OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Engines Questions On Victa Two Stroke Engines Victa Hawk 2 Storke

good day all,

i picked up a Victa Hawk 2 stroke lawn mower for $20. I did a quick rebuild of carb and replaced the front rubber plunger plate.
Anyways the mower starts really easy and runs well at low speed, but when I crank the throttle to RUN position it revs up and then hunts up and down continually. I would suspect that there is a leaking seal somewhere, but was wondering if anybody has come across this problem before and point me in the right direction. And if it is worthwhile repairing it.
Also noticed when I forgot to turn the fuel tap off and went back to the mower a few hours later the cylinder must have filled up with fuel cause I pulled it over and petrol sprayed out the decompression device. Float problem?

The float, float pivot and needle is plastic and a lot of them never seam to seal perfect, to me it sounds like it is leaning out. To me it sounds as if the brass jet might be partially blocked or the tube where it screws into, I generally blow both with compressed air and try again.

Normally if its one of the O rings it will either rev high or have no power I have found in the past.

Pictures would be fantastic.


Is the Needle in round the right way. Pointy end in, rounded end to float.
And yeah, blocked jet. They can get clagged up with fuel varnish, dried out oil and a combo of both of the above and water.


It hunts, what does it do when you push it into grass and load it up??? Does the govenor work???


Fuel level is everything to jetting.
You replaced the face of the carb. Does it have the right needle in it for the new face??? There are different length/colour needles, if you have a sort needle and it needs a long one the needle wont be able to close off the fuel supply. that will usually get you fuel dribbling out the primer bubble. To check it;

Take the face plate off, assemble it with needle and float, push the float up to closed and eyeball the semi circle at the top of the float against the circular recess in the back side of the face. You need it to be a mm or two lower. If you have a black white or red needle, you might need a longer yellow one. If the needle is too long, you can eyeball the lower radius of the float against the lower edge o-ring of the face plate.
If all you have is the yellow or long needle you can carefully trim bits off the end with a sharp stanley knife to make it shorter. Try and keep it square and round off the corners. Fine sand paper works too.
They are $1 from a mower shop. Generally they have the short black and long yellow ones.



Depending on the exact model, theres a good chance in raised letters on the throttle housing it will say 'turn fuel off after use'

Victa rule number 2. Engine off, fuel tap off.

Rule one is put the oil in the fuel can before you buy the fuel, no matter what, no exceptions. Even if you have to go in the servo and buy the oil first. Its all better than a blowed up mower. If you do that you can look in the can and check to see if there is oil in there, once the petrol is in all bets are off.


A good check is pull the fuel line off the carb let it hang with tap off and see if fuel drips. If it does replace the tap. They either leak like this or they drip fuel from the tap when on. You can buy the taps at bunnings.

Thanks for all the info Rodeobob. I will disassemble the carb again and check everything as you mentioned. I would of thought the guy at lawn mower shop would of given me correct parts, but then again he is not the most helpful person. I did check the tap on the fuel tank and it is not leaking.
I will also get some pics and post them up.

From my expreience guys at mower shops just want to sell you a new mower.


I had a guy try and talk me into a new Masport when I went in to buy some supaswit blades not long back. It was just a place i went past, dropped in on the off chance, he didnt have any and i guess he was in the mood for a sale. lol.
I will just stick to my regular, they dont sell any they just fix them.