Does anyone have any information as to what these bits are made from?
They look to be a synthetic of some description. If someone knew definitively then it would probably be possible to get parts made. I used to be able to cut gears so I’m sure there’s others out there who can do it.
At the moment there’s next to no spares readily available for g3s and it’s starting to make restoration and maintenance a bit tricky.
I agree with Norm. These should be "printable". I am sure if someone was to remake them and sell them on ebay they would have a ready supply of buyers. My understanding is they are made of nylon. They do seem to become a bit brittle with age.
I have no idea what the wear characteristics of the 3D material is and then you have the time involved in making up the program as compared to the market volume. The material and time involved in printing them is insignificant, once the printer is running it will spit them out. My son in NZ has 3 printers running quite a bit producing stuff for his work so producing these would not even be a blip on his radar once he had the program on a usb stick
I keep coming across old Victas lately that will not go for one simple reason. The nylon gears in the carby have broken. Found two at local tip in reasonable condition but won't go due to broken carby gears. Chatted to a fellow in China this morning about the possibility of remaking these. Apparently they can custom make a thousand or more of them for around 15 cents each. Quality will be as good as or probably better than the originals. As nobody else seems up for the challenge, I am seriously considering getting these re-made and flogging them off online for a few bucks. There will in time be a demand for these.
3-D printing is worth investigating further.
Also, a mate of mine reminded me that these are just a basic clockwork bevel gear, so there should be an aftermarket one available somewhere that could be used, but these may need alteration, like cutting to reduce the thickness, re-drilling the shaft hole or adding a small key for example. Just have to match up the same number of teeth for top and bottom.
I don't know why everyone idolises those metal carbies. They're fiddly AF and complicated compared to the G4 which is dead easy to rebuild in comparison. How ironic it's a plastic part that's their weakness.
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
I don't know why everyone idolises those metal carbies. They're fiddly AF and complicated compared to the G4 which is dead easy to rebuild in comparison. How ironic it's a plastic part that's their weakness.
I guess for me I understand how those old carbies work and find them easy to tinker with now that I've got the mechanics sorted out in my head. The G4 is a totally foreign animal to me and I've tried to wrap my head around it but have a lot of trouble understanding how they work. From what I have heard, the G4 parts can also wear out and cause problems. One of my older G3 carbs (perhaps a G2??) is almost all metal except for a small piece of plastic beneath the all metal flag.
Another part that frequently goes AWOL on those old carbies is the clip or clamp that holds the idle gears together. I have come up with a simple solution. Get the smallest fold-back binder clip you can find, remove the wire folds, cut the clip off widthways by about a third its length. Use a screwdriver or needle nose pliers to clamp this over the gears. Finger clips might also do the trick.
MF, all victa carbies are fiddly - the lm has the cam sticking, kill pin and governor issues, the g3 has split gears, and kill pin issues as well. The most trouble free was the old slide barrel ones.
Vint_mow, quite possibly the reason many don't have the little applicator clip is this was a later victa fix - the first ones didn't have them. They started getting customer come backs as the mowers would barely cut grass - running at stuff all rpm.
It turned out the root cause was people cleaning around the carby (or hitting on hedges etc) were knocking the applicator tension off. Victa then added the clip to lock it.
But again, many will have been pulled off and never put back on at services.
Look at an exploded view of a metal G3 compared to a G4. Yes I once fitted a piston operated barrel type carby to a Mark III 160. Gee that gave me good memories. Had the metal lever throttle. Zip on the doo dah bbbrrrrooooomm!
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
Is there a technical drawing of the G4 carby that I can download MF? I have the one for the early Victa carbys.
I perfected my little clips for the G3 carby this morning. Made them slightly larger using the same size binder clips, but this time rounded them off with the file so they sit more securely. They won't come off in a hurry.
