Husqvarna self-propelling lawnmowers are an excellent choice if you’re looking for an easy, practical, and cost-effective solution to your garden maintenance. You don’t need to manually push the mower forward as the drive switch does this job. Husqvarna is a well known and respected brand that will save you time and add to your convenience. But after using your mower for quite some time, your self-adjustment feature may stop working. This blog will help you fix this problem, so there is no need to visit a mechanic.
How to adjust a Husqvarna self-propelled lawnmower, step by step:
- Step 1: Adjust your self-propelled mower’s drive cable
- Step 2: Troubleshooting your transmission pulleys for damage
- Step 3: Inspect the drive belt and replace it if loose
In Husqvarna self-propelled mowers, there exists a drive control lever present at the handle. Pressing the lever pulls the drive cable, thus activating the transmission. This mechanism carries the mower forward. If you encounter problems with the self-propelling switch, it is mainly due to a fault in the drive cable or your mower’s transmission. The transmission consists of the drive pulleys and the associated belts.
This blog post will uncover all the information you need to know to adjust a self-propelled Husqvarna lawnmower.
Contents
Adjusting a Husqvarna Self-Propelled Lawnmower, troubleshooting steps:
The most straightforward approach for troubleshooting a self-propelled Husqvarna lawnmower is to start troubleshooting at the drive cable. Use the following steps:
● Step 1: Adjusting the drive cable:
The drive cable is responsible for connecting the transmission to the drive control. When your mower’s drive lever is pulled, it pulls the drive cable, thus activating the transmission. This step carries the lawnmower forward. The drive cable elongates overtime after continued use and thus becomes loose. Although you may not want to replace the drive cable as you encounter the transmission problem, some minor adjustments might do the trick.
– Adjustment:
The cable adjustment is straightforward to carry out. Take your lawnmower out in the garden and start its engine. Notice the connection where the drive cable attaches itself to the mower handle. Rotate the cable attachment bracket by hand. If it is tight enough, it’s better to use an appropriate wrench.
After you loosen the cable from its bracket, press the lever of your mower to see whether it moves forward or not. Keep rotating the cable until you see an improvement regarding its motion forward. In most cases, this adjustment solves the problem. However, if it doesn’t, we shall proceed towards the next step, i.e., checking the engine transmission.
● Step 2: Diagnosing the transmission pulleys:
Various Husqvarna models have a pulley connecting the blade shaft to the wheel transmission (either front-wheel or rear-wheel drive). You might need to check whether this transmission is smooth and doesn’t have any loose or missing components.
Caution: We recommend removing the spark plug wire and using safety gloves while diagnosing the engine blades. The engine might start over if the blades are rotated. Removing the plug prevents this from happening.
– Remove the fasteners:
To check for a fault in transmission, you need to tilt the mower over to analyze the blades, belts, and pulleys. Unscrew the bolts on the top of the deck. Usually, these fasteners secure the protective cover that protects the engine pulleys underneath the deck. Tilt the mower after removing these fasteners.
– Analyze the pulleys:
Remove the mower blade by unscrewing its bolt with the help of a socket wrench. With the blade removed, pull out the protective cover too. Now, the transmission belt, along with the pulleys, is visible to you. There are two idler pulleys and one pulley connected to the blade shaft. Inspect the belt and the pulleys. If the pulleys appear damaged, consider replacing them with identical ones.
Please make sure that the new pulleys are correctly routed, and the belt entirely passes around them. Otherwise, the mower does not move forward. After that, fasten the new pulleys and reassemble everything removed. Restart the mower and check again if it solves the problem.
● Step 3: Belt replacement:
Another reason for a self-propelled lawnmower not moving forward is a loose drive belt. It is quite common for a drive belt to elongate and ultimately loosen up if especially if it has been in use for a long time. You can inspect this while you are checking the pulleys and the transmission. If the belt appears loose, it needs to be changed.
