OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Walk Behind Lawn Mower Frames Four Stroke Lawn Mower Frames Honda mower won't start?

Hey guys,

I have a Honda hru194 I change the spark plug, change blades and oil, gave it start worked fine. Then I went out got a new air filter put it in now the mower won't start? been trying to get it started for couple of days now and it just won't start, anyways you guys suggestion fixing this problem?

Thanks

Hello flatlinerz,
Sorry to hear your machine is not working.
If your engine was working ok before the air filter change.
Then it is likely that how the filter was changed has caused it to stop working.

If something I have done has caused an engine to stop working, I usually put it back the way it was and see if it still starts.

From what you have said, things that could have gone wrong:
1. is it the correct filter and installed the right way.
2. did any foreign particles fall or get sucked into the carburettor whilst changing the filter, like grass clippings?

As Mark said, if it worked before you made a change, and didn't work afterward, chances are the change you made has caused it to not work. Because we don't yet know you, your mower, or the changes you made, we need to work through this in an orderly manner.

Please post pictures of your mower, in particular of the left side of the engine where the controls and adjustments are all located. Since you have just changed the air cleaner's filter element, please remove the top of the air cleaner housing and include pictures of the inside of the housing, with the element installed and with it removed. Try to start the engine with the top off and the filter removed. If it starts, stop it immediately - never run the engine without the filter properly assembled.

ok here are some pictures, thanks.

The black plastic bellcrank circled in yellow, is the choke. Push the speed control all the way into the choke position, and see if that bellcrank is rotated all the way to its stop, in the anticlockwise direction (viewed from above). That engine will not start from cold without a totally closed choke, especially in winter. If the bellcrank will move anticlockwise even a little bit, we've found one good reason why the engine won't start.

Yup that is the problem! It's not going anticlockwise, how can I fix this problem? cheers

Here is the instruction drawing from the workshop manual:


Note the choke rod connects the black plastic bellcrank on the choke, to a lever attached to the governor plate. That lever is operated by the control lever, which is also attached to the governor plate. If that mechanism is all there and undamaged, the problem will be in the adjustment. For example, the choke rod should be straight, but often gets bent badly by amateur mechanics. When that happens it is no longer the correct effective length.

thanks grumpy will try to give it a go myself

Please post pictures of those linkages before you try to fix them, just in case something goes wrong. It is much easier to talk about these things when we have before and after pics at each stage.

flatlinerz, the most common reason for a Honda push-mower's choke not to close when it hasn't been dismantled by an amateur, is maladjustment of the speed control cable. There are two places this can be adjusted. One is a nut-and-screw at the control at the top of the handlebar. The other is the pinch-clamp at the governor plate on the engine, where the outer casing of the Bowden cable is held. Here is the clamp on my summer mower (an old HR194, with exactly the same engine as your HRU194:


The red oval surrounds the clamp. The distance the metal ferrule extends to the left of the clamp, adjusts how far the choke closes. The further to the left, the less choke you get.

Here is the same adjustment on my winter mower, an HRU195 which has the same frame as yours but a larger engine:



As you can see, the correct cable adjustment has the cable outer further to the right on this mower. Because this mower frame uses a different cable, the adjustment comes out rather differently.

If you have loosened the clamp screw in those photographs at any time, the cable outer will have moved to the left through the clamp, and you will no longer have any operation of the choke. You didn't say you had done anything to the cable during your maintenance session, but perhaps you had done it and not mentioned it.

thanks for getting back to me, I did what you said with the choke still no go, doesn't start, I'm ready just to get rid of it!

I think we can do better than that, flatlinerz. Please post two pictures into this thread: your governor mechanism with the speed control in the stop position, and the same shot with the speed control in the choke position. The same two shots you posted in PM's to me are the ones we need.

