Honda Harmony tranny questions

[JESimmons]

Picked up a five or so year old Honda Harmony HRZ216 walk behind mower at a yard sale. Using it as a backup while my main mower is in the shop. The tranny on the Honda has gone bad, and research shows this transmission breaks easily, so I'm not interested in spending any money to fix it. Pushing it is fine.

The mower pushes easily enough when cold, but as it warms up, it gets harder to push. I suspect the transmission is the cause. Can I simply disassemble everything in the tranny I can, but still hold the wheels on? The belt drive is still in place. Is there any reason to leave it on?
Thanks in advance,
John

[jkilov]

Honda transmission design:
Belt drives the vertical input shaft, which drives a worm gear. Dual plastic cone clutch squeezes that hollow gear from each side powering the axle. Axle drives the wheels via sprockets.

Pride of Honda engineering, the plastic clutch is what junks these trannys. Surface overheats, melts and slips but has just enough drag to lock the wheels when trying to pull the mower backward.

I personally suggest you remove the whole tranny and belt, which will chop about 7lbs of the mower weight. If you prefer not to spend time on that, simply remove the sprockets off the drive wheels and you're ready to go.

[RoseMallow]

Just turn it over and cut the belt.