HR214 questions

I bought this mower new in 1986. It's used at a residential place. The lot is 85x 150. It's hard to start, well not exactly hard but it takes maybe 8-10 pulls for it to start, cold. No smoke at startup and it doesn't use or leak any oil. Once running and warmed up it runs/starts great. Besides the startup issue, I have no low gear. I can turn the mower over and play with the linkage and get it to low gear but once I shift it to high gear, it won't go back to low. I change oil every year and my blades are kept sharp enough to shave with when they are put on the mower. I sharpen them about 3 times a year. The mower does a fabulous job and leaves the yard looking like a golf course. Another issue is the blade stop. It's weak at best. If I have heavy grass to cut and am at full throttle, the blade will at times stop while the engine runs. Back out and the blade starts turning again. Consequently, I run the mower at half throttle and consider that max to eliminate any slippage of the blade stop. I have a single handicapped neighbor down hill from me and I cut her yard now. I also cut the neighbors front yard uphill as they are a young couple just starting out, have a new baby, and just don't have funds for a mower yet. This is okay by me as I'm diabetic and need the exercise.
So here's the questions. I'm not sure to just keep using this mower until it falls apart or rebuild the engine and the blade stop. Another option is to buy a New one. The only one I see that appears to have the same controls is the HRX217HYA. I guess I'm spoiled to this HR214 as this thing doesn't use any gas. I can cut all of the yards above twice on one tank of gas. That's about a quart. The Honda manual says .26 US gallon. I bought a Master Series maybe 10 years ago and took it back. It felt clumsy at best. So I'm not sure what to do with this mower or just bite the bullet and buy a new one. I've also looked at HR214 engines on Ebay with thoughts of rebuilding one of those and then next year just swap the entire thing. Rebuilding is way inside my job skill set. The current mower has a new carb and it gets all of the maintenance every year. Any suggestions?

First all lawn mowers are designed to be ran at full throttle. It shortens the life of everything if not. This could explain most of your problems. You will have to replace you belt for the blade. Try running it at full throttle and see if most of the problems go away.

I appreciate the response but there's a problem. The HR214 doesn't have a belt. It uses a driveshaft for the rear wheel drive. There is no belt for the blade either. Only belt when I mow is the one I have on!

You won't get anything as good as your old 214.
To quote the magic phrase "they don't make them like that any more"
The 2 speed box was probably the best thing Honda ever put on a mower.
Down here they were even better because we are less litigious than the USA so ours do not have the PIA and 100% useless blade brake system that is causing you grief.
OR maybe our government thinks we are smarter than we really are and your government thinks you are all idiots.
If I can dig up my old parts diagram I will post it.
There is a selector pin that spends all its life almost touching the rotating shaft and wears down.
I found this by accident after a customer demanded I change his crown gear & dog.
The parts supplier gave up on mowers and went into sewer snakes so he gave me what he had in his old toolbox.
A $ 6.00 part in place of $ 210 worth of parts.