OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Finding and Swapping Tip & Curb Side Finds Mustang 80 Series.

Picked this one up a few weeks ago and now I have no idea on what to do with it.I mean I think it is the second Victa Mustang after the VC was dropped.As this is an 80 series dating it is virtually impossible as the engine numbers were more just serial numbers.


Dress cowl has only two broken fins but are still there and could easily be fixed.

I haven't even cleaned it up yet.It would clean up well.Handles are a little rusty though.

I did have two of these before leaving Canberra but neither was in as good a shape as this one is. I just don't know what to do with it.I did fix the spark problem and cleaned the carby.All I have to do now is clean the tank out and I believe it will.
I guess the big question is do I wreck it out or clean it up?
Any thought would be great,I've never been stuck in deciding before this is new to me and I don't like it.

Seeing as it's in pretty good nick, I'd personally give it a pressure wash and wire wheel the rusty bits.. (about a half hours work)

I myself am personally not a big fan of this style of Mustang.. But that's just me..

Kori

No well neither I am.I pretty much cut off my collection at the 80's.Of course if I got a Vortex then that would stay,but I guess as that really brought the change of engines.Anyway still just don't know.

Well then Mate,
It's up to you.. If I don't like a mower.. I Usually just do the basics on it and flog it for a quick $30-$50 and that's the end of it... I mean, Heck.. At least you aren't parting it out or scrapping it..

Kori

Actually, there is light that can be gained from the serial, it is possible it may fall into the single digit denomination era, but the date will still be there.

Further, it's the Series 80 'Pre-Run' a group of series 70 MKIV engines with series 80's stickers, which was an advertising decision, not a technical one.

I'm guessing it will show to be about 1979.

A clean up, a little adjustment, and you might just pull 100 or so on ebay as an "in use" mower.

What is the serial?

OK this got confusing two similar conversions mucked me up.
No the engine doesn't have anything to link to a year.
Number is: 359 006036
Also the other one I have (Green cowl Mustang) engine number is different again.I have a funny feeling it is also a 1980's model.
Number is: 139616
Again I can't see a link to a year.Unless it's something like how tyres are dated,like this.Week 13 Year 9. Which I guess could mean April 1979,but I have no idea if that's what was done.I'm just guessing,would be good if that's how it is.

It is 1979.

From what I have worked out about this era of serials...

the 13 and the 35 are designators, I believe for manufacture plant, followed by the year (9) then the serial, some plants using lead zero's, others not.

OK is that what you found or is that documented ?
Just would be nice to be true as that was the year I thought they would be.

Well I think that may have solved my problem. Decided I would at least see if I could get it running. Well that was a bad idea. First thing I noticed accelerator cable seized with rust. So I thought oh no,checked carby full of water. Bugger just pulled the head off. Cylinder full of water. Surprising though no rust in the bore a good hone and it would be great. Then checked the crank. Bottom bearing seized rock solid upper bearing turns but is rough. Top bearing very tight does turn but doesn't want to. Conrod bearing seems to be ok. Broke the top ring as it was very very stuck in grove.
So now I'm more at a loss. Do I spend that much time to fix it? Not even sure I have a spare cable.
Is this in anyway a collectible mower?
Does it hold some of the history in the Mustang range?
Is it worth keeping in my collection?
Any comment would be great as I really don't know. This is the first mower I've ever had that I don't know what to do with it.

Good morning Jeffrey,
I hope you had a good day yesterday for your birthday, mate.
With this machine, I feel that it all depends on the amount of time you wish to spend on it. It may be that this machine will be an important part of the Victa Mustang timeline at some time in the future, but this particular machine, may not be worth your valuable time fixing it.

My advice is, if you don't feel like repairing it, why not reduce it to serviceable parts..(eg. all the good bits) dress cowl, cylinder head, etc, and build up your spares cache....in the hope you may find one in future in better condition, that may be a future restore project.

