Many Honda owners with Roto Stop, HRX217 notably, complain about the blade clutch not staying engaged while mowing. I have not had this issue with 2 previous 217's but recently acquired another 217 where the slightest release of the blade clutch bail (#12) (maybe an inch or two) caused the clutch to disengage. Given that this is a heavy mower, it is nearly impossible to keep the bail fully pushed forward at all times while turning or because of hand fatigue, etc. without a little "back off" occurring. On the 2 mowers without this problem, there is a good deal of "forgiveness" on the bail such that one has to release it probably 3/4ths of its full travel in order to cause the clutch to disengage. Here's what I found & how I fixed it:
I noticed that the spring-loaded yellow engage-button (#13) is connected to a link that then pushes a lever lock (#14) around a horizontal pin (#19) on the underside of the handle. When so engaged, this mechanism ultimately connects to and exerts pull on the cable that is affixed to the blade clutch underneath the deck.
On my 2 working mowers, the jaw of this lever lock wraps fully around the pin. But on the non-working unit, the lever lock only partially engages the pin as below (green dot). It should grab the pin as high as where the orange dot is.
The reason for this failure was that the yellow button (#13) was bottoming out against the lower part of the handle frame (red dot) such that it would not fully depress; thus, the attached linkage (yellow dot) could not push far enough downwards to fully activate the lever lock.
So, I used my heat gun to soften the metal around the red dot area & then carefully bent it down with pliers. Now, the yellow button fully depresses & the lever lock grabs around the pin as completely as on my other two HRX's.
Field tested it today on my fairly large corner lot. Didn't prematurely disengage even one time.
I noticed that the spring-loaded yellow engage-button (#13) is connected to a link that then pushes a lever lock (#14) around a horizontal pin (#19) on the underside of the handle. When so engaged, this mechanism ultimately connects to and exerts pull on the cable that is affixed to the blade clutch underneath the deck.
On my 2 working mowers, the jaw of this lever lock wraps fully around the pin. But on the non-working unit, the lever lock only partially engages the pin as below (green dot). It should grab the pin as high as where the orange dot is.
The reason for this failure was that the yellow button (#13) was bottoming out against the lower part of the handle frame (red dot) such that it would not fully depress; thus, the attached linkage (yellow dot) could not push far enough downwards to fully activate the lever lock.
So, I used my heat gun to soften the metal around the red dot area & then carefully bent it down with pliers. Now, the yellow button fully depresses & the lever lock grabs around the pin as completely as on my other two HRX's.
Field tested it today on my fairly large corner lot. Didn't prematurely disengage even one time.