Here are all of the store brand models from 1975-1976, it's off the back of my 75-76 dial a code. It has my Eclipse, which has the G4 carbys face outwards so no remote primer and the air hose over the arch and the serial number says its a 75 build.
It also has the Vcode for all of them and it includes at least 3 of my mowers!!!
My dad bought a Waltons Celestial 160 new and I can vaguely recall the unboxing which would have been between 1977 & 1978 (I believe mowers often remained in stock many months after manufacture.) I remember V177 on it's throttle assembly. He took it for a major service in the early 1980s and that's when it must have gotten it's white primer cap. I see a service bulletin from 1978 instructing Victa dealers to fit them whenever a mower was brought in for services. I retrofitted one to my nan's Pace Premier 160 in the 1990s. It made starting way easier.
Just checked the KMart 125cc store brand I found last year, and it still has V170 on it's throttle assembly.
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
I would love to see some pictures of the part reference decals please MF!!!! It may be strange to some but I find them so interesting, well the first release of them before they stopped being just a V number.
Here is one for you Mowerfreak!! Remember when I showed the page from the 85-86 workshop manual and it had a silver streak with a big vortex cowl.
Well here it is, after much discussion about it with a dealership owner and 2 people who own one.
They have the same solid base and cowl as a vortex but the deck is grey and has silverstreak decals on the front and sides of the deck. But they both had red cowlings like the first 83-84 vortex and the colour scheme just does not work. I've had it suggested that they were using up the old stock.
In my opinion the cowl should be black and grey like the deck but with chrome accents or somthing like the cowl off the one given to the dealership owner for outstanding performance during the ??? mowing season.
But we have all come to the conclusion that this is the correct cowl for this model of silverstreak!!! Even the letter at the end of the cowlings part reference number is N and that is sometimes used for red, this is only what a dealership owner told me.
So when they made the first vortex the final letter for its reference number is A and once they make a variation they change the letter at the end, the Mustangs has a W (White) and the 85-86 vortex says Y (Yellow) and then N for the silverstreak and apparently N stood for red. But that's open to discussion because it sounded strange to me. But the 2 people who owned the 2 I have seen both say they got them from new and they came with red cowlings.
I don't care for it myself Sean. A great model to restore a red Vortex wIth though! You can easily paint the base up with Rustoleum black hammered finish spray paint and order a repro Vortex label, or use the cover on a vortex mower.
Last edited by Mowerfreak; 22/11/2104:56 PM.
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
Honestly if that was my mower, I'd paint the cowl to match the base and with white, black, grey and a little chrome. To make it look almost like a stealth bomber! I love the silverstreak decal on the front, I love the grey base and black decals. I think that if they did the cowl to match the base it would definitely be my favourite colour scheme on the vortex style. Just a person opinion on colours I like.
Honestly if that was my mower, I'd paint the cowl to match the base and with white, black, grey and a little chrome. To make it look almost like a stealth bomber! I love the silverstreak decal on the front, I love the grey or silver base and black decals. I think that if they did the cowl to match the base it would definitely be my favourite colour scheme on the vortex style. Just a person opinion on colours I like.
I have my doubts to the veracity of that so called Silver Streak model. My gut says lines have been crossed somewhere to create this falsehood from a bitsa. Why would Victa release this strange looking variant that looks too closely resembling their flagship Powertorque mower when they were so good at making differentiated models from combining few various components and colours?. They really dropped the ball with this one. Silver streaks always had a black cover. Why would they depart from the usual black top with chrome hubcaps to make a mower that looks virtually identical to a red Vortex?
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
Exactly MF!!! But this isn't the only one I have seen it's the 3rd and all are the same red cowl with a silver or grey base.
Now the dealership owner said the old easy throw away line "they were using up old stock from the flagship model" now I hate this answer because that answer to me means "I don't know the answer! But I'm not willing to say so." Also the original 83-84 manual has the final letter on the cowl code as A this is what is put at the end of many parts in their first release but when they make a variation they use the colour as the last letter so the 85-86 vortex has Y at the end the 86-87 mustang has W at the end the Silverstreak has N, now the dealership owner also said "sometimes red is marked as N" now he could be telling the truth or we just don't know and the red cowl isn't the correct cowl.
I so agree MF it doesn't make sense but I've seen 3 now all different mowers but all pretty much twins in the looks department. So it's either the wrong cowl or the right one..... we may never know!
