OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Welcome to Outdoorking Forum HELP Area Introductions Hi I'm a newbie with a SB40 project

Hi, I found this little beast on the side of the road and am starting the project. The engine is solid just cleaning it up before kicking it over. Any advise would be helpful. Does anyone here have any idea how old this is? Model 40 serial 06203. Also feel free to tell me I'm wasting my time:)

G'day Tookmuk, and welcome.

Check out this from CyberJack. It should give you a good intro into your SB40.

https://www.outdoorking-forum.com.au/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/84251/model-40-14-reel-lawnmower-c1961.html

As far as wasting your time, no, not really! But parts are hard to come by, especially for the Villiers motor. Yours is also missing the friction drive cover. From those who have gone the whole hog and saved one from scrap, they are apparently funky little retro mowers and do the job well.. I was looking at one on Gumtree recently but the price they wanted was daft. There is some commonality with the later SB45s, but not very much.

If you're handy with metal or know those who are (judging by the cars in the first photo!) it shouldn't be too difficult an undertaking. Just keep your eyes open for any others you can wreck if needed!

Thanks for the link. I'm just cleaning the motor up first, and then I've got some surface rust on the barrell blades (not sure if they're called that) to take care of. The rest appears to be in solid condition. As for the cars in the photo, the photos were taken at work at a fire station. We get to have fun cutting up cars and call it work. It's going to be nice to put something together for once.

Ah, I see! Well this is worth not cutting up, at least for now!

The barrel blades are either called the cylinder, or reel. ;) The rear roller, that drives the mower, are cast iron so don't drop it.

I think your biggest challenge will be the Villiers. And to make things interesting, I believe they use a different bolt pattern on the deck and a different shaft length to your usual Briggs or Honda. So you'd need to drill the deck to fit a replacement motor at the least.

Good luck though. A little bit jealous. They look really, really awesome when done up, even if they are a challenge.