I picked up another 5 PT's this morning for $12 each so now I can start to slowly get some sorted and ready for the Spring rush. I'm way behind this year as I have not been able to do much since Christmas so I am not going to have many ready when the grass starts growing madly
Last edited by CyberJack; 10/01/2112:31 PM. Reason: Change Title
Sound like a good idea Norm. Sit down and do a few carbies and maybe the snorkel kill switch modification then they are ready to put back on a few weeks down the track when the hip is even better
What are the decks like? Hope they don't need repainting
nearly every one I do gets a full strip down and a repaint, so these are no different, one base I did notice had a bit of silver tape over the usual trouble spot, but I do have quite a few bases here. I have got mowers from this bloke before and I did get 20 catchers from him a couple of years ago for $20
I have had another curious problem with a couple of PT's in the last few months. Both kerbside pick ups so no big deal but what has me stumped with them is after fitting my test carby they both fired up and ran for several seconds and stopped. I haven't been able to get another peep out of them and all points to them having been straight fueled as I get zero response with the starter fluid. What I don't get is why they ran for a couple of seconds. I might pull one down and see what the bore looks like and if not too bad give it a hone, new set of rings and see what happens unless anybody has any other ideas
Norm, I just had the same problem with a PT I picked up ($8 at the tip). Anyway, I have since worked out it's quite rumbley in the bearing department.
Rebuilt carb, and fired after 3 pulls, ran 5 seconds and stalled. Tried another plug, nothing. New screw in the plug wire, nothing. Another new plug and it sprang to life
Funny thing is all plugs had spark outside engine
Old plug in it was light tan/brown so maybe you are onto something about straight fuel
Hi Tyler, With both these motors my first suspicions were the plug colour and bot surprised me when they initially fired up, completely dead after that run, not another hint of going to fire. Tried several plugs in them to no avail.
Just picked up another 30 PT's today for $150, now to set up the test rig again and see how many runners I ended up with. Also got a sidepull so that is a bonus. This will help save the species from the inevitable extinction
Just picked up another 30 PT's today for $150, now to set up the test rig again and see how many runners I ended up with. Also got a sidepull so that is a bonus. This will help save the species from the inevitable extinction
Mate, how on earth did you get 30 of them for $150?!
Get yourself some decent alloy bodies and providing they're not straight fueled, you could have 30 mowers that will run forever!
Until a mouth breather straight fuels one and unfortunately as they whittle down among the mower population, more of this straight fueling will occur as less people understand the imperative to mix first. I'm reluctant to sell any as I'm convinced that if the buyer doesn't, a relative or mate will end up destroying it.
I got a deck recently because of a siezed PT. I know a dimwit got to it as it was a Chinese casting later model and had no signs it had been left in the weather and water ingress could have caused it.
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
Hi pau13z, A bloke I know who fixes mowers but only collects Victas because he wants the bodies for the 4 strokes he builds. Every couple of years he rings me up to come and collect all the 2 strokes he has because he won't work on them because he hates the carbys on them. Anyway this afternoon I started testing them, first 10 all fired straight up, then I got one that I drained half a cup of water out, bit of WD40, bit of starter fluid and it fired up and I ran that for 5 mins to try and dry it out inside. I will sit it in the sun tomorrow standing vertically with the plug out and that should sort it out. Then the next 2 were rusty, one just a bit, the other locked up. Testing will continue tomorrow and then they can be stacked away for later.
Got 24 of the PT's running one had been straight fueled and the rest had water get into them. Now I have at least 50 tested running motors so now I can concentrate on putting a few together so I can clear some space.
Now if I could just get one of these goddam motors to work on a 24. I am convinced the cause is the distance the crank pin the starter catches is the issue because its rotational circle is too big and this makes it too hard to get the mass of the blade carrier spinning enough in the short number of revolutions the cord allows
I can see why you are having trouble getting a PT ,,24 to start We aren't really having much trouble in that regard apart from the kickback.Are you changing the complete motor including carby when you are swapping base? I often leave the carby on the frame when just changing over guickly. Saves undoing the bolts on the handle etc. If there is a carby problem then it will stay with the frame.
I had a side pull on this frame first. It was pretty tired but I don't think there was much difference in the way it pulled over and started No Kickback though.
A real mystery and a pity. PT s are much easier to come by at least around here.
