OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Engines Questions On Honda Engines Chonda air filters

Of all the Chondas I have had through here I have only seen one dirty air filter and that was on a motor that arrived here with a bunch of mowers and it also had a big hole in the side.Looked like it had done a lot of work. Obviously all these mowers do very little work before some component fails and the mowers get chucked out. I have never tried to even buy a new filter for them, can't say I have ever actually seen them for sale. From what I find, the motors themselves are probably not that bad, it is just a small component fails and then it is not worth the owner getting it fixed. Many of them are on the small 16 inch bases and I very rarely get a catcher with them so I usually don't look at them, but the pile is growing so I have to decide what I am going to do with them. I might give them a try on some of the bigger bases I have here that had Briggs on them to see how they go, nothing to loose, and my mower pile is certainly reducing, I can see gaps so I can walk around now. LOL

I've got two Lawnkeeper by Victas with the Chonda lump. They are both good rust free bases but both aren't running right. One won't stay on and the other over revs due to a stiff choke butterfly. They are good engines but I just can't be bothered to learn how the linkages work to get them to run right.
Tempted just to stick powertorques in them but the British racing green colour of the base seems to denote then as the lowest tier models to would be buyers.

Hi MF,

My experience with these Chondas is that its nearly always carburetor problems. I think you can get cheap carbys on the internet but I have never needed too. In my case its either rust from the bottom of the bowl getting stuck under the needle valve or a blocked main jet. I have always been able to clean them out OK but if not I would get an internet carby. Once I had clean the main jet with some fine wire but It worked well.

The other thing is the choke. They will not go if the choke is not absolutely completely on. It can be adjusted on the linkages but on one of mine I am using a rubber band to pull the choke right on for start. Starts first pull if you do that but will not go at all without it.

Other than that they seem to be fine.Even the kids can start it.

I wouldn't waste a Powertorque on those bargain basement models. One PTs will be worth a fortune.

All the best
Jeff

I just bought a little chonda from the tip yesterday - Wesco 16 inch (no catcher yet). All of about 5 years old and in near perfect condition (clean oil, filter, near new blades).
Adjusted the valves, choke and cleaned the rust out of the carby, and it went first go.

As a side note, I know a couple of people who have never had issues with the chonda's (beside choke), and they all use 95 or 98 octane petrol. And then I see that Sanli recommend a minimum of 95 octane fuel.

I emailed Sanli last month, and they said 'Our manufacturer has determined that 95 octane is the best fuel to use on our machines after decades of manufacturing these engines and continually testing them.'
I guess that decades involves sitting and waiting for Honda's design patents to expire

Maybe the added injector cleaner in 95 ron gives a bit more chance of avoiding the rusty carby issue.

In actual fact it's best to buy 95 Octane fuel as it rapidly loses it's octane just sitting in a fuel can over time and by the time you get to the end of it it's probably down to about 91. Now taking that on board what would happen to 91 Unleaded sitting long term in a can ?

Cheers,
BB.

Jeff if you study the setup of how the throttle cable has to lift the arm that closes the choke you can see why it doesn't work, the arm can't go high enough to lift the lever that closes the choke. If you bend that lever down ( I usually put a blade screwdriver on it and hit down with the heel of my hand and this is usually enough to bend the lever down about 5mm and this is usually enough to close the butterfly and then they will start first pull no problems. If you take the air cleaner off you can see if the choke is then fully closing.
Tyler, I have one of those Wesco ones here I also have a few Gardenline I guess from Aldi but these I think are only 99cc. I also have a couple of Lawn Beetles, not sure what cc they are either
I'm not sure about the rusted up carbies, I don't bother with them too much, most I believe is the result of ethanol fuel, I just bought 3 carbies from some mob in Melb I think they were, $33 delivered, that is $11 each. That blows out of the water about postage from China being cheap, I don't know how they can post it from Melb that cheap. I will be interested in what stamps are on the package

I remember reading some BP document that was posted here that said how, over time, the octane of 98 increases over time as volume is lost. It must be the injector cleaners/octane boosters they put in there that don't readily evaporate. I would think the octane would lessen, but surely BP couldn't show opposites - they must have done some research.

That being said, I have no idea about chemistry beyond basics.

I think the lawn beetle is 120cc, there was one at the tip next to the wesco. I would have grabbed it for pure curiosity value, but the deck was all grotty, white sun discolored and awful.

And I think the wesco is about the same - although it probably would have felt like 50cc with the amount of valve clearance this one had.

From memory, gardenline went 99cc, then 118cc, then 139cc, after that it has been 141cc 18 inch and 161cc 18 inch. It has always baffled me how they can make these, ship them half way across the world and still sell for roughly $138.

Tyler you didn't miss out on much by passing on the Beetle, I have to cut them into 4 pieces to get them in my rubbish bin

Just on Lawn Beetles, a couple of years ago a bloke dropped one off here and I just left it outside for about 12 months before I moved it under the house. I pulled it out because if it was no good I would dump it. I put a hew plug top on it because it was missing, put some fuel in it and with about 3 pulls it fired up and runs well. Pull start is a bit rusty but it works fine. What to do with it now?

Chuck it off a cliff and charge people to watch.

I will certainly be cutting up the body because they are really silly things that have no height adjuster (like the plastic electric ones you have to remove the wheels to change the height) then I can decide what body I can put it on.I have put one on a Sprinter once, that worked fine but I had a catcher for it, I have a couple of good Sprinters with dead Briggs on them but I have no catchers for them, it is never easy. I have come to the conclusion here that there is never an easy job, no matter how simple it looks initially.

I pulled the motor and cut up the body and when I measured the blade it was only 15 inches, I thought they would have been at least a 16 inch cut

" I just bought 3 carbies from some mob in Melb I think they were, $33 delivered, that is $11 each" I'd be very interested in a link if you'd care to PM it to me....

I bought a couple of these $13.50 ones last night.
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Carbure...n-Mower-Engine-Carburettor/163228918043? I believe the other type with the choke lever must be for a Chonda/Honda horizontal shaft stationary engine