OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Walk Behind Lawn Mower Frames Two Stroke Lawn Mower Frames Fixing Up Victa Steel Chassis.

I found this on the side if the road with a seized chinese PT. It came with a catcher and the body was pretty clean without rust penetration so grabbed it for the body early this year.
I have just got around to take a look at it as I was recently given an engine and said it was a good one.
The mower came with missing rear wheels and one very worn front wheel. I fitted three matching spares.
The front axle had more play than I liked so made up a pair of shims to fit around the location points in the chassis (see pic). This, together with better used bushes I had on hand reduced the play to almost nil.
Next fault was a missing rear flap hinge which I replaced with a spare. Drilling out one broken rivet proved a bit of a pig but I got there, although with a very eccentric hole! The new 4.8mm rivet gripped without issue.
Next will be a pressure wash and then fitting and trying out the replacement engine. This is no restoration, just a clean up and assembly for a sound working mower. Let's hope the motor is a good goer. It has a nice fat snorkel and the "premium" square air cleaner control housing.

C'mon MF, i get impatient with repairs like these. Get it running so i can see the finished product. lol

Hey BT, you wouldn't have a spare grill for the top? It's the one with rounded corners. The mower will look so much better with it. I actually have a buyer lined up.

Just a little trick I have come up with is the front axle bushes which are more than often trashed and new bushes are probably $5 a pair. As I have had countless numbers of rusted decks that I take to the scrap but everyone of those rusted bases is worth at least $5 to me. I always strip the bases completely and then I can use the rear axle bushes (because they are never worn/ chewed out) cut them down to the same length as the front ones and I have just saved myself $5

This is a couple of alloy bases I cleaned up yesterday, they should look pretty good once they are back up and running

Are they painted or blasted? Funny how one's indented and the other raised. Victa used to vary the fronts of their thumb latch base moulds as well.
Yes Norm, great idea. Wish I thought of it when I last disposed of one.
Might grab any rusted bases I see for that reason.

Thought I was the only one who does that Norm - have just done that with 3 stuffed bases. I put them on the curb as I figured some scrap dealer would see and take them - 3 days later and still there, so will take to the tip

Those alloy decks look great

Nice find MF - with a good engine it will clean up well. Just picked one up curbside this morning - late 90s PT corvette in similar condition - average deck and buggers chinese PT. But good wheels - thats all I can see.
Was covered in leaves so I scrapped as many as I could off and emptied half a can of mortein around it just in case.

By the way, is that a 125cc edger I spy?

G'day Tyler,
that's a 125 edger I was given by the same guy who gave me the Powertorque sitting beside it. He fixes mowers for people around his area and he no longer required 2 stroke bits as his regular clientele all have four stokes, so he said I could have his 2 stroke stuff which included G3 carbies and G4/LM stuff as well as this engine and a couple of 160 FC Mayfair mowers and some hard to get catchers and a few 1980s PT covers.
I am going to part out the edger as I have no use for it and I doubt it's of great value in the market. It wont start and I need the starter and fan.

Always good to have some spares around, especially g3 stuff.

The 125 edgers will cut through the toughest of overgrowth, and with the bun muffler they sure do sing. I use a little weedeater brand edger usually, but the big gun alrohs or 125 or TAC can come out when the going gets tough

Lots of chassis designs though

Sorry MF, those grills are like hens teeth, i don't have any at all.

And any of the hens teeth you find usually have a couple of the fins broken/missing

Played with the Corvette today - its chinese block was stuffed as well - grumbly bearing and badly scored.

So off it came and on went one I was given december last year - apparently it was honed and re-ringed 12 months before the steel deck gave out

Haven't played with the carby yet, or put on a nice cover, but put some fuel in, new filter, some oil down the plug hole, and it went first pull. Poor throttle control though

Poor old thing has some rust rash Tyler. Sounds like it can easily be made into a good mower with a scouring wheel or wire cup on an angle grinder, some rattle can paint and a sorted carby.

Yes a bit of rash MF, but no severe rust and the wheels are good - no play in the axle bushes surprisingly

Judging by the amount of debris, last night was its first night undercover for a long while. And today was the first time it wasn't run on 10-15:1

The wheels look great I have to say, so this tells a story of a mower with relatively little use ruined by straight fueling and left in the elements. Body is very sound despite appearances.

The deck really feels thicker than the ones used around the same period on my Pace Victa

Its sad these get neglected

Just picked up another Victa - a tornado with the turn in handles. Deck is practically buggered - rusting from inside out

Has a v40 chonda on it - locked up tight but is full of old oil. Choke not shutting either. 4 blade round disk so thats nice - hopefully it fits regular decks as well - think it does.

