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

hope you still have your double blade - i mulches incredibly well - your mower isn't designed for a hi-lift blade, so if you sharpen & balance your double blade, and then remount it, you should get much better performance.

Sorry, I just re-read your original post... Your dealer said pull a plug in the engine & tip the machine to change the transmission hydrostatic fluid???

There seem to be some type of communications failure between you & the dealer. What ever you do, don't put that hydrostatic fluid in the crankcase!

Take my advice, get a copy of the technical manual. If you have mechanical ability, nobody will, at any price maintain you machine as well as you.  

Are you serious that this mower won't work well with a high lift blade for bagging?  The dealer probably just tried to get me to buy more and more.  The original owner found the blade plate i ended up buying and this stupid dealer doesn't want me to return it for a refund even though it's in the unopened package.  If he's lying to me about my blade too i'm going to be pissed.  I've got a bad vibe from these guys from the start and won't be going back if they've screwed me.  i'll look for a manual and maintain this badboy like i do with all my machines (cr250r, accord, etc.)  So how about the oil, should i not use the Chevron delo 15w 40?  It's a high quality diesel oil for high temps, hard duty?  I think it's equivalent to a 10w 40weight oil.  Oh, and one last question, has anyone changed their hydro tranny oil before?  The way the dealer was talking it's totally different than the crankcase oil.  thanks for the help guys.\

Mike

it should bag ok with a hi-lift blade, but it wasn't necessary - the double blade mulches very well, and bags well too.  when you bag with the double blade, the clippings are smaller and you can mow longer before you fill up the bag.

sounds like you should look up the original service manual.  should be able to find it somewhere - honda.com?

Check Honda USA at http://www.hondapowerequipment.com/HH_PC_CM_OWN/cm_own.htm and download the owner's manual.

Diesel oil is formulated for diesels. Use the automotive oil specified in the manual for your mower.

I have a Honda snowblower with a hydro transmission, and there is no maintenance whatsoever, on that drive, including no requirement to change fluid. It may be the same for your mower. Those hydro drives are pretty rugged and they aren't really worked very hard in the snowblower, so the oil never needs changing.

I went through all the online honda manuals and none of them talk about changing the hydrstatic tranny oil.  My dealer said that on commercial mowers they recommend it being changed every year, on a personal mower every 3 years or so.  I bought the fluid so i'm going to change it.  I'll probably buy a manual for it.  I'll look for another oil and use the 15w 40 Delo oil in the bottom end of my honda cr250r. 

"The original owner found the blade plate i ended up buying and this stupid dealer doesn't want me to return it for a refund even though it's in the unopened package."

THAT IS ENOUGH BAD VIBE FOR ME. I would be doing a "chargeback" on my credit card and never look back..