Thanks again for all help NormK but gees mate this VC160 I have been messing around with for a few days now and I think it still needs a bit of work.
Firstly I thought i'll try and sort out the height adjustment on this mower. I removed the tie wire and screw they had holding the handle in place. Then I noticed that only the back wheels seems to move a little bit but the fronts were pretty much locked in place. The bar and linkages all looked ok then I had a look under the deck and found the problem. The front of the alloy base had been bent in that much that it was resting up against the front wheel axle. So I removed the front wheels and axle assembly then I managed to straighten out the front of the base with a large metal stake for leverage in between the front lip and the inside alloy part. Luckily it turned out great and nothing cracked. Now the height adjuster can freely move all the wheels like it should.
Because the height adjuster was modified already I just thought I need to add another bracket onto the already welded on bracket to give the mower some extra height. I just found a peice of scrap angle alloy from an old deck chair in the yard and added it onto this bracket. It didn't really work properly and the handle sort of pops out and was loose so I just used a bolt and secured it for now at a nice cutting height.
After all that I have also removed the carby and cleaned out the jet and all the small passages for the fuel. The main jet did feel like it had a bit of rubbish in there. I managed to look after the gasket and I just re-used it. I also managed to get the flag and governor working again as close to an original. I also removed the tie wire from the tickler push rod and installed a little e-clip on top to hold the spring in place. Looks and works a bit better now than having tie wire wrapped and sticking out everywhere...lol
I also removed the spark plug and installed a decompressor with some new rubber line. All working good now.
Ok it starts up great and idles nicely, only thing is I can't seem to be able to rev it up too fast it cuts out all the time. So I thought maybe it's that old blocked up fuel filter as I remember the flow of fuel from the tickler wasn't all that fast. I changed out that gold coloured fuel filter to a brand new one and it seems that it did increase the fuel flow so I thought great it should be good now. It now flows fuel from the tickler exactly like my other VC160 mower, and that mower works great. So at least I know the fuel flow from the tank to the carby is ok.
Well not so, it's still idling perfectly but when I go to rev it up it runs and stops all the time. Sort of like it's a fuel delivery issue or something.
I looked at the bottom of the engine near where the seal is and it looks like it's leaking a bit near there. Looks like petrol and oil seeping out. It's not much but it's got a slight leak. I am not to sure if this could be the reason for it not being able to rev up properly. But it idle's nice and slow like a dream, I would have thought a leak from a seal would also cause it to have a faster idle?
The only other thing I haven't had a look at yet is the ignition system. I tried to remove the top flywheel nut late in the afternoon but it looks to be rusted and seized a bit on there. I tried tapping with a hammer, WD-40, socket and breaker bar. Nope won't budge at all. So I just left it for now until one day I fire up the air compressor and hit it with a rattle gun. Who knows when was the last time this thing had the points cleaned or adjusted? lol Luckily I have a new set of points and condensor here that I can replace with if I manage to remove the flywheel. Heck I may even try one of those electronic ignitions on this beast.
I also found a nice hard rubbish newer style black Victa catcher with white printed "VICTA" on the sides the other day. I always wanted one of these to see how it would look on my older FC Commando. I also just sat it on the back of the old VC160 to see how it would look on one of these...lol
Cheers!
Zip a dee doo dah, zip a dee ay, another trash picked Victa, hip hip Hooray!
