The other day the engine petered out as I was finishing a mow. RPMs just dropped off. I parked it.
Day or two later I'm mowing again. No issues. And then later, it did the same thing. This time I couldn't pull the rope at all. I can slowly turn the flywheel with a socket and breaker bar.
Valves move.
But there didn't seem to be oil. Dunno why, there's no leak and it never smoked.
I just watched a YouTube video where a guy had the identical problem. All he did was add oil and spin the flywheel with a ratchet a bunch of times to work the oil into everything. got nothing to lose, so I'll try that!
I did add oil this morning and turned the flywheel once around. I could almost swear it did then turn easier, so there might be something to this. I'll keep at it.
#3
willys55
well, even if you do free it up and keep the oil level where it should be, you may still be looking for a new engine, you can only lock'em up so many times
It worked. I added more oil, cranked on it with the ratchet a bunch of times, with spark plug out and gas turned off. Still couldn't pull with the rope. Worked it back and forth a little, where it had the most resistance. I may have added a little more oil. Got maybe one rotation from it with the rope, but it would keep gettng stuck.
Worked it some more until the rope could pull it, albeit not well. I was scooting he mower sideways around the floor ...
I put the spark plug back in and turned the gas valve. The pulls were too slow to start the engine, but I did get it to fire once. Kept at it and it started and ran fine. Went through the throttle positions, stopped, started back up (rope pulled easy now). Perfect. Added a little more oil.
I know a guy who brought a Briggs & Stratton engine back to life doing this so I can only imagine that should work with a Honda...good luck...now... watch those oil levels...lol!
Mowed about 50 ft or so and it seems the connecting rod broke. Terrible internal noise, I stopped engine. Piston no longer moves. Crankshaft seems OK. Pulls really easy now that key parts have disintegrated inside!
Will anything other than a GXV140 fit? I know I'd need one from a hydrostatic drive mower.
