I have a new-to-me Honda HRB216HXA Serial: MAAA-1019089
I mowed with it twice before this happened:
After starting the mower to mow with this mower for the third time after owning it, i pulled it start perfectly fine, about 30 seconds into the mower warming up (i was not touching the mower at all) the blade engaged all by it self... I stopped the mower, and started my troubleshooting. i disassembled the blade brake and compared it to a schematic i found online, and everything seems to be in order, the wear parts are not overworn. But when i reassemble, it doesnt seem like the clutch material touches the spring loaded blade brake part that is attached to the cable that goes to the engage lever. now, whenever i try to pull the motor over, i can hear/feel the blade spinning with the motor. i have gone as far as to disconnect the cable from the brake side of the mower to rule out an over-adjusted cable but no avail.
this is the schematic i was reffering to, and there is a small gap between part 7 and part 13, and from what i gather, when part 13 rubs against 7 (which would only happen when the cable is engaged) 7 then rotates into 13, which then allows 11 to spin freely without transfering torque to 13.
After beating myself up for a week, i found that a piece on the ball control part of the roto-stop has broken off. the circled point in the attached image is a square hole when all is well, but it looks like a C channel, and causes the assembly to rotate several degrees to the point of not engaging the brake... it broke so perfectly it looked natural and i just assumed that was kind of a one way slot to prevent it from going in one direction but not the other. only after staring at multiple schematics did i notice that that is not supposed to be a slot but a hole...
i solved my own problem, but hopefully i will help someone else out in the future.