Wanted: Early Pope mower base. Not fussy which one, but bolt hole mount spacing is 9cm hole to hole front, 9.5 cm sides and rear. My motor has a short shaft so I guess that means it originally came off a low profile base.
Probably rarer than Dodo's teeth, but I can only ask.
Wow, as luck would have it I visited the local tip yesterday on the slim chance of scoring a Pope mower base. Could not believe my luck. Right in front of me was a Pope base. So I got one for a few bucks. Bit worst for wear but certainly repairable.
Wow so lucky..... Does it have wheels axles, height adjusters, handle...? The colour was a persimmon orange...... Many people have painted them, but I am using Rustolium orange.... here are a few .pics of other guys popes, and my base with second coat on.....
cheers speedy
........................Keep your blades sharp......................
Hi vint_mow and speedy. Rustoleum orange looks a few shades lighter but will look nice once complete. Original looks more like a Chevrolet engine enamel orange. That's the trouble with thorough restos, you can't mow with them ever again!
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
Thanks, yes colour is a bit more of a Chevy type orange,but hard to get unless a professional painter can do a bit of mixing.
Base I got is an 82-145 model, seems to be fairly intact, missing a few bits like the side chute and short of one wheel. Height adjuster is frozen in place, but it looks like someone had been using this base as a trolley as it has a lump of angle iron bolted to the front which I will remove. I get the feeling the bolts have been tightened to such an extent that the adjuster is fixed in place. Might just need freeing up with some fish oil and loosening the bolts off. I had a look through my wheel collection and came across a broken Pope wheel which I might be able to repair. They were a very fat wheel compared to other mowers, perhaps influenced by the Victa Rotomo wide wheel trend, or vice versa. Only one of the wheels still had the white steel cap. Others are bare. I guess I could make up some wheel caps as they look pretty basic. Just a round disc.
The engine is much older of course, but fits it like a glove. Trick will be finding a blade disc that will fit. I do have a shaft extender here, so I guess I could extend the shaft a bit to cater for a more modern blade disc. The original disc must have been small diameter or had fairly short blades.
I am also now looking for a manual and parts diagrams for the 82-145, but can't seem to find any on here. Would anybody have a copy?
Restos like the ones in Speedy's photos look superb. As Mowerfreak says, they are then too good to use. I've faced that dilemma myself on a few occasions in the past. You do up a mower to the point that it looks showroom then you get people wanting to see you mowing your lawn with it. No way! After spending a huge amount of time and effort piecing these old machines back together, buying the right type of paint, cleaning down every part and painting, I can't bear the thought of getting paint knocked off or getting them dirty again. The wet grass sticks and then you end up with rust forming all over again. I feel hard done by even if a spot of fuel hits the paint and dissolves it. These days with increasing costs of everything, I mainly just restore mowers to working order. Then I can bring them out occasionally and use them for some mowing or showing off to people. The sad fact of the matter is that a fully restored mower that looks showroom generally sells for no more than an untouched one that is still running. I've seen people trying to sell fully restored showroom mowers for prices like $800 but they seldom get a single offer or bid. People prefer to buy working old ones and renovate them for themselves. It is more a matter of personal taste for collectors. There is a lot of fun and satisfaction to be gained in restoring an old machine to pristine condition.
mine is going to be for my mowing. with smoke following me....... I use Rustolium as it doesn't dissolve when paint spilt on it as it is epoxy.... speedy
........................Keep your blades sharp......................
Case in point. I was thinking of buying a Kirby Lausen engine on a Pace mower for "Buy it Now" at $90. But in the short time it took to receive a reply from the seller regarding freight someone else had jumped in and placed a bid. Last time I looked it was up to $435. I never went back.
Thanks speedy, Gives a few engine details. A user manual might turn up on ebad one day. Can't find any online.
Hi Vint_mow, I that a bit mixed up, you have another engine......and that base is a bit different to the old 320 series with height adjusters in a different position. Did you fit your motor to base and a victa disc, just to see if the blade would line up with skirt of base? I don't mean bolt it all together, just put things in place, upside down....... ?
I have a more modern pope base, but pretty rust holes everywhere.. I want to keep it for my other pope engine. speedy
........................Keep your blades sharp......................
Yeah it is going to be a Pope "Bitza". Haha! The shaft is too short but I have an extender that I always knew might come in handy some day. Threaded and double keyed so there will be no way it can come off. That will bring it down to the right length. Blades I tried are a bit long, so I will get some shorter ones with same diameter bolt holes to suit.
Finally freed up the height adjustment on the old base. Could not work out what the problem was for a long time. It would get halfway and no further. By the looks of the way people had been bashing and prizing at it with hammers and pliers, my guess is this was a problem for a long time. All of sudden I realized that a small rivet fastened to the side had come loose and was extending just far enough to get caught on the height adjustment. So I got the grinder and cut off the end of the rivet and it works really easy now. As I said, judging by the amount of old damage on the base from operators trying to adjust the height and getting mad with it, I am guessing this might have been a problem for a very long time.
A bit of panel beating, good work. Is the disc a good fit or will you weld a washer on to get right size? What carb is on it, I forget. I thought it was a 320-04. Mine is ready to assemble. speedy
........................Keep your blades sharp......................
320-01. The blade disc is a nice tight fit, but I'm not sure what sort of boss these had originally. Any ideas on this? Did it even have a boss? The fact that it is such a short shaft and came to me with just 2 washers and a nyloc nut on the shaft, suggests to me that this might have been all it ever had?
Still have wheels to repair on mine. Gradually building up with glue and filler.
