Overthinking is my speciality. A decent chunk of the period I’ve been working through this has been while sitting in waiting rooms. It’s better for me to be occupied with something rather than getting annoyed by how much time I’ve had to sit around.
I’m not focussed on getting every part perfect. It’s more about keeping the character of the mowers. I have new machines that get the lions share of use and they are great but I have a soft spot for these early 70’s 2-strokes. Pulling one out of the shed is a good thing, even better if I spend an hour mowing with one.
The front axel clips I’m talking about are, apparently, unique to the low arch mowers and similar era alloy base utilities. They’re just a two inch long by half inch piece of spring steel, bent so they clip onto the axel with a hole drilled in one end to attach to the chassis. Mine are partially rusted away, cracked and misshapen. I know if I try to reform them they’re going to disintegrate, not enough substance left. I can make them, probably be more efficient for me to make 50 than the six I need.
With height, I mean the range of height I can get. I’m never going to use the lowest setting, probably shorter than any groundsman would ever cut a pitch, it’d scalp the bllio out of most lawns, whilst the highest setting isn’t enough for a rough first cut. I sat down with it and worked out a couple of options. Raising the motor in the chassis, as you suggest, is probably the best solution.
The 80 items are for four different machines. I usually keep boxes of parts for stuff so I’m able to do servicing when the weather drives me inside. I’ve run out of a few things and need to restock. The recommissionings have blown the shopping list out quite a bit though!
That 125 utility would be a peach, weight, manoeuvrability and durability in rough conditions haven’t been as well worked out since that era. I’ve been on the lookout for a good condition 160 utility from the early 70’s for a couple of years I have one here but it’s very tired.
Between the Super 24 and the utilities/specials of that era I don’t think there have been better mowers made for Australian conditions within their intended use cases.
Hi Ironbark, Ok now I know the clip you are talking about, my fix would be to go to a plumbing supplies place and get 2 1/2inch copper double bolted clips, cut one end off and bolt it on. Once you had the clips you will see what I mean. Any very tired utilitu from that eara is always worth repairing no matter how bad
Just working on getting a 24 rebuilt and I found the novel was the PO had a go at fixing the worn out front axle area I usually make up oversize Delrin bushes , cut the in half and clamp them in place with a "U" bolt. This way they have used a block of steel, cut it in half and bolted it in. Works ok but now it and the axle have worn and it is slopping about again. Think I will just put some weld on the axle to build it up and make it tight again. Should last another 10 years or so and I won't be worried about it by then
That’s obviously done a bit of work to get worn to the extent it has. Some sort of bushing would have stopped most of it though; metal on metal in a situation like that with moisture and a bit of acidity would always cause a problem
I started stripping down three of the motors to work out which flywheel assemblies to fit as two had quite a few smashed fins and I am going to go back to the original zip starters on all three. I used a harmonic balancer puller and there are no horrors so far. None had been apart for a very long time as far as I could see. It looks like one had never been apart.
I’ve struck a hurdle as there are no nuts to hold the starter cup in place. It looks as though I’m going to need to go on a mission to find three starter cup nuts. They’re no longer available from Outdoorking or anywhere else as far I can see. Any hints?
Last edited by Ironbark; 23/03/2201:59 AM. Reason: Typo
That’s my usual first move. I’m on first name terms with most of the people in my local bolt shop as I’m in there regularly getting stuff.
This nut has an unfaceted threaded extension that positively locates the starter cup with respect to both the flywheel/cooling assembly and crank. It both keeps it concentric with the crank and prevents the cup from being dragged longitudinally and working loose.
I’m either going to have to get one made or find a spare from another mower I think.
What about using a regular nut on top of a short length of steel or copper pipe that is the correct diameter to 1 fit over the crankshaft end and 2 fit inside the flywheel and starter cup hole.
The pipe would keep everything from moving laterally provided the bolt can be torqued down enough to secure the starter cup.
That’ll be workaround number 1 until I can get some lathe time.
I’m not overly keen on doing it that way because an unthreaded sleeve will create one of two problems:
1. dig into the threads and get stuck if I use brass, copper or aluminium making it very difficult to remove the flywheel; or 2. Damage the threads if I use steel.
The other option is to make a loosely threaded sleeve that’s temporarily glued to the cup itself. That’d be much easier for me to make here than the whole nut with the shoulder.
I really should just go and see my friend with the lathe. I’ve made shouldered nuts before, it’s not difficult, just time consuming from here.
I probably have nuts out the back on old motors but that does't help much. Another thing is I have a fix for slipping cup starters, makes the a guaranteed not slip every time, pretty simple fix.
