OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Restoring, Customising and Modifying Other Walk-Behind Rotary Mowers Carter Rotary Lawn Mower Restoration

Good morning ODK Members,

The Carter mower is a very rare machine



There were two models available one being an automatic and the other a manual model which was fitted with a hand throttle similar to those fitted to a motorcycle.



About two years ago I was gifted a chassis which had no wheels/axles or bars



A previous owner had modified it to take a Victa engine and for some reason cut a big hole in the rear?? Anyway the chassis was a start, just needed to find some more bits 🙂

Good morning ODK Members,

I obtained as many reference photos of complete or near complete machines that I could find. First up is the automatic model, note that it does not have the word “AUTOMATIC” on the rear of the chassis as mine does. Perhaps they had two chassis one for the automatic and one for the manual but cost lead to the automatic wording being deleted and one chassis for both?

Automatic version, Kirby Hi Torque 2 stroke engine fitted with under flywheel governor controlled throttle. This engine was used extensively in the US and was fitted to Lawn Boy mowers.







The manual version, this machine appeared on EBay and clearly shows the hand throttle and alternate mounting to take a slide type carburettor.







Just a note on the throttle cable, the cable comes down to the carb through a small hole in the cowl. Now to assemble this you must pass the bare cable through the cowl and then assemble all the components such as the carb top, spring and slide and then fit to the carb. Not good from a service perspective as now you must remove the cowl/fuel tank to get at the carb, very annoying.

This example is missing its carb but the slide was still there, no indication yet as to what style or make of carb was fitted to the manual model. I am not sure if this manual version was locally factory converted or supplied as a unit. Note the cut out in the magneto backing plate to allow for the slide carb, this is not present on the automatic engine suggesting two engines supplied from factory.

On with the hunt for parts, the friend who gifted me the base told me that the bars may be sitting on a scrap pile up on his property. After a while his memory was good and a set of bars came home.



Very happy that I nearly have a complete chassis 🙂

Good afternoon ODK Members,

The next piece to be found was an engine, as luck would have it a manually controlled engine was listed for sale on Facebook, I messaged the seller as to availability and was in luck.




Still has its hand throttle attached





Need to find a muffler now 🙂

Good morning ODK Members,

The next piece needed was a muffler, finding one in Australia was impossible. I checked out EBay USA as this engine was used extensively on Lawnboy mowers



Found one at a reasonable price but the postage was a killer



The muffler took one week to cross America and arrive here in Sydney, it took 3 weeks for the muffler to travel from Sydney to Brisbane. Now things were looking better.

Good evening ODK Members,

It was a good feeling to have the engine sitting back on the deck




Next thing to find were some wheels.

Good morning ODK Members,

I didn’t have to look far for some wheels as my mate who supplied the bars had some spare wheels as well



These are Walter Barr wheels and were in very useable condition, I was always under the impression that the Carter mower had exposed axle ends compared to the later Turner model that had the same style but with a centre cap

The pic below shows the exposed axle ends



Recently CyberJack posted some Carter showroom photos that clearly show mowers fitted with capped wheels



I would say that these were later production models then getting closer to Turner continuing to manufacture the mower with some changes, note the far mower in the photo is the throttle controlled model.

While waiting to pick up the wheels I purchased some 1/2” axles



Fitting the bars was a bit tricky as I had no bottom swinging brackets to fit them to plus someone had shortened the bar ends. I found some brackets and hardware in my spares that would do the job until I find the right ones



With the bars on I could now get the throttle mounted up and start sorting out the engine.

Good morning ODK Members,

Just to finish off this thread, wheels are on and I made a short video of its first run



Sounds like an angry bee 🙂👍

Hi Paul

You tell a great story because of your tenaciousness
in putting a jigsaw together when many collectors would
have simply given up.

Maybe a new television series: Lawnmower Detectives ...?

Most importantly, you give us a story with a satisfying resolution.
I now know what Kirby's first small engine sounded like!

Thank you.
------------------------------
Jack