Yes thanks Darryl it was a good day. Hmm this is a difficult problem for me as I do have enough bits to rebuild this engine. I guess what makes it harder is I have a VC-Mustng which could use the cylinder. Maybe I just need to remember why I got this one. I orignally got it for spares,but when I went over it I found that it was in great physical condition. Looked like it hasn't seen a lot of use,just has been left out in the whether. I mean if everything was rough I'd part it out,but it is great condition.
What would help I guess is whether it is or was the 1st,2nd or even part of the first run of Mustang once the VC was dropped. I'm not sure anyone has found or has that information. If it was proven to be one of those then yes I'll fix it for sure. I guess that's where I'm stuck. It doesn't help that I'm almost out of spare engines and can't find any series 70's G4 mowers to part out.

The serial number is indeed the indicator Jeffrey, I have confirmed this in recent months.

It does hold significance to the mustang range, it was the last mustang to carry the 1970's 'Classic' mustang look, after this machine Victa swapped over to the actual Series 80 engine, with geared side starter.

In the line up for mustang you have:

MKI: 1973-1974 (Series 70 MKIII Engine) [V135]Available in Green or Red
MKII: 1974-1978 (Series 70 MKIV Engine) [V206]Carby is backwards
MKIII: 1978-1980 (Series 70 MKIV Engine) [WA 174 A8] Carb Forwards Marked S80

I think your mixing up VC-Mustangs with Mustangs.

The VC is nothing more than a sticker, in reality, they are the same machine, Just as the Auto drive went from "VC-160 Auto Drive" to "VC Auto Drive" and then to "Auto Drive" without technically changing design.

This machine is much closer to the 'VC-Mustang' than the MKIII VC-125 is to the MKI & MKII VC-125's, yet we still consider the VC-125 MKIII part of the VC-125 family.

For a more accurate description, "VC-Mustang" was one of the labels used on the "Series 70 Mustang" range.

And in all technicallity, this fits into both the VC-Mustang and Series 70 Families, as apart from stickers chosen by Victa's Marketing devision, it has a series 70 MKIV engine, and the Body, Function and Styling of the VC-Mustang Range.

It counts as part of the first generation of mustangs, the second being the actual series 80's (Gear Start) and the third being powetorque mustangs (which variate in style from the vortex look to the flat top, and modern mustangs)

You could split up the third generation, into maybe vortex, flat top and modern (excluding 4st) but thats a touch off topic.

So really, it's all one family of mustangs from 1973 to 1980, as the design essentually did not change during this period, slight modifications were made to the appearance but only in relation to the carby, slight changes were made to the engine, but you can still swap the cranks, cases, mufflers, starters etc without issue, as it is essentually the same engine except for carby, inlet port and magneto.

Hmm ok. No sorry I have to disagree there. They are not the same as a VC-Mustang just with the VC dropped. The bases are a similar shape but the are in fact different by having the auto drive cast in it,as well as a moulded piece under the engine to allow air to flow off the cutting disc and under the engine to help with cooling. Also once the engine is apart you can see different shape of the crank and different castings on it and other parts. Crank cases are also slightly different in casting. The head has added bits as well as numbers that corrispond to the engine number. I think I know what your trying to say but to say they are the same I strongly disagree.
Just to add the styling of the engine is typical of a series 80. So I guess that's why they gave it the series 80 sticker,even if it was from 1979. It could have been the start of the new era.

I mean we still consider all the auto-drive's part of the same family, not technically identical.

For marketing the sticker was S80, hoever even Victa's own data from the era and later referre's to it as series 70.

I'm sorry Ty you have lost me now. We seem to be talking about 16 different mowers now. If you want me to look at theses mowers as excatly the same as the VC-mustang then sorry I can't as they are different.
All I really wanted was to work out whether this one is worth basically rebuilding the engine and get going again. I wasn't trying to compare to the others. I have it apart and I can see they are different,but is it worth it.
Where these two (green cowl & white cowl) really the first two after the VC-Mustang?
Where they relished at the same time as the same model just with two different colours?
Or we're they two different models?
Is it in any way part of the history with the Mustang?
Does anybody have any documents to surpport these models?
That's what I was looking for not comparing. They are there own model,but how and where do they fit in the big picture.