This seems as if it will be easy to put right, though I warn you now, that mower has had unusual experiences along the way before you got it. I'll prepare a couple of pictures to try to explain what is going on.

here are the pics lawn mower is on choke:





Here are pics of the mower at stop:





Thanks

Let's begin with a couple of things about your mower that are irregular by Honda's standards. First, the speed control cable, from the lever on the handlebar to the governor plate, is non-genuine. Whether it works properly depends on whether the lengths of inner and outer are correct. Second, the carburetor is not a Honda one - Honda uses Keihin carburetors, the one you have is a Ruixing copy of the Keihin for that engine. That need not be a problem - so far I have found Ruixing carburetors to work properly and their calibration to be close to the Honda ones. Third, the protective cover is missing from your governor plate. This picture shows GXV120 (your engine) and GXV140 (the engine used on the HRU195) governor plates with the covers in place:


The fourth and final irregularity is the most interesting one: your mower has a Honda GXV120 engine, but it has been fitted with a Honda GXV140 governor plate. Here are the two governor plates, shown with the cover plates removed so you can see the mechanism. First, the genuine GXV120 one:


Here is the GXV140 one, the same as yours:


The GXV140 one has an extra mechanism not found on the GXV120. The GXV120 has just one screw adjustment, to stop the choke from being closed too far, and potentially damaging it. The GXV140 has this same screw adjustment, but it also has another one. The second screw adjusts the maximum governed engine speed. As an additional sophistication, the GXV140 governor plate reduces the maximum governed engine speed when the choke is operating. Generally the GXV140 governor plate is superior to the GXV120 one, though the extra features may make the governor more difficult for an amateur to set up.

Now, let's talk about how to adjust the governor plate so that your choke closes correctly. The choke is operated as follows. Look at this marked up version of the GXV120 governor plate:



Look first at the green oval near the top of the picture. This is the top of the choke operating bellcrank. A wire link runs from the hole there, to the black plastic bellcrank on the choke butterfly on the carburetor. The hole in the green oval needs to move to the left by a precise amount, to close the choke. Here's how it is done. Look at the yellow circle. The yellow circle shows a tab on the same bellcrank that operates the choke. So, if that tab is lifted upward, the choke closes. Now look at the bottom green oval. That is around a tab on the speed control lever (which is operated by the speed control cable). When you move the speed control lever to choke, the green tab moves upward, snags the yellow tab, and closes the choke. Now look at the red oval near the green one, on the speed control lever. It shows a mechanical stop. When the choke is fully applied, it moves around and hits the end of the adjusting screw in the other red oval.

Here is your latest picture of the governor plate on your engine:


The green oval shows that the speed control lever has not moved all the way until its mechanical stop hits the adjusting screw. If the adjustment of that screw has been correctly set up, the choke is not closing fully. To verify that this is the actual situation (the stop-screw adjustment is correct, but the speed control lever is not moving as far as it should), we need to know whether the choke is fully closed when you put the speed control all the way, as far as possible toward choke. To do this, see if it is possible to lift the tab in the red oval on that picture, or rotate the black plastic choke bellcrank even slightly anticlockwise, when the speed control is on full choke. If so, your choke is not closing fully, and it will need to be adjusted. We can talk about how to do that once you verify that it needs to be done, by checking whether the choke closes at present.

Ok so I tried lifting the tab in the red oval on the pic above and yes it when I lift it it goes all the way up but when its in choke it doesn't move all the way up so I'm guessing my choke is not closing?

That's right, flatlinerz. Those engines will not start in winter without full choke, so that is at least one thing that has to be fixed. Please clarify, though: when you lift the tab, it should move up until the black bellcrank on the carburetor has moved all the way anticlockwise, but the tab should not move all the way to the top of its slot. If it went right to the top of the slot, there would be something wrong with the wire link between the bellcrank on the governor plate, and the bellcrank on the choke.

So, the choke is not closing, due to the speed control cable inner not moving far enough when in the choke position. There are two ways to adjust it. The preferred way is to lengthen the cable outer, by adjusting these nuts at the speed control lever on the handlebar:


Please post a picture of the same part of your mower, so we can assess whether it has enough remaining adjustment to fix the problem. If it does not, we'll have to resort to the non-preferred approach.

