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Hi Everyone, my name's Geoff, and I have a couple of Scott Bonnar mowers. Ones about a 14"cut reel mower with a Tucamseh (?) motor that is in need of a lot of work, while the other is a Scott Bonnar Eagle Heavy Duty Gang Mower...only 1 of them from memory, but there may be another 1 or 2 in the paddock I'll be trying to get some help to get the gang reel running properly if there's anyone here who may know anything about them. Look forward to chatting to everyone.

Cheers
Geoff

Hi Geoff, welcome to Outdoorking. You have come to the right place - many of us are interested in reel mowers, especially Scott Bonnars, and we hope you will start threads asking questions and posting pictures of your mowers. I do not recall anyone posting about an Eagle or any other gang mower previously, but very likely Deejay, a dyed-in-the-wool SB man, knows something about them and can find out more. I look forward to hearing more from you, and I especially look forward to you scouring your paddock for collectors' mowers and getting them under cover.

Hi Geoff, and a warm welcome to the forum. It's always nice to have another Scott Bonnar owner on board.
Can you please post some pics of your 14" Scotty and also of the Eagle HD Gang mower, and in the meantime I will do some research on SB Gang mowers.
Once again, Geoff,

Hi Geoff, I have found a couple of pics of the Eagle in action. Still searching for more info...


Please note in the bottom pic, that the set up here is a quad; 2 suspended from the frame in front of the driving wheels of the tractor and 2 trailing. This set up would mow a considerable width of grass, and at some speed, I'd reckon!

Those wheel-drive-only mowers, especially with relatively narrow wheels like that, usually don't do very well on soft or wet ground. It looks dry and hard in both pictures. Most mowing contracts seem to be year-round.

Thanks for the welcomes guys! I doubt if I'm doing the right thing ,b ut I'll just try and post the photo of the gang mower here. Please tell me if this is not right.
Cheers
Geoff

Everything seems to be turning okay, but I haven't worked out how to make the drive engage

Everything worked, Geoff. It looks like an interesting mower, and probably in decent condition. I'll wait for Deejay to come back with some questions and some information. Meanwhile, there are two possibilities: you haven't worked out how to make the drive engage, or it doesn't engage. How is the height adjusted: do those vertical black blocks on the wooden rollers move up and down?

Thanks Grumpy. I haven't worked out how to engage the drive. The wheels are free turning, but the cylinder won't turn quite as freely. When I take off the gear cover or grease pot cover just to the rear of the drive housing, everything looks good. I found a great brochure here: http://museumvictoria.com.au/collec...r-eagle-heavy-duty-gang-mower-circa-1950 and it says something about 3 pawls on each wheel which you use to engage, but I'm buggered if I can see them. Maybe if I take a photo of the wheels or soemthing???

Oh , and yes, they two blocks at the back are for height adjustmnts (I think)

Cheers
Geoff

Geoff, pics of the mechanism are all we can get, unless you'd like to arrange to have the mower itself shipped to each of 4,000 members in turn so they can experiment. The drive, from several angles so we can try to find the external control that operates the pawls, seems to be what we need. From what you said I take it the pawls are all disengaged so the wheels can rotate either forward or backward without affecting the reel. That would be for towing the mower around the property without mowing. There will be another position of some control that lowers the pawls into mesh with the ratchet wheel, so the wheels drive the reel, but either wheel can get ahead of the other wheel without having to skid. Most likely there will be two of these external controls, one on each side of the mower. It wouldn't be those large rotating knobs directly above the reel axle on each side, would it?

No, they are the grease/oil pot filler caps from what I can gather, for the drive gears. I've attached a few more photo's, but I'm really unsure what I'm looking at. Still can't see "pawls" (?) The first is obviously the wheel from the side, and there is a slot or something, and a nut and pin with a threaded end that I've taken out but not sure what it does
This one shows the inside of the wheel and a tab of some kind (part of the pawl?) on a seperate plate that at this stage I haven't been able to move (don't want to do any damage)
This is a closer shot of the slot. It appears to be larger round holes connected by a slot, so I'm starting to think maybe this was wear the pawls went, and connected with the tab on the inside of the wheel. Does that make sense?

