OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Engines Questions on Other Engines Victa Mower with a Tecumseh Engine! - slow speed

I have fixed up a few of these and have found made it Italy on them.

Mark you are correct about the made it Italy - Well at least for mine!
I picked up the o rings from the local Stihl shop today and they seem pretty close to spot on.
Bigted mine is mounted on what looks like a standard Victa base. I have only ever seen these engines on Masport bases before and the ones I find are so stuffed it just wasn�t worth my time even getting them for parts.
I have included a photo below to help others through the process of the carburettor dismantled. Once everything is re-assembled I�ll let you know how it goes!

Hi Grumpy, now you got me thinking, hmmm, the vantage 38 I was thinking of was one of those as found on the victa's from about 94-96. I thought Joe may have had one of those and Pete's being one of the italian ones(see pics above) and assumed it was a prisma 37, but now that i think about it, it could be a vantage 35.
i've also done a search for literature in the past and unfotunately the numbers give you nothing. I'll look a little deeper and get back with anything i might find.

Mines definately a prisma 35, my model number is different where his starts with VAN mine starts with PRI. I have got one of the centura series that Grumpy spoke of, its phisically much bigger and 5hp with a paper air filter element. Once again the centura is somehat of a disappointing engine to work on also. The carb systems on tecumsehs were their main failure point....

Well I replaced the bottom o ring on the emulsifier and it now revs right up to a good speed however after about 2-3 seconds it dies...... However it idles beautiful and smooth.

Note the top o ring on the emulsifier was all good.

Any suggestions guys? I'm a bit perplexed how it idles nice but won't go full speed. Fuel restriction maybe but the test earlier was ok......

Thanks
Peter

G'day Jaffa,

What I have done before is:
start the engine, when you hear it about to die, start pumping the fuel primer to manually supply fuel.

If the engine keeps running, then you definitely know its a fuel issue.

Peter, I agree with Mark of course, but I'd also try the choke if it has one - primers don't always work as expected when the engine is running.

I don't know where this engine was made , there is a manual on ebay called Haynes Techbook small engine repair and it has a far bit of imformation on Seares craftsman and Tecumseh, maintenance,repair and trouble shooting.
Has a lot about specs in the back part of it. Most I've seen about tecumseh in a manual .

Rob, you can get a free download of the Tecumseh Technician's Handbook for side valve engines from 3 to 11 hp from here:
http://www.asos1.com/tecumseh4hp/Tecumseh.pdf

That is the one I use when I give Tecumseh engine information. However it does not cover the Italian engines Tecumseh sold.

Downloaded thank you. My last tecumseh fixup, a tv 115 on a strong craftsman alloy base,

It's all looking clean, straight and tidy. My view of Tecumseh engines is such that I won't comment further. (I've got nothing against Peerless transmissions so far, though. They are separate now in any case - Peerless was sold to Husqvarna in 2007, when the engine business closed.)

Thanks for the advice guys.

I managed to get this engine going after receiving some pretty specialist advise from Bigted about the bowl nut/jet)!

I removed the bowl nut/jet and noticed the small hole above the thread (its very very tiny and was blocked up). I used my newly purchased jet drills to clean the main hole down the centre of the jet as well and the two slighting larger holes on the sides. Quite a bit of black gunk came out despite me having already blasted it with carb cleaner and compressed air. After putting everything back together it started on the first pull.

To avoid p*ssing my neighbours off I took it down the back of my suburb to do some tuning on the idle and full speed. After a few minutes playing around the engine now idled perfectly and full speed was very smooth and quiet I might add! I don�t have a tacho to take the exact measurement however I am confident the mower is not over-reving when comparing it to other 4 strokes I have worked on.

The mower got a good test mowing some reasonably long grass for my standard 20 minute test time and it performed beautifully. I stopped and started the engine on several occasions and it continued to run spot on.

I am pretty sure this mower has done bugger all work as it just about looks brand new (Well I did just wash it). I want to give it one more test, then it can move onto a new home.

Rob, That�s a nice looking mower. I like the good strong alloy bases. A acquired an old Electrolux very similar to that with a 5hp briggs from a guy that bought a mower from me on the weekend! It should also be a good runner as well!

Grumpy, Bigted & Mark thanks for your help. This mower lives to see another day!