OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Welcome to Outdoorking Forum HELP Area Introductions Newb with high hopes

G'day folks. I retired due to health reasons a couple years ago and thankfully I had a lot to keep me busy on my acreage. After teaching myself to service my mower, I thought, "Hmm, how hard could it be to restore an old wreck?" I'm a complete beginner with engines, and a lot of tools, but I trotted down to the local junk yard and found the mower you see pictured below. I'm not a 100% sure of the model, but I think it's a late 80's Victa 160cc 2 stroke. I stripped it all down, cleaned and/or repaired each part and reassembled it with a few replacement parts. I'm happy with how it looks, but I'm troubleshooting why it won't start, which brought me to this forum. I'm sure I'll nut it out with the input of you knowledgeable folks. I won't use this intro to go into the issue. I kept a photolog of the project, which you can see here if you're interested. Mower Restoration Project I look forward to interacting with you all. Cheers, Dan.

Why is my UBB code disabled?

Hi Dan, welcome here, can't help with UBB but I'm sure we will be able to help with the 2 Stroke. Was it running when you got it? Have you checked for spark? I'm assuming it is a powertorque motor? My test method after having proved spark is a brief squirt of starter fluid in the plug hole, replace the plug and give it a pull, if it attempts to fire then you know it is a fuel problem. If you get no indication of an attempt to fire it is looking like it may have been straight fueled and that heads you down an ugly road. Let us know how you go.

Hey Norm. No, wasn't running when I got it. I'm not sure what the term "powertorque" means. Have checked for spark and not getting any. The spark is good (checked it in another mower), the leads all have continuity (checked with multimeter), just tried a new ignition module as well, and pulled the kill switch from the carby, all without luck. I've just ordered a replacement coil as it's the only thing left that I can think of. Oh, the gap between the magnet on the flywheel and the e-coil is fine as well. The post is a little slow at the moment, so hopefully I won't have to wait too long before I get the replacement coil.

Very rare that these PT coils fail but I guess you could have one go bad. Powertorques are the motor that has the pullstart as the top half of the motor. If you didn't know that how did you order a new coil

I looked at the part number on the coil and found the same one on ebay :)

Oh, and it looks like I've discovered the UBB code issue. It's just the intro forum threads only allow HTML.

Hello okidoke
Welcome to these great forums.

The Intro Forum should - by default - operate in 'UBBCode only' coding.
This should be the same for all forums.

Let me look into that.

--------------------------
Jack

[quote=CyberJack]Hello [b]okidoke[/b] Welcome to these great forums. The Intro Forum should - by default - operate in 'UBBCode only' coding. This should be the same for all forums. Let me look into that. -------------------------- [b]Jack[/b][/quote] Hey Jack. The UBBCode has worked for me in another thread I started, but not in the intro forum. Perhaps it's to prevent unnecessary attachments in an intro maybe? Thanks for the welcome.

lol, of course, quoting won't work in this case also

Hi okidoke

Very impressive clean up

Powertorque was the term victa sold its 2 strokes under from 1984 until about 2000s

You do not have a powertorque. Yours is (approx) 1980-81 Victa full crank with a side pull starter. It is one of the first Side pulls as there is still a notch out of the top cowl (where the pull handle used to sit in the previous model.

Very solidly built unit - 4 main bearings vs 2 in the powertorque

Coil failure isn't uncommon on these given age, but it is usually the module. You seem to have been pretty comprehensive, so unfortunately its likely the coil (or very rarely the magnets in the flywheel)

PS, little tip, if its stuck in html mode and you want paragraphing, submit reply, then click edit, then click change post without touching anything (can if there is an issue) and it will be paragraphed.

Ok so now we know this is a F/C and coils do fail on these and so do the modules. These are a fantastic motor and once you get it running you should never need to buy another mower, that is unless you start collecting them.

Thanks for the info Tyler. I'm not sure what notch you're refering to, as I can't see one. I've also asked in my other thread ( https://www.outdoorking-forum.com.au/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/108517/my-first-attempt-at-a-restoration.html ) about the numbers stamped into the cylinder ( 3 71) and it was suggested as meaning March 1971, so I'm a little confused now. I'll take a look a giving the magnets a clean.

Thx for fixing that coding

Tyler's referring to the blanked off part where the top mounted zip starter rope originally was on this style of engine top, on the right side. Similar to this.

Oh right. I get you. I can see how it compares to mine now.

My nan had a very similar mower to yours that was badged as a Pace. It would have been among the earliest production runs, around 1976, with that chassis and engine top combo. Hers was, of course the top mounted cup starter and the cover was white Werth a hammered finish blue chassis. Yours has the deluxe 8" ball bearing rear wheels and ball bearing fronts. Much nicer to push around than the nylon bearing wheels that were on my late nan's. Here's one I converted to 8" rear ball bearing wheels. The fronts are the original nylon bearing type. I had to swap the rear axle as they are slightly different to the one with the 7" rear nylon sleeve bearing originals. The 6" fronts are a straight swap -which I haven't got around to yet. Note the engine top developed for this series side pull motor.

Neat. I noticed the handlebar knobs appear to be missing a piece, which is how mine came when I bought it, but maybe they actually were designed like that. I bought some different ones thinking mine weren't complete.

Okidoke, see my work in progress on a late 70s 125cc Mayfair gold hi arch.

https://www.outdoorking-forum.com.au/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/79274/1/victa-hammertone-paint-drama-early-80s-model.html