylinder head it lives. Hmmm...so dear readers, anybody know where things thing goes?

Tools used to reassemble the gxv120 piston, crank and camshaft:

1/4-Inch Torque Wrench
Piston Ring Compressor
Engine Assembly Lube

Measuring the gxv120 Cylinder Bore

After I got the gxv120 cylinder honed I began to have doubts that the cylinder was still within spec. After all, this engine is pushing 30 years old (!), and was running super high revolutions when the tear-down began. So I decided to do some rough measurements with a telescopic bore gauge and calipers that I borrowed from a friend. Luckily the hr214 shop manual had the specs for the bore, and after taking some measurements it looks like my bore has about .05mm of wear, but is still well within spec. If anybody wants to do a tear down on one of these hondas and take the measurements, you need to take your time and do multiple measurements. I followed the directions from the video below:

Tools used in video:

Telescoping Bore Gauge Set

Digital Caliper

Dial Bore Gauge

Like Jaf says in the video, the dial bore gauge is the best solution if you're building a serious engine, but for a lawnmower engine that is measuring so far below tolerance with the telescoping bore gauge set, I think I'm fine. I ordered some parts from boats.net too...hopefully next week the rebuild will start.

Honda HR214 Manuals, HR194 Manuals, GXV-120 Manuals

So while the machine shop is doing unspeakable things to the honda gxv120, I'm getting my stuff in order so I can start putting the pieces back together when I get the block back.

Honda GXV120 Service manual-This is the service manual for the hr214's engine-in three languages no less!

Honda HR194/HR214 Service Manual Online- CB left us this link in the comments, its the service manual online, for FREE! SWEET!

Honda HR214 Parts diagrams-Actually a link to Planopower, they appear to have a pretty complete list for the hr214

Honda GX Carb cleaning video-How cool is this? Bwdbrn1 posted this on the "my tractor forum"; its a 8 minute video showing how to take apart and clean a honda gxv120 carb!

Honda HR214 Manual-Just a link to e-bay for now; I haven't been able to find the pdfs of the hr214 online yet, but I'll keep looking.

Honda HR214 Owner's Manual-Probably not gonna use this one for a while, least not till this beast is back together!

Honda gxv120 and gxv160 Carb Services checklist-Really nice diagram of what to check for when something is amiss with the Keihin B0E3A carb

Honda hr214 lawn mower engine tear-down

And so it begins! I spent the majority of sunday tearing the gxv120 down. I used the official honda manual for the disassembly, but didn't necessarily go in the order prescribed.

Tools: No special tools required, just a wheel puller and a strap wrench to remove the flywheel. Beyond that, I have a motley assortment of metric wrenches and sockets. I would need some special measuring tools if i was going to check out engine internals myself, but for now we're OK since I'll be sending the block out for honing before I drop the new rings in. Oh, and a digital camera to take pictures as you go, and some baggies to store the parts.

Manuals: Just some youtube videos and the official honda hr214 manual. I'll use the parts manual from planopower.net or boats.net to order the stuff, but it wasn't necessary for the take apart.

Steps: I should have removed roto-stop assembly from the bottom of the mower, then taken the engine off the deck. Instead I left the mower on the deck, too it apart until I was down to the block, and then removed the roto-stop assembly. My back is killing me from all the bending over, even though the mower was on saw-horses.

So what does the inside of this small engine look like? Really, not fantastic. No metal shavings, but the bore is as smooth as glass, no cross-hatching in site. Ergo, definitely a hone job before it gets put back together. I'll also have the machine shop check the bore to make sure I don't need an over-size on the piston/ring set, but I would guess I'm ok there.

3800 rpm Honda gxv120!

So after posting my "before" tear-down  video of the smokey hr214 mower, some of the guys over at "My Tractor Forum" said that Yoshimi was running a bit fast...like a thousand rpm fast! Whoops. So I ran out to Northern Tool and picked up a digital tachometer like this one and hooked it up. After a little  learning curve, this tach was pretty easy to set up; red wire gets wrapped around the spark plug lead, and the white lead gets grounded to the frame. The hr214 sparks every revolution (even during the exhaust stroke), so i left the stock settings in place, but you can also set it for different types of motors (distributor vs. non, etc).

So what did I find? Holy crap, this thing was about to fly apart! The specs for the gxv120 call for about 2,000rpm at idle with the blade disengaged, and I was up around 3200 at idle, and around 3700 at top speed.

