Engine Recoil starter lock-up?

This happened to me the other day. I tried to start my 7 year old HRR216 self-propelled mover in the usual manner, by pulling the recoil starter cord. Much to my surprise, I couldn't get the starter to budge! The mower had been sitting in my garden shed for about 2 weeks, as the weather here has been dry lately and not a lot of grass has grown. I removed the recoil cover and with the handle of my ratchet wrench I manged to turn the engine about a full turn (and not try to start it of course). I also checked the oil level on the dipstick, and it is OK. I replaced the cover and was able to pull the recoil starter to get the engine going. I used the mover for about 10 minutes, despite what sounded like a slight but noticeable metal on metal sound, along with the normal engine noises. I stopped and restarted the engine a couple of more times via the the recoil starter.

I am concerned that this happened in the first place, and it doesn't seem to have been fixed by my admittedly rudimentary efforts. Can anyone recommend some troubleshooting tips?

Thanks

Paul328 said:

This happened to me the other day. I tried to start my 7 year old HRR216 self-propelled mover in the usual manner, by pulling the recoil starter cord. Much to my surprise, I couldn't get the starter to budge! The mower had been sitting in my garden shed for about 2 weeks, as the weather here has been dry lately and not a lot of grass has grown. I removed the recoil cover and with the handle of my ratchet wrench I manged to turn the engine about a full turn (and not try to start it of course). I also checked the oil level on the dipstick, and it is OK. I replaced the cover and was able to pull the recoil starter to get the engine going. I used the mover for about 10 minutes, despite what sounded like a slight but noticeable metal on metal sound, along with the normal engine noises. I stopped and restarted the engine a couple of more times via the the recoil starter.

I am concerned that this happened in the first place, and it doesn't seem to have been fixed by my admittedly rudimentary efforts. Can anyone recommend some troubleshooting tips?

Thanks

Click to expand...

Check underneath for grass clippings, dried hard as cement, blocking blade rotation.

Why didn't you just turn the blade instead of removing the recoil cover?

Thanks for the reply. On my mower, the blades are not engaged when the engine is running unless you pull the blade control lever on the handle. So turning the blade won't turn the engine. I removed the recoil starter cover to make sure there wasn't any debris blocking the mechanism. I cleaned away a few leaves and a small twig, but there wasn't enough to cause a problem. I generally give the underdeck a good blast with the garden hose after mowing to remove clippings, but I followed your suggestion and gave it a thorough cleaning. There was a real build-up of dirt behind the drive cable cover! But again, nothing that could have caused this problem.

For now, the mower starts OK. My guess is because the mower sat for a couple of weeks, the starter lost oil making it hard to start. I'll keep an eye on this in the future, hopefully that's the extent of this problem.

This is an old thread but I have pretty much the same problem on one of my HR215HXA's and it doesn't seem as if the OP ever found out what happened. I can turn the flywheel (or whatever that is up on top) with 19MM socket and breaker bar -- with some effort. But the pull cord won't budge it at all.

Blade clutch model; not a grass clipping obstruction issue.

For me, this has happened AFTER running the mower for a good amount of time, like an hour maybe. Long after it's warmed up and hot.I first noticed it the other day, near the end of my mowing. The engine just steadily lost RPM ... I thought maybe the blade was choking it on grass clippings, so I let go of the blade clutch and and it died anyway. And then the pull cord cord could not be pulled.

Yesterday, I ran out of gas. Took me about 5 minutes to walk back to get my gas can (big field ...). I filled it up, and could not pull the cord at all.

I let it sit about an hour. Still locked up.

It's as if it just gets overheated. Has oil, etc.

I'll look at it again this morning. If it still won't pull I'll know the issue has taken a bad turn. And so I'll maybe pull the spark plug out; pop off the valve cover and try to see if a valve is stuck. But I don't know what else to check, do you?

Point being, even if it starts right up today, I need to address this so that I can use the mower for a full day without issue. Thanks for reading.

Correction: I may have indeed run the crankcase dry. I'll start a new thread.