OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Collectors Corner Rotary Pope 320-01 Rotary Mower

This mower was sold on EBay as part of a collection near Toowoomba, then it was not wanted by the buyer of the collection who relisted it on EBay. I was outbid on it then and the winner brought it down to Brisbane, it was then swapped to a friend of mine who on-sold it to me. It remained untouched from the first sale

First up it is a bloody heavy mower ! The tyres have gone flat from sitting, Pete aka ihatewetsocks is generously sending me some replacement ones. I stripped down the carby and air filter assembly giving them a good clean. They are very well made items, the carby is very interesting and a bit of a mix between Victa and Villiers in make.


The fuel tank had the usual gunk inside and took a lot of persistent cleaning to get it to an acceptable level, the original braided fuel line broke in half so I will have to have a replacement made up.

I removed the flywheel to clean up the ignition, my plan was to replace the flywheel with a spare that I have but found that the original one was considerably lighter with some different machining. After servicing the ignition a healthy spark was present.

The spark plug was badly corroded into the head and when removed it stripped out the thread, after removing the cylinder head I found that it has the same stud spacing as a Victa one. Problem solved and now the Victa head is in place until I helicoil the original, the engine also had very little if any compression.

When I had the head off I cleaned the bore and got some fresh oil and Inox down the side of the piston to lubricate the rings a bit. I figured that perhaps the lack of compression was due to a dry bore and rings.

All back together and fingers crossed, after a few attempts at starting the engine limped into life. A bit sick at first but the revs picked up and it settled nicely, the fuel ran out and I mixed a slightly oilier mix to get a bit of oil where it was needed. Glad to report that compression is very healthy now :-)





Very happy with the engine now, just need to sort the flywheel, having the shroud fitted makes it a bit tricky to get to the fuel tap and primer

The handle bars fold nicely but it necessitates the removal of one fixing bolt and the loosening of the other

Not sure about the two holes in the cowl near the larger opening, perhaps there was a flap or grill than swung down to cover the opening ? I think this mower had a short life due to a quick product progression and cost of manufacturing, the cowl and cast base were a luxury. Much cheaper and easier to press out a base and no cowl made things cooler and a lot more user friendly.

All in all I am very happy to have this example as part of my collection, it won't be getting a restoration just a thorough cleaning and tidy up :-)