Metal failure

90 days. I only run the vac for 3-4 hours a year, so the warranty will almost certainly expire before there's a problem.

I'd forget #1 since you have no idea what other damage you might find when you tear it down (unless you tear it down first :-), before buying the crank, and are positive nothing else got hurt). Any chance you can see the Honda run before you buy? If so, and it doesn't blow blue smoke that's what I would do, otherwise flip a coin between the Honda and the new drop-in HF. I'd probably go with the new HF, and try to put as many hours on it as you can during the warranty period to get past all the infant mortality possibilities. My two cents worth, anyway.

----- Regards, Carl Ijames

HF: "Part not available"

But a guy on eBay parts out "freight damaged" HF engines. Crankshaft is $42 shipped.

I have 3 alternatives:

1. A new crank: delivered. Several hours to R&R. It's still HF.
2. A used Honda engine: , 2 hrs to pick up. May require some fitting to the vac. It's _used_.
3. A new HF engine: 4 delivered. Bolt on. I'd have the old for spare parts. It's _HF_.

What to do, what to do?

Bob

buy a new honda

Bob, it sounds like you want the Honda. Go for it. The HF is a Honda clone, believe it or not.

Alternatively, buy both. There's always a new use for an engine. I've been eyeing the 6.5hp horizontal HF for use running an HF compressor head. If you have a HF locally, it's $99 or less on sale with 20% discount coupon, found everywhere, every month. I, too, haven't yet tried a Predator.

It is a whopping 90 days!

At near 4x the price? Granted, they're much better. Depends on the budget. $329.99 + $39.99 shipping @ Amazon vs. $99 at HF.

A total waste of money if the design of the unit is bad and that caused the damage to the original engine. The honda would likely fail a few hours later than the original in that case.

What caused the break? If the impeller isn't ballanced it will break the crank again.

Buy a rake.

David

Good point about the balancing. I did a static balance (fan on arbor on

2 level rails) & it was off by about 10 grams (on 20" diameter).

Then I got to thinking: an unbalanced fan would not cause a vibrating load on the shaft. On the shaft bearing, yes, but a constant radial load on the shaft itself; in the direction of the heavy spot on the fan. A pulley & belt presents an oscillating radial load on a shaft and that's a common use. So I don't think the design is a problem. Just a POS crankshaft.

I hadn't thought about that before & it's interestingly the opposite of casual thought.

Bob

10 gramms unballance on a 10 inch radius can cause a significant oscillating force that WILL break a crankshaft. PARTICULATLY if it is dynamically unballanced as well as statically. (not only acting radially to the shaft, but having a component working back and forth at the "end of the lever" as well. Static inballance is only a very small part of the problem on something like this. You get a resonance that, at the right speed, will re-enforce itself, amplifying the force and acting tangentially to the crank centerline. Torsional vibration is a different animal, and being belt driven it is self limitting. Belt slip and belt stretch work to limit the amplitude of the torque excursions. You will burn off the belt before you will torsionally fail the crank.