OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Walk Behind Lawn Mower Frames Victa Lawn Mower Frames Power plus self propelled and the 283 cent Mustang

Ive got this sad old thing, had it for a while.




looks like all the important bits are there so the intention was to fix it up and get it back in service with my mates mum. She reckons shes getting on and its getting hard to push her mower.
Only thing im not sure on is that the back wheels lock up and drag if you pull it backwards.

Snagged this mustang series 80 on eBay. $2.83
Inital thought was to do what Grumpy did with his 99c mower. Put a used carb diaphragm cover and spring on it and a good used spark plug boot as the one on it was split. The tank had no fuel or even oil residue in it, had the plastic bung and nut type fitting in the bottom so i tightened it up, what a pain, the fitting is in a recess in the bottom of the tank.
Fresh fuel and away it goes. Have to be the cleanest running Victa ive ever heard.
With the cover off i gave it a wash.
The catcher is pretty trashed but i might be able to do something with it.



Even the blades are good.


When i got the cover off i found all this stuff.


This came off a motor i stripped.
Looks to me like the self drive on this type of base uses the same crank as what every series 80 motor has.



So the question would be, do i have a go at opening up the green base and loading the diff etc into it?

Or should i put the motor off the green base on it and just whack one of the black covers on it??

I would sugest, if the moter is happy to go onto the self proppelled base, then move it across, looks to me like you are right about the crank length.

Any series 80 cover that does not bolt to the base should do, or you could always use the white cover as a guide and make the little square holes to plug the grommets into.

With the diff, the only time my wheels lock up in reverse is when the cable is engaged (mine is the MKI Though) as the effort to pull the engine cannot be generated, but when its released the clutch in the gear box just lets it roll (a little heavy though, you can feel it) so maybe your clutch has jammed, and the gearbox it trying to turn the engine (this would not happen when going forward, even when jammed, due to the overrun clutches in the wheels) it could be the box lever, or cable or it could be inside the diff.

I'll have a look at the MKII diff on my Power Plus (no belt) and see if i can work anything out there about the locking.

Cheers, thanks for the info.
Suppose i should check out the diff and all that first.

The black cover on the right (bottle nose one) has never had a zip starter in it. Must have been on a series 80 from day one. Could use it.

Or the other black one next to it, just remove the zip mechanisim out of it. Its the one it should have if its a power plus isnt it?? Its got "Victa 2 stroke power" on it. Its a bit chewed where the cord pulls out.

I have seen that done, a couple of series 70 were still in production in 1980 after the release of the series 80 engine, these were mostly for basic utility's and "By Victa" mowers, which they ran this cover and for the base level series 80's they put it on with a plug in the starter hole.

The series 70 Power Plus was actually a black version of the VC-Sports cowls:


And the series 80 is the same as your mustang shown here, but grey where the mustang is black, and black where it is white:

Here, i think yours would be the Modified MKII Gearbox, came out a little later with the collar behind the clutch lever return spring, and a new overrun clutch type in the wheels.



If this does not match yours i will put up the other one, i am currently scanning what i have in the library and sending it to Bruce for the manuals section, i will make sure to get my section on the drive systems that this is from across soon.

Thanks for that, should be handy.


I think i might just put the white Mustang series 80 cowl on it then. Its got the tank with it so all i need is the metal support bracket, should have one in a box somewhere.