OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Walk Behind Lawn Mower Frames Four Stroke Lawn Mower Frames Honda SP - Chassis Replacement

My mate has a 2 speed Honda, gearbox blown up so he has been using it as a push mower but these things are just so heavy, I have to lift them onto my bench with a chain block. Anyway he wants me to see if I can reduce some of the weight on it but my suggestion is to ditch the body and put the motor on a much lighter base. What I am looking for is a 20/21 inch cut base that is well designed and has a good sized catcher. Anybody have any thoughts?

Lawn Beetle body anyone ??

I think the only options for something that big would be a steel base john deere or toro, nothing else is going to be light, thats why damn near all 21's are self propelled... Better option may be find another gearbox?

BB I would need to weld a couple of Beetles together.
Nath, my hatred of the Honda gearbox is well documented here, there is junk and then there is the Honda gearbox. I refuse to replace those ever again

Ok so my son dragged this one home, obviously removed from the bulky Honda chassis with a failed gearbox. Downside is it is a big motor but only an 18 inch cut

Gee whiz that looks over engined. At least there is little danger of a leg out of bed with all that torque.
Red and yellow doesn't look the most fashionable though.

Yes it is hard to know what to do with such a brilliant motor when the rest of the machine is a junker

^ much like the current Ryobi mowers haha.

Hi,

I put a 450 ex Sanli Chonda on my Rover Regal 19. Its been good over many years and was easy to do. I had to put it crossways. Shaft did not need any modification. There was some redrilling of the holes in the alloy base. Its still only 19 inch but thats slightly better than 18 inch. But that motor looks even bigger.

All the best
Jeff



.

That is interesting Jeff, the fact you had to turn it sideways is odd (obviously something was fouling) and in turning it sideways that means the holes would need to be re-drilled

Hi Norm,

I think the original 4hp Briggs on this base was crossways. Its been that long ago I can not really remember. Anyway it was easy to do. I think I had to file one hole elongated but can not remember how many holes I had to drill. Its at least 10yrs ago but the S/H Chonda still is going strong. I think I would have worn at least one Briggs in that time.

All the best
Jeff

I can't believe (I probably can) the number of these later self propelled Hondas kicking around on Gumtree and Ebay at the moment that have had the gearbox fail and the story is "I think it is a problem with the cable or something" Honda should be ashamed of themselves for selling these with such a dodgey gearbox in them and charging top dollar for them. What do you end up with, a fantastic motor on a body that is too heavy for somebody to use as a push mower.

Norm, My father services/repairs push mowers. The sheer number of mowers we see come in with "east west engines" is unbelievable lol

Sorry i have nothing of more value to add to this thread.

Wayne it isn't the fact it the motor has been turned east/west, Chonda should bolt on in the normal north/south position on a Rover base. Maybe the 450ex is a bit wider and was fouling on the chute? only thing I can think of.

Hi Norm, I was just thinking about the question at the top of the page,Rover had a nice light 20 inch base with a good size catcher,not
sure where you would find one these days,eBay or gumtree probably. Hmmm a 20 inch Rover with a Suzuki motor.

Jack has a great 1986 brochure here https://www.outdoorking-forum.com.au/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/95228/rover-domestic-brochure-c1986.html

Cheers
Max.

Hi Max, now those bigger Rover bases would be perfect for these Honda motors, my mate is using his HRU215 that had a 2 speed that has finally given up the ghost and he is using that as a push mower, says it gives him a good workout, but the 3 speed one is just too heavy to push. He is using that one gently as I have fitted 2 new boxes to it and I have told him I won't fit another. Now if I could just find a few of those big Rover bases as I am looking for something to put the electric start Honda motor I have here at the moment

Ok so after pondering this problem for over three years, this afternoon I decided to have a crack at solving this problem. Got 2 Tornado bases cut them 25mm off center each side and welded them together giving it a 21 inch cut. At least the base is probably 1/3rd the weight and he will be able to push it. With a blown transmission they are near impossible to push on grass

Hi Norm

Amazing solution to that problem

My only question is what is the go with the catcher?

