OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Engines Questions On Victa Two Stroke Engines Query

Hi Guys,

I Have Just obtained an old victa 160 s lawnmover,which has been residing in a shed for the last ten years,got it home started it up runs like a dream and frankly wipes the floor with the neighbours flymo lol,but, the on/off switch does not work had to pull the spark cable to switch it off.....any advice on how to remedy this inconvenience any suggestion would be greatly appreciated
Thank you ....Jay

Hi Jay, and a warm welcome to the forum. It's great to have you aboard mate!
We are really lucky to have some Victa gurus here who will be able to help you with the prob....to my untrained eye, I suspect it is a problem with the kill switch.

I see you are from Scotland...as is my heritage. I shall have the kilt on this Friday night, I'm off to the Bobby Burns Night; really looking forward to it, as I do each year.

Well I'm off to polish my Ghillie brogues....Once again Jay, to OutdoorKing.

Hi Jay, I thought someone would have jumped in here to give you some advice by now...There is a thread here which may help you...Click HERE and read the posts especially Post # 33774 by Rodeobob, it explains where the wires go in the side of the carby.
Hoping this helps, mate,

I would have offered some help but need to know what engine and carby it has, there are a few variations and all are different.

Hi Joe, you're quite right....it was just a stab in the dark, I was hoping that one of our Victa guys would have asked Jay some questions...
Jay, we need to know some details of your machine eg. model name, number etc. and could you please post some pics of your machine including the carby, throttle control and a couple overall.
We may then give you some advice.

Thanks for all your input guys ,here are a few pics as requested and engine number ,also,when i hit the primer fuel just leaks out im sure im missing something but not sure what ta Jay

I had the same problem wit the G3 carby on my 1972 Super 24. The brass pin at the end of the throttle cable gets jammed with dirt. Spray some Q20 inside so that the pin can move in & out. The ignition then shorts to earth via the throttle cable.

So here we have a G3 carby (not one of my strong points, anyway the pin can get dirty and stiff to move (little brass bit that the throttle cable connects to) that can be cleaned, I would suggest against trying to disassemble it though, the plastic would be getting close to 40 years old and probably getting a little brittle, some compressed air and some sort of lubricating spray may help though.

The pin when you push the throttle to the stop position gets pushed in a little bit to make contact with the brass part that the little black wire (pictured) connects to, if the pin gets stiff in its holder it may no longer make contact.


Alterntaely if that is not the issue the throttle cable may be out of adjustment, not allowing enough pressure be applied to the kill switch. joe.

Also the primer "leaking fuel" is normal for this carby, if it doesnt do that there is something wrong, the primer works on these by overfilliing the fuel bowl to the point where it trickles into the intake pipe and out an overflow on the carb body.

good advice , one of mine had the same problem , didnt dismantle it as too old n brittle just cleaned it and a lot of spray lube to get out more crud and now all good . reeeeealy similar to my orange one but different carb

OK, So the two most common Issues I find that cause this are the kill mechanism, and the throttle cable.

Try cleaning out the throttle assembly, and that may help, as they fill up with muck, and can't connect properly.

However by this age, I usually find the throttle cable itself is not performing at peak, which means it can provide enough movement to give you most of the throttle range, however it just can't give enough pressure to connect the terminals.

I would suggest in this case, cleaning out the cut out very well, and making sure the contacts are clean, then when you want to stop it, apply pressure to the throttle control lever with one hand, while jiggling the throttle cable about 2" from the carby.

If that fails, stick your finger in, and push the kill switch, or the end of the cable (Hook).

As for replacing the cable, that's not always easy, they are no longer in production, so it's about finding stores with stock, or watching eBay.

I'm working on a restoration method for them, involving removing the inner cable, and replacing it with a similar wire, the hard part is replicating the twist at the end.

If all that fails just simply turn the fuel tap off.Once the carby runs dry it will soon stop.

Jay, can you do me a huge favour, can you put up a photo of the "Parts Code" sticker on top of the cap for the air filter canister? It's a blue sticker with a number, and I would love to know that number.

I've never seen a VC-160 "S", nor have I ever read of one, so I'm curios as to if it was one of the export only models.

Hi Mr Davis

I must say im pretty green (excuse the pun lol)to any of this,as i would be at a complete loss without the mountain of knowledge the forum has readily available so i thank everyone for their valued support.
I'm sure this model is an import ,me being in scotland,maybe a presumption on my part but after alot of searchin on the net have still not come up with any information apart from the mention in ur previous post.
Air filter? is that the exhaust?
The only Sticker on the machine is the engine number anything else
has gone bye bye over the years,mores the pity i would have liked a bit more on the machine
Anyway back to the issues lol

It seized so pulled the whole machine apart piece by piece i mean everything,gunk in the float,other than that carby was perfect,piston slightly sheared on one side,thought the piston rings wer fused but only stuck in with all the crap over the years of use so after a complete clean and lube put it all back together
used a 2 stroke oil mix in the fuel and after four pulls it was purring,..music and i was jammin lol.
Now the recoil ignition wont bite when i pull? mmmmm gggrrr

If you put up a photo of the underside of the recoil, we can have a look at the condidtion of the pawls, they may just be dirty/oily, or they may need to be flipped or replaced.

The sticker I'm refering to is on top of the lid to the white cylinder on the handle bars, the one that connects to the carby with a black hose.

Inside this box is the air filter that prevents dirt getting in and destroying your engine.

The sticker is here:

Here are the pics you requested Mr davis





Thank you ..jay

Wow that numbers sounds very familiar.

OK, first, a rather curios point, I was expecting that V-code to be one of the ones listed as Export, but it's not, that is the V code for the first series of VC-Sports!


And on to point two, the pawls don't look too bad to me, but you could see if rotating them helps.

Remove the centre screw, and pull up and out the device with the 2 little springs on it, then rotate the 2 bent rectangular plates under those springs 180 degrees, then re-assemble.

Hi Jay you have me confused now.I know you said it has been sitting in your shed for 10 years,but do you know anything more than that about it's history?.Like do you know where it was before that? Do you know where it was purchased? Did somebody live here in Australia and moved over to Scotland and took it with them? Sorry about the questions it just from our records it should be in Australia as it doesn't have export code on it,but also it's not a common model either.So we are just trying to work out what the different's is.

Hi Blumbly

Iv been told by the previous owner,he bought it from an ex forfar (rural county in scotland ) council employee who purchased it from a local supplier ,shown below,im afraid thats where the breadcrumbs end.


few more issues guys
i feel stupid for asking this,could you please explain the purpose of the air filter and the reason it turns at the top? and can u get into the unit?



One more thing after i replaced the pawls i broke the cord put it all back again and ended up with about a foot of cord still left,it winds back in but not all the way in



thanks jay