OK Ty and or ODK members I have another question which has come from seeing an 1980's sales brochure and I'm hoping you or anybody might know.Which kind of makes more sense to me now.
Now we worked out my two Mustangs were made in 1979,so.
This Mustang pictured below.


Could this one have been the 1979 model,as I have had a few of these marked series 70,and.
This Mustang pictured below.


Could this have been the 1980 model,as I have also only seen them with a series 80 sticker.Also have seen it in a 1980 sales brochure.
Could this be the real story,I mean yes it could have been made in 1979 but made for the new year.A bit like now if you went and bought a new car most likely it would be made last year,sold as new,which it is.Know what I mean,I don't think that last line was exactly what I was trying to say.
If this be true then fix it I will.

That would make sense, and show further why the engine was labledd "Series 80" when it really was not.

Marketing did not want to go into the 80's with an engine named for the 70's, while the design team was not about to chuck out a new design of engine to fill a gap of about 6 months before the launch of the actual S80 units.

Hey, we still have some old mowers, new stickers anyone?

I'll see if I can have a better look at the one with the green cowl and see if the casting is different.That maybe a clue.If only that theory could be proven as it does make a lot of sense.

Even if the casting has some slight differences, it still holds up, even the VC-160 MKIII had differences in casting for both base and cowl depending on which line the cast was done.

No I was referring to crankcase.The crankcases are completely different.I had a look but couldn't see I will have to pull the cowl off to see.

Hmm...now you have me curious, perhaps a few photo's of these crankcase differences?

I sure can I forgot to take photos of when I had it apart,but I'll point out the different parts. As I have finished fixing and putting the bottom end together. I just have to hone the bore finish cleaning the head and piston and put it back together. I will take some photos to show you the different's. Also I still haven't looked at whether the green cowled one has the 70 or 80's style crankcase. I'll get it done some time this week. Pictures I mean.

OK I finally pulled my finger out of my bum and did the work that was needed to be done.
This was the result:





You can also see first one here,

and second one here,

Now it appears that I could have been right with what I was saying that the one with the green cowl was the model that came after the last VC-Mustang.Which would have ran from 1978 - 1980.When the white cowl which was marked as a series 80 from 1980 to 1982 until this mustang cam out.Like this one on eBay at the moment.


I hopefully can show you some documents to prove this theory however the date's will be a little harder,but I'm on the job and looking for this information.
It's not really my era but I still would like to know.
If anybody has some information about this please add to this topic.

OK just to show you how I do believe that the green cowled version was from 1978 to 1980 and the white cowled Mustang followed in 1980.
Here is the green cowled one from a 1978 sales brochure.

Here is the one with a white cowl in a series 80's sales brochure.It was on eBay but unfortunately I forgot to bid on it (so I missed out),but as you can see it is from a series 80 brochure.

It's not the greatest picture but you can see that the cowl isn't the same colour as the base or catcher.
OH yes thanks Bruce for fixing up the YouTube links as well.

That series 80 brochure would be from somewhere mid 1979 to mid 1980, as mid 1980 saw the introduction of the actual series 80 engine (side starter) I think this was around October.

So yours would be the second series (Or version) of the Mustang after the VC was dropped from the range.Now without knowing your engine number it would be a little harder to date.However if it was to be the same as mine,mine was build in 1979 but wasn't sold until 1980 as the new Series 80's range.
Not to sure about your carby cap it could have been changed or it may well be the original as they did change to that style during the 1980's.
It is know as a full crank as they are using a full crank.
Crank is like the one pictured here.I guess there called a full crank as where the conrod connects there is a balance weight top and bottom and the top connects to the flyweel and the bottom connects to the cutting disc.

A powertoroque engine does not have that,are not know as full crank engines.Sorry don't have a picture of that.
Engine number is on the bottom part of the crankcase opposite of the cylinder,like this.

Post your engine number up if you like and I'll try and date it for you.
Here is some other pictures of what the engine looks like.

Couldn't fathom the reason to drop the balance weights unless to cut costs...