Another shot of the tab on the inside

Inside shot of drive housing

Just a photo of the Serial number plate for interest sake

My current guess would be that the driving mechanism might have only had one driving tooth rather than a ratchet wheel. A pawl probably was pivoted in that slot on the wheel. There was perhaps a fulcrum somewhere along the length of the pawl, so when its pivot was moved from one end of that slot to the other, that lowered its opposite end down so it hit the driving tooth and made it rotate. If that is approximately how it worked, that projecting tooth is on a wheel that rotates and drives the gear train that drives the reel. Can you find out whether that projecting tooth is actually on a rotating wheel? If it is, there will be a sizable gear on the same axle as that wheel, inside the housing, driving a pinion on the end of the reel shaft.

All will be revealed! Decided to have a go at opening it up and lo and behold I found the pawls. I think the photos are self explanatory, with the pawls set into the hub of the wheel, and the tab in the early photo being part of the inner casing around the hub. It looks like there was a pull out knob and bolt that went through the slot and was attached to the tab. When this tab was slid to the left, the inner case moved around so the pawls opened out, but I'm assuming now that the springs are missing from the pawls. so that will be fun to try and work out replacements! I've arrowed the holes where I assume there would have been springs to throw the pawls out to engage on the lugs of the inner drive.

Does this sound about right to you grumpy?

Well, obviously those are the pawls that drive the mechanism, and if there are spring-holes, there used to be springs (though they may have been deleted as a production cost saving). I notice that the machined cavities for the pawls are both left and right hand, so the wheels should be interchangeable. I haven't yet grasped how the rotation that causes the pawls to extend and retract works, or how the external bolt came into the picture. I also don't yet know how the reel is driven - there must be some gears somewhere. I notice that the reel has not been sharpened all that often - there's plenty of meat left. It's also good to see the interior greased and in good condition. This item should be restorable without too much agony, as long as the gears etc are there and undamaged. Do you have access to a tractor to tow it?

The tab on the first photos is part of the outer case you can just see on the photo of the pawls. If you look at the outer edge you can see the tab/case, and this is rotated back with pawls closed, and rotated forward to open. It is only rotated the length of the slot in the photo of the outside of the wheel. I'll take more photos tomorrow when I get a chance to pull it down more. The main gearing is in the grease pot that you noticed earlier above the reel, but I'm not sure yet about the drive wheel where the pawls connect. The gears look in fair condition without any tooth loss from what I've been able to see. I have a trctor but I also have a John Deere 6 x 4 Gator that I'm pretty certain will tow it. Really looking forward to trying that!

I agree the Gator should be able to tow a single gang, but tractors are a lot cheaper to maintain. Looking forward to seeing more pics, including the gear train.

Hi Geoff, from my research I believe you have a Scott Bonnar Model 14 Gang mower. Hopefully Bruce can upload a parts manual to the Manuals area which will throw some more light on the inner workings. Parts are still available albeit a trifle expensive.
The reason I suspect it's a Model 14 is the design of the wheel; if you look at the pics I posted above, you will see that the driving wheel assy are different to yours....
We had a triple gang that used to do the fairways when I was playing golf, I know that the greens-keeper could engage the driving mechanism very easily and the gangs would then have the reel engaged and cutting sending a huge rooster tail of grass sky high as he tore down the fairway.....Ahh memories....

The gang mowers in your pics look wider than Geoff's Deejay, as well as having different wheels.

Hi grumpy, I believe that Geoff's mower is a 30" which was the standard single gang. Here is some further info.

See Sizes.

Hi guys, I've attached the photo from the Vic Museum from the link in my earlier post, and the wheels look exactly the same as this, as do the rollers on the rear. I'm assuming then that it is circa. 1950, but I'm unsure whether they were made after this in this style, and for how long. I've not had a chance to work on her today but will hopefully be able to get some done tomorrow, and will certainly be taking as many photos of drive train etc. as I can. Thanks for all your help so far!

