The base looks good for it's age Speedy as both of my Pope rotary valve mowers will need a small amount of welding done on the bases.
I'd like to get my spare motor going but needs a fair amount of parts so probably cheaper to buy another mower
Once the carby arrives you will just need to adapt a recoil starter to work , If you want the starter a similar size to the original then I would use a Briggs and stratton starter ,just drill the rivets out of the Briggs starter and rivet it to the Pope cowl or make an adaptor plate ,this Pope is getting there.
I used a Sprint 3.75 starter on a Suzuki 2 stroke and it worked fine.
Can your use a late model Tecumseh starter? I have a mini glut of them at the moment. Problem is they are screwed onto the cowl using horizontal screws. You would probably have to cut out part of the cowl it's screwed into and in turn attach that to the Pope.
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
I have heard of people making hub caps for the Pope from flat alloy plate and hammering it to a slight dish if you can't find second hand caps if any are missing.
The front wheel did a runner in the video,I hope the wheel didn't run too far it might get tire-d and I hope the wheel didn't end up on the road with cars going past as the wheel would be exhaust-ed.
The lawn needed mowing and the Pope needed a run......... 18" cut does a better job than and of my mowers........ Hubcap fell off but that's not a major problem...... I only had it mid range revs....... Had to stop as my arm was getting sore pushing it one handed....... maybe I need a go pro.... ha ha ha ha.
speedy
........................Keep your blades sharp......................
These rotary valve Pope mowers have a lot of grunt Speedy ,after I put the electronic ignition on my Pope the running Pope mower will try and spin in a circle if I'm not holding the handle .
Definitely one of the better vintage mowers , if you are after a starter for your mower ,every now and then I see old 4 stroke Clinton powered Pope mowers that no one seems to want, probably because they have no compression and they sell for $10.to $20 but the starter will fit the 2 stroke.Just have to keep a look out in online sales etc.
New Pope Mowers give you that get up and Mow Feeling.
Wish I could do my mowing/slashing one handed... but I do like the physical workout of struggling through the rough stuff with mowers way past their use-by date.
Another option Speedy may be a early sure start alloy housing impulse starter as they are the same bolt pattern, you can use a steel impulse starter but you need one from something like a Victa Mayfair 1965 to 1967.
There are 2 different bolt patterns on the steel impulse starters from 1963.
I saw a Pope motor on gumtree with a starter but I doubt it's worth $80. but if the price drops and you can get postage on the starter it may be an option.
My other Pope has so much compression, I think I'll need a decompressor.... but it should be going soon.
It looks like a 125cc Victa head would fit with the decompressor but would be a lot of work to make the cowl fit and the fuel tank fit over the decomp. The standard Pope should be ok without a decomp.
I'd forgotten that the later Pope 2 strokes have the decompressor standard ,it just has a linkage rod that when the starter rope is drawn out ,the rubber end of the link is in contact with the turning starter and this moves the linkage pushing in the decompressor .
I don't see many original working Pope decompressors ,seen a few where the linkage is missing or the decomp is seized.