Also, is there a 17 inch left over special victa tornado in the works?

Regards

Hi Tyler,
As the base is 50mm wider I will just weld a 25mm strip on each side at the back so the standard Victa catcher fits. I'm aso fitting handles that bolt onto the sides like most other mowers have to get away from the flimsy Victa handle design. Should be a good mower for my mate to use. He will have a complete range of mowers to use. 2 little Victa sidethrow slashers, a Honda 19 push mower, an Ariens 21 inch self propelled and a 2 stroke Victa 24. He also has another 2 speed Honda ( blown tranny) which has a good motor that I think will become an ornament unless he can find a couple of Tornado bases I can chop up. No there is no 17 inch being planned.

What about the axles Norm? That's one way to reinstate the Honda with the wider cut blades.
Cut and shut the axles too I guess.

Hi Norm Tyler and Mf,

I threw out a 20 inch 505 victa the other day ,it had a broken base where the handle bolted on but could have been repaired.

Didn't know you were still looking for a base Norm.

The 505 Professional mowers are 20 inch and can be pushed if the Sp doesn't work ,this one was given to me last
week with another 2 stroke mower ,I was talking to a guy that said he just bought a house and the owner left a couple
of old mowers he didn't want so I said Yeah I'll take them. Wasn't much wrong with them as both run good with minimal work.

Two Victa tornado mowers welded together ,it should be nice and light to push.

Cheers
Max.

Hi Max,
I hadn't been looking for a base for it all the time, had given up looking and I was going to fit the motor on a self propelled Ariens base I had here but that all turned ugly when I couldn't get the boss off the Honda which has a 1" shaft. I had mu puller on it with 6 tons on it and it made not the slightest attempt to move, so that project came to an abrupt halt. Yesterday afternoon I thought about joining the 2 Tornado bases together and that is nearly finished now, hopefully throw some hammertone on it tomorrow and I can get out of my hair. Hopefully I will get $10 for the base as they are so heavy, all they are good for.

Bodywork is now all done, clean and paint it and it should look a treat

Nice neat job Norm, especially like the steel front reinforcement

Also keen to see the handles side mount

Better get that paint on fast before the bare metal rusts. Another added complication I noticed was the holes for the mounting bolts would have shifted from each other. I can see a plate had been added to fix that.
The rear flap hinges will need to be repositioned too.

Yes this Twin Tornado or is it a Hurricane as it's bigger than a Tornado is forming nicely now Norm , not sure
if you will go for an engine adaptor plate or just weld some more metal in the centre .

The Honda SP are heavy ,I just disposed off a couple myself , the darn things wouldn't fit in my car when I picked them up and
lifting them onto the roof rack wasn't fun ,I got lazy after I tied them to the roof rack and just drove everywhere with
2 mowers on the roof with handles extended out until I could be bothered lifting them down.

Maybe a new Decal on the front when this mower is finished.

Cheers
Max

Mower is pretty much finished been painted everything has been fitted, getting the engine bolt holes was a bit of a pain as I had to do a couple of test fits and some hole slotting so that I could get blade clearance at all points which was a bit tricky as I didn't want to have to cut the blades down. Handles are only fitted with one bolt at the moment as I'm waiting for my mate to come over so he can tell me at what height he wants them.
MF the rear flap is fitted, that was an easy bit, I used standard Victa hinges so I could put them where they had to go and the left corner was all rusted out as normal so I rebuilt both corners so I could mount the handles on the sides as all other manufacturers do. That way it will be good and solid.
I told my mate if he wants another one built he will have to find a couple of bases

I forgot the Tornado has those weird combination handle mounting brackets and flap hinges.
I have two Tornado bases sittinghere, one with a Briggs Qantum and the other with an EcoTorque 2 stroke with missing pieces.

Mower has now gone back to work, interesting to see how it goes. Second bolt fot the handelbasr was fitted once my mate decided what height he wanted them

That grey paint makes it look like a genuine Honda mower. Excellent result!