Hmmm...after reading the manual, it looks like the idle gets adjusted at the carburetor via the throttle stop screw, but no dice! Long story short...the breather hose was actually broken off a the block  and had pressed the governor arm as far as it would go-keeping the engine running at top speed. After seeing the breather hose venting to the outside world, I decided to go straight to the tear-down, and spent most of today taking the gxv120 apart. Video of my rev-happy Honda below:

Sources for HR214 Parts and HR194 parts

So I've been collecting sources for honda parts, I thought I'd stick them in a single post to keep things neat and clean. Sources below, with links.

• Plano Power-Texas based, parts catalog is pretty easy to navigate, but they sent me an incorrect part and claimed it was my fault. Shipping seemed pretty high too.

• Boats.net-Looks like these guys aren't really focused on honda lawnmowers, but they do carry the parts, and Bryanst1 says they have the best price. Looks like you can chat live with a rep...kinda cool.

• Honda dealerships-You can get a listing of local honda dealerships/service centers here, but you'd better call ahead because its pretty rare that something is in stock for a 20 year old mower. If you have the part number from either boats.net or plano power, you can make sure they aren't hurting you too badly on the price too.

• Ebay-With a mower this old, I've been keeping an eye out for cheap used parts, or even new old stock.

• Craigslist.org-Just scored some wheels and transmission parts...tons of the hr194 and hr214 were made and sold, so they still wind up on C-list

Before shot of how much smoke the hr214 throws off

So I'll be tearing down the hr214 later in april, but i wanted to record this to show how much smoke it throws off during start-up. I'll definitely be replacing the rings on the gvc120, but i'm not sure if i should order the valve stems too. Here is the vid...

First pull start with the choke on (you can tell when i turn it off and the engine speeds up) I asked a few guys on the net who have done this job before what they think about the valve stems...we'll see.

Breather hose for gxv120

This post is for Vocegrande! He's missing a breather hose off his hr214, so here are some pictures that might help him find a replacement. It looks like a regular fuel hose from the auto parts store would do a pretty good job of replacing it...but if your engine blows up, don't blame me ;)

Let us know how the new coil works out Vocegrande!

Correct spark plug for hr214

As I go through the Honda hr214 I'm fixing lots of little little things. This morning I checked the spark plug and found that not only was it the wrong gap, it was the wrong plug altogether! A trip to home depot later and get the correct NGK BP5ES is installed. I'll have to test the mower later to see if it has more power, but there is a visible difference in size. The gap for the hr214 spark plug is  from .7 to 8mm, so get your feeler gauge out! The same spark plug works for the hr194 as well.

Honda hr214 parts arrive!

The piston rings, blade, head gasket and tires all arrived today. I got the parts from plano power, and am happy with the cost and speed of delivery, but they included a wrong knob! So I'm waiting to see what they'll do. In the meantime, I got the tires put on; what a hassle! You wouldn't think that two bits of rubber would need a half an hour to install, but it took all of that and some sweat. Here is the offender:

Pro-tip: Use two screw-drivers like tire-irons to slowly pull the rubber over the plastic. Whew!

Mentioned in post:
Honda Tire for the HR214

honda hr214 manual and a smoking hr214

On Monday I ordered a bunch of honda parts for the new hr214, and today the manual came. 35$ might be a lot of money for a honda lawn mower manual, but if it helps solve the issue that I'm having with the smoking motor, it'll be worth its weight in gold! Video below of what a REALLY smokey hr214 looks like:

Mine isn't that bad!

So what is causing all that smoke? The guy said valve guides, but other sources on the internet like this guy with the smoking hr214 say that new rings are the way to go. I have the rings on order, and with the new honda manual, we should be OK to R+R later this summer.

Oh yeah, if you need a manual for hr214 follow the link!

The Best Lawnmower Ever?

I'm pretty pumped to have my first Honda Lawnmower. Its a Honda HR214 from 1983, and its special for a bunch of reasons. First off, its widely known as one of the best Honda Lawnmowers, and probably even one of the best lawnmowers ever made. Several reasons for this:

1.) The engine is the commercial gv120, not the consumer grade motors that Honda put in their later mowers
2.) Self propelled, AND an electric start!
3.) Honda lawnmower parts can still be had at any Honda dealership.

Here is a pic of my new baby!