Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

I just brought home my 91 HR215 mower.  I bought if a coworker who know longer needs it because his ex wife prefers the electric over the Honda.  Anyways, their loss my gain.  It has relatively low hours for the year but shows signs of wear.  It starts right up, doesn't smoke, but it doesn't shut down when you turn the throttle to off.  I'm sure the cable just needs adjusting so I'll tackle that first.   I'm sure the hydrostatic tranny has never had the fluid changed so I'm going to do that as well.  I'll clean the air filter, change the oil, buy a new plug for it.  Anything else i should worry about? 

It has a double blade on it right now and my Captain ( coworker, I'm a junior firefighter) said that he thinks it was for mulching.  I got talked into buying a new high lift blade at a Honda power equipment seller for $18 Canadian.  I had to buy the bracket for the bagging blade because they misplaced it.  I bought some Hydro Tranny oil from this seller and the fricken stuff cost me $13.56 or something for a litre.  He then told me I'd need longer bolts to mount the bagging blade since they need to be longer.  I'm not sure if i trust that place but it's the only place i have to deal with.  The dealer told me that to drain the hydrostatic tranny oil i need to remove all covers on the engine and he says I'll see a drain bolt.  He also said I'd need to make a funnel and tip the mower upside down and leave it for 24 hours since it drains so slow.  He said it will take 500ml's.  Does anyone know this for sure and does this sound like the correct procedure for changing it?  He said I'd have to drain the oil and gas too before i do the tranny oil change.  For engine oil i'm going to use Chevron Delo 15w 40 diesel oil because of the high detergent factor.  Dealer recommended it and also told me to change it once a month because oil's cheap.

Sorry for the long winded post.  I'm excited about getting my first mower for my first house.  Want to take care of this baby and make her last.  Got my HR215 for $100 Canadian.  I'm happy.

Mike