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Hello All, I joined this forum a couple of years ago, but have only recently paid up (very slack, I know). I have a love for the old 2 stroke Victa's and have had a little success repairing one or two. So I decided to bite the bullet and add a few more to my small collection. I visited Norm who had a couple of refurbished beauties advertised on Gumtree - he had a nice silver/grey one which was meant to be a replacement for my aging series 80, as the piston knock was getting fairly rowdy. He also had a Utility which I returned later for; I just couldn't pass it up. The work he did was wonderful and his wealth of knowledge was instrumental in my decision to restore eight of them... stupid? Yes I suppose it is, but I thought I'd rebuild all of the engines (aside from two of them which were nigh on perfect) and have a little fun. I have decided to paint them in period automotive colours and have a YouTube series on them. They aren't finished yet, but there may be a thing or two which may be of interest to a few people here. I understand the frustration watching someone work on something they're unfamiliar with, but to that end I hope there's something of interest. Thanks so much for reading this and I look forward to further communication with you all. Cheers Pete (and many thanks to Norm). https://youtu.be/_dWxlD4PVdM]https://youtu.be/_dWxlD4PVdM

Hi Peter, Welcome here, we try to have fun. Not sure how you are spraying these mowers but if I build something that is going on display after painting them in the colour I want I give then a coat of 2 pak clear, gives an amazing and hard finish

G'day Pete and Norm
Peter, most members are single-issue folks and joins as such.
It's great to see you return - even for general interest in garden stuff.

A few words on Norm ...
Norm has become an institution on ODK in his own right.
Here has given back - helped so many folks - that he should be
recognised for his work.

Great You Tube clips Pete.
Many thanks, too, for helping others.

Cheers
------------------------
Jack

Hi Pete, Norm and Jack,
Peter, did NormK go over the attributes of the later Powertorque series with you?
They may be half crank but they have unparalleled performance. Councils used to use them all the time and can take whatever you throw at them.
I always liked them but NormK cemented my belief in them after reading some negativity about them compared to the full cranks.

Hi Peter, Welcome, I have watched and enjoyed your Falcon restoration and your Honda videos. I did see your current ones on restoring the Victas and they look great 👍🙂 All the best Paul

Thanks Norm and thanks again for all of your advice and generosity. I use iso-free 2 pak clear, but supply is an issue at present, as they can't get it... it's back to regular acrylic at present which normally gains its sheen with wet sanding and buffing. I have used a retarder in it encourage it to flatten out and leave a nice finish off the gun, it will dull off eventually as remaining solvent dissipates, so I'll need to buff it but that can wait.

Thanks CyberJack, I certainly understand and agree with your words regarding Norm; I met him twice and walked (drove) away thinking the same thing...I have tinkered with mowers but they're quite new to me and as such don't have true familiarity with them. Every mechanical device has its own set of secrets and where we can fudge it a bit and fumble around until we reach a satisfactory result, only someone who really knows their subject can really set the trajectory right and save us lots of time - enter Norm and another bloke I met, Peter Taylor. Glad you liked the clips - lots of fun tinkering in my crowded garage. Thanks Also to you Mowerfreak, yes I have been told about the Powertorques and I remember my mother buying one in the mid eighties - they are tough indeed, although my memory of using it is pretty distant haha. My choice for the mowers I'm restoring was purely aesthetic. For some silly reason I love old stuff, in particular the low deck aluminium cast bases... although I've taken a shine to my little Utility. Thanks Paul, so you've seen my long videos of ramblings and made sense from them haha? I watch them before I publish them to edit out excessive repetition, bad language etc. as I'm a school teacher. I often think to myself 'who would watch this stuff' but I've been very fortunate with some really loyal supporters. Glad you liked the Fords and Hondas... four bikes and none are finished yet. although three of them are very close, an XC which is in its 6th year and still not finished and an XW which I finished in 2015 and am still yet to clock up 1,000 miles! Thanks again to everyone for the support. Cheers Peter

I was wondering Peter if you can give me some pointers as to what else to look for with my 1992 Fairlane Ghia V8 on dual fuel. It's been sitting in my driveway four months after it stalled on me yet again out on the road in a fairly busy intersection. It turned over but refused to fire either on gas or petrol. A bloke behind me in an XR6 got out and helped push the behemoth out of the way and he happened to be a mechanic and he got me to turn it over on gas then petrol when it decided to work again. My regular mechanic replaced the alternator, claiming that was faulty and it ran well for a couple of days before stalling again. The guy who helped out suggested I replace the spark plugs of their overdue and also the dizzy cap as they get corroded with age (260K odo). I have replaced four spark plugs so far (pain to access with all the LPG gear). The old ones had a very large gap of at least 2mm). Have put new NGK ones gapped 0.8mm as regular mechanic advised. I'm hoping this will end the time bomb of stalling without warning. I read recently that bad spark plugs can play havoc with the coil on these things. The ECU might be withholding spark due to erratic signals. I just want it to be reliable again.

Welcome back to the forum's Peter, Your recent series on the mower restoration has been fantastic mate. I constantly keep checking in to see where your at and if you've posted something new. Inspiring! I've only recently gotten into working with and repairing some of the 2 strokes i have acquired. It's been a lot fun to tinker around and learn whilst at it. I resonate strongly with CyberJack's comment re NormK and what he has given to this community. I mean I've never met Norm but just by reading the post's he's contributed too, amazing! Awesome stuff all round. You should both do a series on youtube i'm sure it would generate interest. In the meantime good luck with the restorations and thanks for your contribution.

G'day Mowerfreak, the 6 cylinder engines had constant issues with the distributors and coils. Earlier 6 cylinder cars had issues with the distributor modules (on the side of the dizzy) as heat dissipation was an issue with them and thermal grease was sometimes absent. Both instances would cause the cars to stall when hot and not re-start. I'm not sure about the V8 engines as I don't remember what kind of coil they use, but the OE transformer type would get a crack in the casing and earth itself out... perhaps take a look at those things, cheers.

Hey Styvo, very nice to hear from you - I just uploaded another one now, so hope you like it. My wife's away at the moment, so the mowers came inside (running the gauntlet), there's no odour or anything... I'm really happy with how they've turned out. There was a list of small stuff I needed so I could finish them off, so had to go see Norm. In reference to Norm... well he did it again! I paid him a visit yesterday with a pretty long list of odds and ends. He was very busy and had been working hard. He dropped everything and served me, throwing all sorts of stuff my way and making sure I knew what I was doing. The best part about him (aside from ridiculously high levels of knowledge), is that he doesn't appear to care about profit, he seems to enjoy the satisfaction others gain from tinkering with these old machines. A true old school gentleman, I wish more people would take a leaf from his book!

Hi Peter Anderson,
thanks for those pointers, I read the e series sixes are known for those problems. In getting bored of the trusty Laser and crave some muscular torque up the hills!

Good luck with the XC Fairmont GXL build. It will be a sight to behold.

I admire the creativity and flexibility with your mower builds. You and NormK got me appreciating the low arch deck mowers a well as the high arch thumb latch variety I am obsessed with.