OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums General Discussion Forum Power Equipment...Mishaps and Funny Stuff HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR VICTA MED OR WELL DONE

hey check this out thought everyone might benifit or or have a laugh at this

any way this happend on the 2nd pull from a small fuel leak around the tap it must of pooled a little bit and some exposed coil wires or a crack in spark plug lead arking on the base. on these silly power tourqes they run em underneth the motor right wher the fuel pools i thought id let burn for another 30seconds or so wile i take a pic, hey its only a power tourqe was hardly worth it to begin with it still woke up though

so victa picknick any one

I think I would have been rather concerned about the contents of the fuel tank, especially being so close! To me it just highlights the importance of maintenance, and after all, powertorque's do love to collect grass and debris around the carb area.

Even if you go back to the carburetors with the "flood" button instead of a choke or primer, you always had fuel sloshing around on the base, and usually it had some dried grass to soak into, and on 4 strokes there was usually some oil as well. With the old British engines spitting through wire mesh air filters was also rather common. What was missing was an ignition source close to the base, where the flammable materials accumulated.

The bright idea of putting the ignition system under the crankcase, and simultaneously making the whole powerplant installation as low-profile as possible for appearance reasons, raised the stakes as far as fire risk is concerned: it brought the ignition source close to the flammable material. To operate those machines safely it seems to be essential to clear away the flammable materials frequently, and minimise leakage by replacing the plastic fuel taps as often as necessary. None of this was customary in the old days, so it is a bit surprising that there were not lots of fires as users retrained themselves. Fortunately I think the 2 stroke lawnmower is pretty much a thing of the past, and the risk does not exist with the types of 4 strokes that use suction fuel feed, magneto above the crankcase, and a decent air filter. That just leaves Hondas and other gravity-fuel-feed engines as having a slightly elevated fire risk, but not nearly as high as Powertorques because at least they have the magneto up on top.

How did she turn out though, any 'after' shots?

I can see where the power torque has heightened the risk of this, and to be honest, i have been surprised for a while that there are not more stories.

I have for a long time been a little paranoid with safety in these areas, the other day my main mower sprung a leak from the primer, so i had the fuel cleaned up straight away, and a brand new primer face on the carby.

When i tried again, it was low on fuel, so i topped up, and a little (maybe 20ml) fuel spilled, so I wiped it up, and popped the mower in the sun for 10min while I have a cuppa instead.

I also clean all debris from the mower after use, and remove any excess build up while mowing (this will not be an issue anymore as i no longer live at a place that takes 3.5 - 4 hours to mow) there are a few who say I'm over cautious (i disconnect my spark plug when not in use) but it's never really felt like an inconvenience, so I don't see why not to.

With this one, I imagine she can quite easily be saved in the end, I have seen power torques survive worse!

Medium rare

this was at my old house, still have the mower but half restored and boxed up

Was that one caused by the same problem as the first one Joe, or was it with the Tilt-a-cut?

Nah the one with the tilt a cut wasnt that bad from memory, this one somone had spilt a good cup of fuel when refilling it, while mowing in tall dry grass up she went! Was a mates relatives, I sold them another one to torture.

ha ha ha i sopose yours is well done

just goes to show how carefull you should be around fuel and an ignition source and i recon in most peoples minds they dont worry about it untill the worst has ocoured

Good stuff.


Grumpy, You mention low profile for better looking. And here i was thinking that they did it just for me so i could shove the mower further under all the immobile cars in the yard.


Leaking fuel taps on the Victas are an issue. $6 fixes it.
A little common sense helps too.


I say thats art Joe. It should be on display. Hmmm perhaps with a well written submission i could get an arts grant from the government to produce a series of works entitled 'Tragedy befalls the rotary lawn Mower'

I wanna get a Sanli Beetle and start practicing.

Best to wreck a side valve engine instead if you can, Bob. The Sanli's engine seems to have promise as a decent product, if they can manage to put them together properly or you can fix the things they messed up before it blows up.

Yes it does look like some art should be in a glass case.

here is the base from the same mower, the actual machine is half put back together in boxes

Good work, there Joe, great colour too!....When you rebuild it, you'll have to call it the "Phoenix"....It has risen out of the ashes!!

Cool good work Joe.That looks really good.

Cheers mate, its a bit weathered again now, a quick wire brush and another coat of paint will bring it up again. I used the engine at one stage and took it back off the mower I put it on, surprisingly that ran well with a new carby and cowling.

Yeah I guess engines are made to handle some heat so a little fire won't stop them.