Honda pull cord won't pull

hrs21

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It is very difficult to pull the starter cord. When I took the starter off the housing, there were no problems with it and the blade seemed to turn freely. I am going to reassemble it and see how it pulls. One possibility I read about was oil keeping the engine from turning because the mower was tilted excessively.
 

chance123

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Does yours have a flywheel brake?
 

chn

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I don't know much about the Honda mowers but did you check your coil?I had the sane issue and fixed it with replacement, I had to sand down any rust and loosen it up to spin freely
 

hrs21

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I don't know much about the Honda mowers but did you check your coil?I had the sane issue and fixed it with replacement, I had to sand down any rust and loosen it up to spin freely

Thanks. I'll look into that suggestion.
 

robert@honda

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How do you tell that? Will the manual say it or is it apparent from looking at the machine?

There are two kinds of mowers out there: (a) Flywheel brake (b) Blade Brake Clutch

Flywheel Brake type mowers are the most common. The blade is bolted directly the the engine; if the engine is running, the blade is spinning. They require you to pull back on the blade control lever and hold it in position to start and run the mower. When you let go of the lever, the engine's ignition is stopped and a brake is applied to the engine flywheel to make it stop spinning < 3 seconds. You have to pull back on the lever every time you want to restart the mower. With the lever released and the flywheel brake engaged, it should be hard / impossible to pull the starter rope and make the engine turn.

Blade Brake Clutch models feature a clutch device between the blade and engine. You can usually start the engine without holding any levers or controls in place. After the engine is started, you engage a blade control lever, usually a 2-step process. On Honda mowers, there's a yellow button that must be pressed in, then a lever moved into position. This engages the blade clutch and the blade starts to spin. Release the lever and the blade clutch stops the blades, but the engine continues to run.

On the back edge of the mower deck, you should see a model name and serial number; if you'll share the serial number with me, I can look up service details for you; it's in the form of "MXXX-1234567"
 

hrs21

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Thanks for the lesson on how to tell the kind of brake my mower has. It appears to be the flywheel brake type. Best I can tell the serial # is 6032941. The Model # appears to be HRS21-HF. Hope that helps.
 

chance123

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Well,,, If it has a brake, are you pulling on the bail to release that brake when you pull the rope?
 

hrs21

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The brake is released by squeezing the bar that is attached to the handle. Perhaps that's the bail.
 

robert@honda

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Here are a couple of pages from the service manual about the recoil starter....
 

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