HRX217. Engine family is 3HNXS.1871AK. My guess is 2006 or 2007 from the EPA sticker. This is the kind with the choke as a manual setting on the throttle on the handle.
I got this mower for $6 at an auction sale. The previous owner's son was there and said that his dad had replaced the carb because it didn't run... and wouldn't run after it as well. I went through the carb and found the needle was in upside down (with the rubber against the float) so I knew I wasn't working with a genius repair person. All of the cables were replaced, but unknown if they were adjusted properly.
I have spark across the gap. I have tried it with the new carb he put on (after correcting the upside-down needle) and gave it a good blasting of cleaner just to be sure. The innermost gasket was questionable (between the insulator and the head) so I put a new one in. Fires infrequently, but doesn't run. There is fuel in the bowl, but the plug isn't wet after 10-20 pulls and I can't smell any fuel on it. So I moved to the controls (governor spring, throttle rod, choke rod, etc.... where the throttle cable attaches to the engine) and realized that nearly every one of those little tabs of steel had been...ummm.... massaged. Scratched, mildly bent, or otherwise not quite right. I also noticed the governor spring was stretched and hooked up to the wrong spot. My shot-in-the dark guess is that the throttle cable broke, and the old man was using pliers on those bellcranks to do things manually before he finally replaced the cable. I don't think the throttle is working properly, and I don't think the choke is closing when I engage it on the handle.
Long story short... Does anyone have a picture that shows the correct configuration of rods, springs, and how it's supposed to look? For all I know there are things missing, hooked up wrong, and I need to see what those metal bellcranks look like so I can figure out what does what and see if I can salvage it. I think I just need to "re-massage" those tabs and pieces to get it running.
I took a little video to show you what I'm up against. Video linky
I also got it running-ish. I stabbed a screwdriver between the throttle and the choke lever. It started, but it hunts RPM big time... as in, drops so low it kills itself sometimes.
The last bit in your video is where the choke is turned on.
The actuating lever is the tab that is sticking out pointing at you
It should be on the bottom of that slot when off
Not sure weather it has a tension spring on the lever or a clock spring on the choke shaft to hold the choke open.
Oh... then something is out of whack, because it's reversed. When the tab is in the bottom of the slot, the choke is ON. I'm not sure where the spring is either, but the spring holds the choke off (which is in the up position)
If you notice in the video, when I move the choke to the left (tab down), it automatically snaps back to the right (tab up). And I can verify looking in the air horn that the choke is closing and opening to match it. I'll look and see if maybe the bellcrank in the carb has another hole on the other side to use, but I don't think it does.
