Lawn Mower Tuneup

[8695Beaters]

Well it's that time of year again. Spring has sprung and unless you live in the desert or the city, it is time to mow the lawn. Your lawnmower, however, has been sitting inside your garage or shed for at least three months. And it is running poorly. Well then, it is time for a tuneup. You can either cough up $50 at the local lawnmower place and shlep the mower around, or you can do it yourself.

Tuning up your standard push mower is actually really easy. You can do it all on your own and if you have all the tools, takes about 20 minutes or less. I would not reccomend working on a riding mower alone. Most of the steps should be the same, but I have never worked on them (all we had were push mowers at lawnmower tuneup in April).

Safety tip: The moment you are ready to work on your lawnmower, unplug the spark plug. Just pull the wire. That will prevent the mower from somehow turning on. Lawnmowers are very dangerous tools and by removing the heat source for combustion, you have removed 98% of the chance of it starting up while you have your hands near the blade.

The first step is to drain the oil. There is a nice drain plug underneath all lawnmowers, but unless you have the square driver it requires, it is easier to drain the oil from the fill cap. Just remove the cap and turn the mower on its side. Make sure you dump the oil into a catch pan. There should be half a quart or less.

While the mower is on its side, remove the blade. This can be very difficult depending on who last serviced the mower. Most Honda mowers use a 17mm socket (if I remember correctly) and may have 2 bolts. Make sure you know which side is up, becuase if you put the blade on upside down, your mower will not cut any grass. Take the blade to a disc grinder. An electric bench grinder is the easiest, but any kind of disc grinder will work too. Grind the edge of the blade to sharpen it. Do it at a shallow angle, as if you were sharpening a knife. You will be able to feel when it is sharp. Don't cut yourself. By now you can replace the oil cap.

With the blade still off, use a hose and your hands to remove any built up grass from the undercarriage. If there are any bare spots in the metal, dry them, sand and reprimer and repaint them to prevent your lawnmower from rusting.

Once you are done re-attatch the blade to the mower. Once everything has been tightened up, turn the mower right side up again. Remove the spark plug. Look around your local garden store or auto parts store and find the right replacement plug (Honda mowers use a special NGK plug. Some Autozone plugs will also work). Then put the plug back in. Don't plug in the plug wire just yet.

Next, you will need to fill up the oil. Standard motor oil for your car will work perfectly fine. Half a quart or less will fill the crankcase. Double check using the dipstick under the oil cap once you have hit about 1/4 of a quart. You can also replace the gas, but unless your mower has been sitting for over a year, the gas in the tank should be ok.

Next, clean the air filter. Remove the cover panel (should be near the spark plug) and pull the air filter. Compressed air works the best to clean the filter. Once you have gotten the worst of the dirt out, spray it with some WD-40 to prevent the filter from falling apart. If it does, buy another. Remember, this engine is seeing almost nothing but dirt, so it needs a good filter to prevent it from choking up. Before you put the filter back in, spray a bit of starting fluid into the carbeurator to help your first startup along. Then replace the filter and the cover panel.

Plug your spark plug back in and rejoice! You have just saved over $45 and have a well running mower. If this does not solve your problems, you may want to go ahead to the lawnmower shop. Certain problems are easy to fix, others are much harder.

DISCLAIMER: The contents of this article are not necessarily the official views of, nor endorsed by, the owner of HondaClub(com).

[TJ213]

How often do you think maintenance is needed on mowers? My dad just takes his and uses up all the gas at the end of each season, and then fills it up in the spring. So far its needed one new spark plug but thats it. However, I feel as though we should change oil eventually, how often should the oil be changed?

The machine still runs great without any work, its a Honda

[8695Beaters]

Once every spring is all you need. Unless you do a lot of mowing, any more is just a waste of money.

I love Honda's cars, but their mowers are junk. Working on them was a pain, since they use an uncommon spark plug size and the oil cap is buried in the motor. I prefer Toros. My dad has one of the last aluminum frame Toros out there.