The first is a snip of the web page

then a blow up of the front page of the leaflet

and a bit closer for the wheels

Definitely 30" Deejay! Just can't remember if there is another one or two in the paddock. I'll have to go and slash it to see.

Hi Geoff, I have spoken to Bruce this morning and he is having a search to see if he can find a copy of the Scott Bonnar Model 14 parts list....He will upload it to the manuals area of the forum if successful.
Meantime, if you are going to slash this paddock, please take care...snakes are everywhere due to mice and the wet, mate.
Please let us know how you get on...

Thanks Deejay....I'll look forward to hearing from Bruce.

As you can imagine, with our floods of the last few weeks, snakes are not exactly in hiding at the moment! My spitball thrower usually deters them fairly quickly...just gotta keep the silly cattle dogs away from them

Cheers
Geoff

Here is the other SB cylinder mower that was stuck in amongst lots of stuff in the cow shed. I'm assuming by the plate that it's a 45, but don't know anything about them, and I'm unsure as to whether she is restorable or too far gone. Wondering what you think?

Cheers
Geoff.

Not good overall paint etc.

The plate

Reel condition

clutch and drive

Badge on frame

Tucemseh Kirby motor

That Kirby-Lauson HK25 or HK30 is not my favourite engine, but if it doesn't need parts, at least it's durable. The only part that looks badly rusted and is difficult to replace, is the chain cover, and I can't tell how deep the rust is. I notice the reel hasn't been resharpened much, if at all, so there is plenty of meat left. The catcher looks good, which is a rarity.

Let's see what the serious SB people say, but I'd say as a full restoration, it looks easier than some that members here take on and succeed with. On the other hand it would be just about as hard to do a basic tidy-up as a restoration, so it is probably all or nothing,.

Hi Geoff, Your machine is an early 14" Scott Bonnar Model 45 and was manufactured sometime between 1968 and 1974. Unfortunately it is impossible to date the machine accurately as Scott Bonnar did not include a manufacturing date as part of the serial number.
The reason I say it is an early model is that is has the early SB logo on the handle cover, and the screws on the chain case cover are vertical, whereas the later models had horizontal screws...and of course, the Kirby Lauson HK engine which was made under licence for Tecumseh USA. The later SB Model 45 had a 3 HP Briggs and Stratton fitted.

Re your decision to restore, I think you should consider the following;
The machine is all complete and as Grumpy has pointed out, the cylinder reel looks as if its never been sharpened and has lots of 'meat' left.This indicates it may not have done a lot of work.

Although the catcher appears to be not original (maybe homemade?)it is serviceable and second-hand originals can be sourced if you wish.

In my opinion, I think it could be restored very successfully.
To give you some perspective, these machines in their last configuration, were the Rover Model 45 and sold for $1895.00
All parts are still readily available, including chain case covers, even a brand new bare chassis....Replacement decals are now available as well.
We have many Scotty 45 owners active on the forum that will assist you if you decide to restore your machine.

You may consider as the first thing to obtain a Scott Bonnar Model 45 Parts list and User Manual through the "Parts and Manuals" area on the main forum. (Just look a the very first post in any topic on the main forum page for the instructions "How to Access Parts and Manuals) Subscription will be required, but will be invaluable during re-assembly.
Just as an example, here is a link to some pics that were posted by Stu45. He has restored a 17" Scotty and is awaiting a new engine as his Kirby Tecumseh has had its chips! Click HERE
Hoping this is of help,

Wow!! Thanks Deejay and Grumpy.

Afetr reading that it's not a hard decision to make really. Oh well, I best start reading the restoration threads on here and see what I'm up for.

Thanks again.
Geoff

Hi Geoff, glad to see you are considering restoring.This mower once completed, will give you hours of mowing pleasure.

As we have gone "off topic" here in Introductions, I will now close this thread. Can you please post any questions regarding the frame or chassis in the Scott Bonnar Cylinder Mowers topic, and engine issues in the Tecumseh/Kirby area on the main forum.
Thanks mate, and good luck.