My Honda HS80 snowblower is grinding gears

[kurley]

Hello friends,

I have a tracked Honda HS80 snowblower. It has always been well maintained and runs like new, but it has recently developed a problem I can't seem to solve.

Although it shifts smoothly into all 3 forward gears, when I put it into reverse and release the clutch, it makes a grinding noise, similar to shifting gears on a car without depressing the clutch.

Using the shop manual, I have adjusted all cables, shift rod, pulley, idler arm, and friction plate to specs. After all that, I'm still grinding gears.

Your help is greatly appreciated.

[vtec]

I know what's wrong!

Same thing was happening to mine. I have shop manual for it too and looked very closely at how the sub transmission shifts. It uses one gear for first and second, the second gear for 3rd and reverse. When you push the shifter all the way down it pushes a paddle to shift the sub transmission. When you pull it all the way up it pushes up another paddle when it hits reverse. I noticed that the reverse paddle didn't move much at all. One reason for this is both paddles were getting worn down because I never looked close enough to grease them or realize what they did. The second reason is the reverse paddle is a little farther away than it should have been, a design mistake. I took off the shifter handle and just built up about an 1/8 inch of weld on it and smoothed it with a file. It now works perfectly! I bet they all loose reverse eventually and then get junked. I am pretty darn mechanical and this was a hard one to figure but I did beat it. I just hope you get this message in time but doubt you ever did before you sold it.

Good luck, Dave