Honda mower

[bigdawglanecreek]

Hi all

I have a Honda push mower with Honda GC 160 engine. Well maintained, ethanol free fuel, etc. Five years old. Did some maintenance a few weeks ago that included taking off the carb for a good cleaning.

Mower starts first pull and runs great, but if you shut it off and immediately try to crank it backup, it takes several pulls.

What could cause this.

 

[MParr]

Flooding or fouled plug. If it’s flooding, you are going to have plug fouling. Does it backfire when you shut it down or restart it? Pull your plug and take a look. Clean the plug and regap to .030 Is the governor adjusted properly?

 

[dblshock]

Put my 160 away last fall filthy and a 1/4 tank of fuel, took it out of the shed this afternoon it started on the 3rd. pull cut for 15min. then put it back, it will be a couple more weeks before we cut here 46 degrees north.

 

[CharBaby]

Does it have the automatic choke?

 

[Lubener]

Did it behave like this before your maintenance? I hope you were having an issue because I would never take off a carb for maintenance if it were running good.

 

[Aichiguy]

Honda air filters clog up often. You might check that. Is the gasket installed properly at the base of the carburetor?

 

[MParr]

Honda air filters clog up often. You might check that. Is the gasket installed properly at the base of the carburetor?

I hope he used a new gasket.

https://www.honda-engines-eu.com/documents/10912/31055/1480/cb2c546e-cf89-48f5-aee5-11182f91814c

 

[pbm]

To the OP: I don't know what would cause your issue but I too have had carb issues with my GV 160.....I put (another) new Chinese carb on my GC 160 Husqvarna last year.....I ran it till it died at the end of the season so I'm assuming no gas was left in the carb bowl.
It now starts on the first or second pull but doesn't like when I take the choke 'off'. It runs better with the choke 'on' but even then it seems to struggle (ready to conk out but not actually doing it) when pushing it 'uphill'. Is there any adjustment on the carb to help with this? Thanks in advance.

 

[cvlw]

This same thing happened on my honda with the 160 and the fix I found was to tighten the shutoff bar cable.
It is as if it was right on the edge when cold and being warmed up, it just wasn't opened enough.

 

[bigdawglanecreek]

It does have the auto choke and ran a little rough at the end of last season.

I ordered new gaskets and a new auto choke pellet and will put on next week.

 

[ARB1977]

My Troy bilt 160 Honda is 13 years old. Just regular maintenance every year. Ran true fuel for a year but realized it was going to cost 100.00 a year to run it. I run 93 E10 with stabilizer and dump the gas when it’s three months old.

 

[RyanY]

I hope he used a new gasket.

https://www.honda-engines-eu.com/documents/10912/31055/1480/cb2c546e-cf89-48f5-aee5-11182f91814c

Gasket replacement is probably the most neglected part of DIY carb service. Admittedly I was part of this problem for many years; the engine ran fine overall, and I attributed the poorer starting to the mowers age (24 y.o. Honda 160, required 2-3 pulls when cold, 1 pull when warm). Last year I noticed that one of the gaskets was missing so replaced all of them. Now it starts first pull, hot or cold, even after storing for several weeks between mowing. That is how a Honda should work!

 

[bigdawglanecreek]

This same thing happened on my honda with the 160 and the fix I found was to tighten the shutoff bar cable.
It is as if it was right on the edge when cold and being warmed up, it just wasn't opened enough.

Is this the 10mm bolt on the cable that applies the flywheel brake?

 

[CharBaby]

My Troy bilt 160 Honda is 13 years old. Just regular maintenance every year. Ran true fuel for a year but realized it was going to cost 100.00 a year to run it. I run 93 E10 with stabilizer and dump the gas when it’s three months old.

My TroyBilt/Honda 160 w/manual choke is 12 years old and it runs perfectly on 87 E10 w/Sta*Bil. Starts and runs great and I've never even changed the plug and only tap out the air filter.

My buddy just bought the same/similar TroyBilt w/Honda 160 w/auto choke 2 summers ago and the engine started surging last summer(after 1 yr) already. However, the choke system is not the reason for the surging. Somehow a spec of dirt got into the carb.

 

[CharBaby]

EDIT^^^ :
It turned out to be the Governor Spring that was causing the engine surging, not dirt in the carb.

 

[cvlw]

Is this the 10mm bolt on the cable that applies the flywheel brake?

I just did the cable tightening.
The cable sheath ends are not twistable to screw in (make slack) or unscrew (make tight)... at least I don't think so.
At the time, I didn't want to dismantle anything, so I wedged a piece of wire in a gap at the mount that tightened it enough to get past the failure to restart when it was warm. A zip-tie would work too. The correct fix is in the future when I need to disassemble.

 

[benjy]

my HRX2172HXA has been flawless prolly 20 years + cutting 5 lawns weekly in my younger days. hydrostatic drive is great but $$, best mower ever, aunts "standard drive great as well both rear baggers with 2 blades + rear drive. hondas excellent bag or mulch trap door is great!!

 

[GSCJR]

I've got 3 Hondas now, the first one is a HRS216 I got about three years ago from my brother. He bought a house and the previous owner left it there , the air filter and air cleaner cover were missing and it only ran with the choke on. My brother already owned a mower so I took it. By the time I got around to working on it, it wouldn't run at all and my brother found the missing parts in his garage. I removed the carb, cleaned it carefully and it runs great now. I agree with @RyanY you need to inspect the gaskets carefully. Last year I got 2 curb finds, an HS521 snowthrower that need an auger lever replacement that works great now and a vintage self-propelled HRS21 that needed a carb, parts were missing when I took off the bowl, which now works great too.

Since last March my family has been doing puzzles to keep busy; I have too. Theirs are from W*M mine are from Honda.

 

[GSCJR]

Mower starts first pull and runs great, but if you shut it off and immediately try to crank it backup, it takes several pulls.

What could cause this.

My dad used to complain about this too so I asked him, "Why are shutting it off and turning it back on immediately anyways?"

Guess what? He never had the problem again once he used it as intended.

 

[RyanY]

My dad used to complain about this too so I asked him, "Why are shutting it off and turning it back on immediately anyways?"

Guess what? He never had the problem again once he used it as intended.

I sometimes shut it off to remove the occasional stick from my path, but only if it is over 1" diameter. Otherwise it gets chopped with the rest of the yard debris! It is nice when it restarts...