Hi Jeff, I have tried every combination I possibly can. I was using my test carby that I just used on all the PT's I got running, that carby is my base starting point, I fit it to every PT that comes here, that tells me straight up if the motor will run or not. The owner asked me last night if I could fit one of the motors I just picked up but I told him it is not the motor but I'm 100% convinced it is in the pull start design and no point in me swapping any more motors to it, just wasting time, they are a dud design. I wish I knew why yours works so well
Funny, I was looking at another forum where a guy showed me a mates newly acquired 600 a couple of months ago and it has a PT after having another look. I would ask him how that was going but he was banned from the forum due to a feud with the moderators.
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
He probably got banned MF because he couldn't get it started and go abusive because nobody could/would help him LOL. They are a dud machine, and manufacturers do make duds from time to time. It was just Victa didn't make too many and we grew to accept that if it was a Victa it was the benchmark. I would love somebody to prove me wrong.
Sounds like you got a good deal there Norm with the trailer load of 2 stroke motors.
If you are thinking of modifying Victa full crank bases to fit the Powertorque motors on Norm ,I have 10 good PT bases here and don't mind swapping for full crank bases up to you it may save time .
All these kickback problems with the PT ,I don't think it's starter design ,I took the blade plate off a standard PT then attempted to start the motor ,as usual the kickback was severe then I replaced the motor with the 460 with heavier boss but still no blade plate and motor has no kickback when starting.
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I removed a powertorque motor today and found an old complete alloy starter instead of the common plastic centre ,it's been a while since I've seen the old alloy starters.
Hi Max, I started a F/C 24 today and was watching to see what went on and they do travel slowly at first and then pick up speed and I believe this is where the PT fails you just can't get it to spin quite fast enough for it to fire and this is when they kick back. Never had a problem with the 460's because the blade carrier is directly on the crank and the blade carrier is much lighter than the 24 disc. I have a pile of PT bases that I can use, just have to sand them up, repair anything that needs repairing (front axle area etc) then paint 10 or so and leave them to dry. The full crank bases I have need to be found as I just stripped all the bases and stacked them all together but if you need them you are welcome to them, I need all the motors I can get for the slashers
I wonder if you have something here. I'm surprised you can even start any PT without a blade disc. Perhaps the 460 pro engine is the correct engine for a PT 24. If our PT 24 was closer to me I would be trying to build up the spinning mass under the engine. I guess these 460 pro engines are hard to come by. Alas ours is almost 2000k away.
Norm Do you have one of those engines or even just heavy blade disc boss? I reckon it would be worth a try. Then you leave the belt a lot looser It might be easier to pull over. I wonder if you could turn something up or even modify an ordinary blade disc.
There has to be a simple solution to this issue. We are not running a Victa belt. Perhaps that's something too. Belt friction etc Interesting stuff.
Just by chance our solid cast steel fairly thick engine pulley would be a bit heavier that a the normal pressed metal ones Maybe another reason why ours seems better
Hi Max/Jeff, Could be never really gave it enough thought as to the blade boss. The bloke picked up the slasher this morning and he lives right out the otherside of Melb in Fawkner. I have to drop off one of his other ones he dropped here this morning that had stopped on him (new plug was all it needed) so I might pick the PT up again and maybe have a play with the boss idea. He did say today it was always a pig to start but after I played with it earlier this year it was much easier to start. Only thing I really did there was the decomp valve with the restrictor.I do have a PT here with a much heavier blade boss so be interesting to try that one, if that doesn't work I will turn something up. Has to be an answer somewhere
On further thinking about the flywheel effect I have a number of 500 single Enfield flywheels here and I'm sure I could turn one of those down and heat shrink it onto the PT boss. Another thought I'm having is that the PT being a half crank motor only supported on the bottom side, is the fact the belt tension is part of the issue with it slightly attempting to twist the crank which doesn't happen with the F/C
I think the problem is when using a standard Power Torque motor with the v belt drive, the drive pulley is smaller than the driven pulley meaning the blade plate is no longer spinning at a 1 to 1 ratio ,this would slow down starting momentum and would require adding a little more weight to the crank to over come the kick back problem.
As we know the 460 Pro motor starts without a blade plate because the boss is heavier than the standard PT boss , looking online the Victa self propelled boss looks to have more weight too ,I guess this is the same boss for the 600.
Thanks for the offer for full crank bases ,I probably don't need them ,I just thought you may have run out of PT bases , I occasionally have too many PT bases and get rid of them ,if I know you are still collecting them I can drop some off when passing by.
Hi Max, Looks like you might be onto it although I have had a number of 600's here and they all had the standard PT boss. Thanks for the PT base offer, don't throw any out that are not rusted, they are a finite item now that they are no longer made