– Removal of the old belt:
Before you replace your drive belt, take a picture of the original belt to get an idea of the belt positioning and routing. If it’s not correctly installed, the mower won’t move. It is better to consult the owner’s manual to get a better idea of this.
Now, pull the old belt off by using pliers. Note that while you’re doing this, your spark plug cable needs to be disengaged, and the protective cover should be taken off so that you can fully disconnect the belt from all the pulleys.
– Installing the new belt:
Purchase the new drive belt for your specific model number. Reinstall it in your transmission by directing it around the pulleys and making sure the routing is correct. Attach the protective cover back onto the transmission and fasten its bolts both at the bottom and at the mowing deck’s top side. After that, connect your blade to its pulley and tighten its nut.
– Testing the performance:
Connect the spark plug cable back and restart the lawnmower. With the new belts installed and the pulleys restored, your self-propelled lawnmower might be up and running again.
Related Questions:
1. How do you adjust the drive control on a Husqvarna lawnmower?
Over time, the drive control might become loose due to continued use. There is a turnbuckle on the housing used to adjust the drive control and subsequently increase your lawnmower’s speed. The steps for doing that are as under:
- Step 1: Turn the mower off and remove the spark plug wire from its connection.
- Step 2: Rotate the turnbuckle on the mower handle to adjust the drive speed. The rotation pulls back the drive cable, thus increasing the speed.
- Step 3: Start your engine and test its speed by simultaneously adjusting the turnbuckle at the cable connection.
- Step 4: If your speed problem isn’t resolved, you should consider troubleshooting other areas such as the transmission.
2. How to adjust the cutting height on a Husqvarna Lawnmower?
You might need to adjust the cutting height on your mower if you wish to give your lawn a variable pattern grass. To do this, most self-propelled Husqvarna models have a lever and notch adjustment on each wheel. This adjustment controls the height of the mowing deck. Typically, the adjustment height varies from 1 inch to 3 inches.
– Procedure for adjustment:
- Step 1: Suppose you want to raise your lawnmower by a few inches.
- Step 2: To do that, pull the wheel’s adjustment lever towards the wheel so that the adjustment can now be carried out.
- Step 3: Now, if you want to raise the wheel, you need to rotate the wheel forward and fit it on any notch.
- Step 4: You need to repeat a similar procedure for all four wheels.
- Step 5: For lowering the mowing deck, the reverse of the current adjustment needs to be done. i.e., the wheels need to be rotated backward or in the opposite direction.
3. Should my mower deck be leveled?
For better results, lawnmower decks are often given a specific pitch for a better aerodynamic design of the cutting chamber. It prevents grass from blowing all around the yard and offers better cutting efficiency for flat surfaces. Lawnmower deck pitch or referred to as ‘rake,’ is the tilt amount by which the deck’s front end is lower than the rear end.
For better performance, the pitch between the front of the deck and rear should be between (1/8th to ½ inch). The greater the pitch, the greater is the amount by which the front end is lowered than the rear end. This pitch should not be more than ½ of an inch as it may scalp the grass.
4. Why does my lawnmower leave a row of grass between two blades?
Witnessing uncut grass rows patterns is relatively common if your blades have become blunt or worn out due to wear and tear. These blades can be removed from the deck and sharpened by a bench grinder. If they appear damaged, it might be a good idea to replace them so that it maximizes the cutting efficiency of your mower and gives finely cut grass patterns.
Final Remarks:
In short, we recommend taking care of your lawnmowers and performing their maintenance timely. Occasionally, one might encounter such problems where the fault is mainly due to being worn out after excessive use. If the part is inexpensive such as a drive belt or a pulley, you can consider performing their breakdown maintenance (waiting for the part to fail). However, you should make sure that you don’t neglect the maintenance of other components whose failure might cost you a heft sum of money, such as the engine itself. It is also an excellent practice to follow the safety precautions while performing the repairs to prevent accidents.