Water damage everywhere, but good wheels and is complete

I picked it out of a skip 5 houses down the road.

Got to have some wins I suppose - hot water heater carked it today - caught on fire

Edit
Looked at the Rusty corvette - the engine I transplanted onto it is quite the bitsa - 1999 chinese block, with the earlier pull starter, and someone has swapped an old G4 onto it. Tinkered, but still revs it's guts out - ran out of time due to the hot water system

Hi Tyler as I have said some days are roses, some days are thorns, sorry about your hottie, they don't last as long as a 2 stroke Victa

Hi Norm
Today is another day so hopefully it will be better

That being said, the hose bursting this morning and then both outdoor taps spontaneously starting to leak isn't a good sign haha

I go forward optimistically, hopefully I don't end up misty optically (hit my head on the gazebo frame this morning)

Only ever get 4 years out of these hot water systems - even the dux ones.

Going up to BCF to get one of those 12v electric showers - robbing electricians quoted us 3x the weekday cost to do it yesterday or even more today

Hi Tyler,
I'm interested to know how the 12 volt shower handles it, a mate of mine was thinking about one for his place up the bush. Not good only getting 4 years out of a hottie, real pain that is, what is it that kills them, must be the water you have over there.

the 12v went fine Norm. Not a great amount of pressure, but enough. I had a 55 l tin rubbish bin (new) filled with water warmed up on the stove - went through the 3/4 full bin in 5-6 minutes.

Good enough shower

Not sure what kills the hot water systems - its never the tank that goes but the electrics, but will sure ask the installer tomorrow.

Was tempted to just go to bunnings and get a new system and put it in myself, but insurance problems and all that

Had a look at the v40 i picked yesterday fixed rusted starter pawls, adjusted valves, sprayed up the main jet (carby full of red water), went first pull and ran perfect, so i didn't have the heart to kill it off because of rust - so i cleaned it a bit, looks ok

Has ute blades on it for some reason

A couple of weeks ago I picked up a couple of PT's a F/C and a Turner 4 stroke. The F/C had no spark plug and was looking pretty bad, covered in rubbish. Today I thought I had better have a look at it because it had been sitting outside and we have had a fair bit of rain the last few days. No spark, fit another module, new plug and modified carby and it fired straight up and runs beautifully. I had given it zero chance because it just looked so bad. Now to check the 2 PT's, hopefully they will both fire up, then they would have been a good pick up for $30
Both PT's fired up no problems so that was a good afternoon, strip them down and put the motors on the shelf for later

Hi everyone,
Here's my first deck I've fully painted. I was going to paint only where the pressure washer had accidentally removed paint and a few other spots but I decided to repaint the entire thing when I found this matching colour at Bunnings and it claimed no primer required.
After sanding with 160 grit, applying phosphoric acid (rust converter), leaving overnight, masking axles and flap, I then applied paint.
I couldn't get a consistent finish though. When I applied a heavier coat in one area, overspray affected another. The result was mirror finish some parts, orange peel in others and even a satin to matt finish in a couple of areas. The can says not for automotive use, so I'm overall happy how it turned out.

I found a second hand grill online. Abit rough around the edges (literally), but it looks way better than without it (!!).

I thought you might have picked up that grill I was thinking about it but didn't get around to it. Base looks pretty good

Looks a whole lot better than it did in the "before" picture.

Hi NormK and bigted,
it was certainly worth doing. Despite some surface flaws showing from under the paint -the engine will cover this, it looks really smart with a refreshing coat of matching colour. I must do this more!

Next time though, I'll heat the can.

Looks a lot better MF

Will have to think about doing this now my PT corvette is going well

By the way, the hot water was fixed last monday, it was (I presume) rust in the electrical connector causing resistance and melting. All the guy did was strip the wires, and put a new connector on

Bill came today - $180 for 8 minutes work. I am seriously pissed off

Wheels fitted and engine in the middle of fitment.

Hi folks,
after fitting the handles and fitting the motor and blade carrier, it was time to see how it runs. After turning on tap and pushing primer three times it fired up third pull.
Two problems though. The exhaust needs more baffling and it way over revs in the run position. Idle is ok.
On another mower I fitted baffling to, it arrested it's over revving at the same time. I will do the exhaust first and hope that solves it. Does anyone know a good priced set of manifold o rings should I need to go down that path?

What do you think of the completed mower? It looks great in the flesh. I'll give the engine a wipe down later.
Any suggestions to clean the grime off the engine cover? Simple warm soapy water?

Looks good MF, you can try a bit of WD 40 on the cover, freshens them up buy may not get rid of the petrol stain though. Best manifold sealer is roof and gutter silicone, works fine on both inlet and exhaust.