Yes correct when I lift the tab, it moves up until the black bellcrank on the carburetor has moved all the way anticlockwise.

Ok mine is different to the pic above it does not have that part. Here are mine.

OK, that is a universal aftermarket speed control that is part of the aftermarket control cable. You may not be able to get a perfect result with it.

The non-preferred way to adjust the cable, is to move the cable-outer where it clamps to the governor plate:



Set the speed control in the Stop position. Holding the cable outer near the clamp (in the red oval in the picture), loosen the clamp screw and pull the cable outer about 2 mm to the right, then retighten the clamp screw. Push the speed control to the Choke position, and check whether the gap between the adjustable stop screw and the speed control lever is now zero (see green circle in this picture):



If the gap is now zero, check whether the choke is fully closed (black bellcrank fully anticlockwise). If both these conditions are met, check whether the engine stops when the speed control lever is moved to the stop position (I'll explain how to do that in a moment). If the first two conditions are met and the engine stops in the stop position, the job is done and it is time to see if the engine starts. If the first two conditions are met but the engine does not stop in the stop position, move the cable outer in the clamp back 1 mm so it is only moved 1 mm from its original position instead of 2 mm, and repeat the tests.

Here is how to check whether the engine will stop when the speed control lever is put into the stop position:



The object in the green oval is the kill switch: when its contacts are closed, the engine's ignition is disabled and it stops. It is operated by the speed control lever through the spring, connected to the rusty brown vertical lever on the switch. With the handlebar lever in the Stop position, the aim is to get that vertical lever on the switch to only move to the left until it is vertical - currently it moves somewhat further to the left than that. The best way to check the operation of the stop switch is with a resistance meter, but I'm just guessing you don't have one. If you do, say so and we'll use in instead of the "get the lever vertical" approach.

Remember, if you are faced with an engine that is running and you don't know how to stop it, there are two options. Option 1, just turn off the fuel and go have a cup of tea. The carburetor's float bowl will empty in two or three minutes and the engine will stop with no harm done. Option 2, pull gently on the spark plug lead's end cap (attached to the spark plug) until it pops off the spark plug, and the engine will stop immediately. However if you are going to use that approach, practice it ahead of time with the engine not going, or you may damage the ignition system (by pulling the lead out from the electronic module, instead of just unclipping it from the top of the spark plug).

If you have questions about this, let's discuss them before you make an attempt that ends up with the mower damaged or somebody injured.

The person who modified your mower seems to have a lot to answer for. The effects of using an el cheapo universal speed control cable instead of an aftermarket one which at least followed the Honda design, were aggravated by drilling a hole in the speed control lever on the governor plate to accommodate the quite different end fitting of the el cheapo cable. He drilled that hole in a poorly-chosen place in the speed control lever, which is part of the reason the cable inner is too long. In your picture it looks as if the cable outer is not even clamped at the governor plate end, because the over-length cable inner made that impossible. The easiest solution now would be either to drill another hole in the speed control lever in a more sensible location, or to fit a spacer at the cable clamp, to hold the cable inner further to the right of the clamp. We may have to discuss those options after you try to adjust the cable as explained earlier in this post.

Thanks for all the help there grumpy, I bought this lawn mower off gumtree recently, when I was servicing it the mower hadn't been service in a long time...are hru 194 good mowers?

In my opinion the Honda HRU194 is about as good as rotary mowers get, flatlinerz. Bought new it is severely over-priced, but an excellent product.

Quite a high proportion of Honda mowers are bought by contractors, who tend to get rid of them when they are starting to show signs of wear. There is something of an industry among certain mower repairers, tidying them up well enough to make them salable. I suspect this may have happened to yours. If the mower is ex-contractor, it may be in the early stages of burning oil (emitting a little bit of blue smoke, especially in the first seconds when cold-started). Ex-contractor Hondas also often have cracks in the aluminium bases.