Can't Pull Mower Backwards - HRR216VLA to bearing conversion

[civic]

I had a Toro before this Honda. I bought it because Consumer Reports rated it right below the Honda and said it was a great mulcher and it was several hundred dollars less. I hated that mower. It didn't mulch well I always had to mow twice it left clumps of grass. I did everything the manual said to super mulch. I have St. Augustine grass. However I took this mower to my beach house with Bermuda grass and it did good. Bermuda is a lot thinner grass.

 

[Briantii]

I had a Toro before this Honda. I bought it because Consumer Reports rated it right below the Honda and said it was a great mulcher and it was several hundred dollars less. I hated that mower. It didn't mulch well I always had to mow twice it left clumps of grass. I did everything the manual said to super mulch. I have St. Augustine grass. However I took this mower to my beach house with Bermuda grass and it did good. Bermuda is a lot thinner grass.

Im not sure I could live with the personal pace deal. That looks like it’d be weird to me. I’m really glad you and others have found this thread helpful. I’m hoping it becomes the place where we truly solve this design flaw. I love your idea with felt and glad you shared it. I also love the extra o ring on your bearings. The more we work together and share ideas the better our chances are to making these mowers bulletproof.

 

[Dickman]

I got my adjusters back from the machine shop. The bearings are a press fit no need to epoxy but I ll need to epoxy one of the seals. I am excited to do this but I may wait until fall for 2 reasons. One it is hot, second and foremost I want to see if the felt works. Either way I believe I have a fix for at least several years instead of yearly. I also believe the needle bearings may have less resistance. Here are my pics.

A thought on those seals: when I disassembled my adjusters and axles, I found that one of the inside seals had popped out of it's press-fit hole and it was just flopping around on the axle. I am not sure how that could have happened. So I opted to epoxy both the inside and outside seals, just to prevent that from happening again. Just my 2 cents worth.

 

[Briantii]

A thought on those seals: when I disassembled my adjusters and axles, I found that one of the inside seals had popped out of it's press-fit hole and it was just flopping around on the axle. I am not sure how that could have happened. So I opted to epoxy both the inside and outside seals, just to prevent that from happening again. Just my 2 cents worth.

I did the same thing and had seen mine pop off before as well.

 

[Dickman]

Here is one other thing I did while reassembling and epoxying. I went to a good hardware store and bought a 3 ft length of aluminum rod, 1/2 inch in diameter. I cut 2 pieces from it, each about 6 inches long. I inserted each rod thru the adjuster/bearing assemblies. That provided good alignment for epoxying the outside seal. Briantii's suggestion of using the axle for alignment is good, I was just too klutzy to make that work while dealing with gooey epoxy, too.

 

[Briantii]

Here is one other thing I did while reassembling and epoxying. I went to a good hardware store and bought a 3 ft length of aluminum rod, 1/2 inch in diameter. I cut 2 pieces from it, each about 6 inches long. I inserted each rod thru the adjuster/bearing assemblies. That provided good alignment for epoxying the outside seal. Briantii's suggestion of using the axle for alignment is good, I was just too klutzy to make that work while dealing with gooey epoxy, too.

Good suggestion - I cheated and used my old transmission. ;-)

 

[civic]

A thought on those seals: when I disassembled my adjusters and axles, I found that one of the inside seals had popped out of it's press-fit hole and it was just flopping around on the axle. I am not sure how that could have happened. So I opted to epoxy both the inside and outside seals, just to prevent that from happening again. Just my 2 cents worth.

Thanks for the heads up. I was just planning on epoxying the floppy seal only but now will do both. I also plan on using the trans. shaft as an alignment. Not a bad idea using a piece of 1/2 in. rod. Like all these ideas. I wish more people will chime in. There are a lot of people on here not happy about this. Maybe we need to start a new thread saying something like Permanent Repair to Rear Wheels Locking Up on VKA's

 

[Briantii]

Thanks for the heads up. I was just planning on epoxying the floppy seal only but now will do both. I also plan on using the trans. shaft as an alignment. Not a bad idea using a piece of 1/2 in. rod. Like all these ideas. I wish more people will chime in. There are a lot of people on here not happy about this. Maybe we need to start a new thread saying something like Permanent Repair to Rear Wheels Locking Up on VKA's

Maybe an admin can sticky this thread and we can rename it?

 

[Westman]

Briantil, great thread and thanks for documenting this process that Honda dropped the ball on when originally designing these mowers. Has anyone here ever thought about bluing the axle, much like a rifle or shot gun to cut down on the rust and corrosion? Simple process that might extend the life of the axle while reducing rust? Just a thought. I am in the process of re-bluing my Remington 1100 shotgun, that is what brought this to mind. A simple chemical process used everyday to protect the metal on firearms. This could be easily applied to the Honda HRR rear axle as long as it was metal (magnetic) and not an alloy or stainless steel.

 

[civic]

Westman, the axle is magnetic. Will this harden the metal or just a harden coating. I looked this up and saw a product called Super Blue, is this a good product?