OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Restoring, Customising and Modifying Victa Walk-Behind Rotary Mowers Flap 2

Hi to every one, I have a old Victa mustang,my problem is the catcher wont stay clipped on, i attached 2 photos showing the rear flap on the mower ,the flap comes out of its pocket and lets catcher drop off,on 1 photo i have put a spacer nut on shaft to stop the the rear cover sliding along ,what should be there ,where can i see or get a parts view of this flap help please.

Here are the corresponding parts of my mower. The left upper pivot of the cover looks the same as yours, but there seems to be an issue on the upper right: there seems to be a bolt head or nut where I have a round thing.




However I don't currently see why this would make your catcher fall off. I had problems when I first bought my Victa, with the catcher dropping off. The cause was always that the catcher had not dropped down all the way, to fully engage the vertical ridge on the top of the mower base. If it was not fully engaged, the catcher always fell off in a few feet of mowing.

On my MKII VC160 the item that stops the catcher shaft from sliding is a press on clip on the shaft at the catcher actuating arm, maybe your missing that or it needs to be pressed in further.
I have included a couple of pics of the clip.
If it needs to be adjusted, I would just use a socket that will fit just over the shaft and hit with a hammer to move it along.
Cheers Andy

Howdy, I've come across this problem with these before as well. I've found few causes:

1. The spot welds that hold the flap to the square shaft had let go.
2. The square shaft was bent.
3. The square shaft had rolled the top edge of the flap. (The flap lever should be parrallel with the flap)
All these are easily repaired with the flap off.



4. Too much wear in the alloy housing, which may be the case in yours? I'd be looking at the flap lever where it goes into the alloy as well, there should be part of the lever that serves as a locating bush. I've seen them broken here.

I've found that checking / fixing these points usually work, but in one case, I repositioned the piece of rod on the flap that the catch clips on to. I found that repositioning it the thickness of the rod below the original position, with the flap vertical, was all it needed.

Cheers.

Just to clarify, when you say pocket, what are you reffering to?

Is the flap engaging the latching mechanisim?

Thinking about it some more, without the bushing to hold the RH end of the flap in the correct position, it would allow that end of the flap to sit too far from the mower body, and the way the catch works, from the front with the flap up, wouldn't allow it to engage fully, if at all.

Going by the pic that shows the nut as a spacer, the shaft doesn't look to be central to the alloy boss on the body when you compare it to Grumpy's pic, thats why I'm thinking about the bushing there.

I'm curious to know what is meant by the pocket is too.

And yes, I made a mistake in my earlier post about repositioning the rod, should have been above, not below, it's original position.

Apologies on that one.

The flap wears right where you have got the nut.

The nut is probably too much, i usually put one or two washers in there and you need to file off one side so they will fit up in there.
On that model/type if the door is too far over to the left the edge of the door will not sit in the keeper inside the catcher.

Theres a knack to putting the catcher on one of those.


Is the thumb catch working right? Just flicking the door up with the thumb lever on the RHS should make it snag on the thumb catch. The bump in the leading edge on the catch tab is meant to hook under the bar on the door.