OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Engines Questions on Other Engines Help identify this Qualcast Suffolk

Hello everyone,
After always wanting a cylinder mower I finally managed to score a nice Rover 45 for home use and stumbled across this site to learn more, it's awesome.
I've always wanted to do a restore and I bought this mower for $30.
I think its a Suffolk Punch but I am not really sure.
The Qualcast starts and runs well.
A couple of questions
Can anyone confirm the model an perhaps it's rough date of manufacture?
Is the clutch cable an add on?
Are there enough supply of parts to restore this beast or should I put a new motor on it?

Regards
Bill

Not sure how you computer whizzes get your images on your posts, hope you can see mine. I uploaded them to the gallery first.

Cheers

Bill, the simple and effective way to add images to a post is to use the fifth icon from the left, in the row right above where you type. It looks like the top of a spray can with a blue arrow pointing upward.

The instructions for posting pics using our Inline Uploader can be found HERE
Hoping this helps,

Thanks Grumpy and Deejay, I'll get there.
Cheers

Hi All,

It looks like a Suffolk Punch and could be a Suffolk Super Punch.The Suffolk Punch was introduced in 1954 and continued in production for quite a while. The presence of the handlebar fuel tank appears to be a bit odd as most of the Punches that I have seen have an engine mounted fuel tank. Looking at the exhaust I would say that it is probably pre 1965.

Cheers,

Sir Chook

Hello

This is a bit of a mix up . It is a Suffolk Punch 17 I believe,and a 1F engine was the first of the 98 cc iron version which has extra cylinder head bolts. Clutch cable is an add on. As you say most had the fuel tank on the engine but I cant see the holes for fixing. The fuel tank fitted I don't recognise at all. They were sound mowers- also made as Punch Professional with 10 blade reel, shaver bottom blade and steel front roll.
Think the exhaust is a Briggs type copy and I would date this as sometime between 1967 and 1976

Hello midget98, Sir Chook and all,

Thanks for that info midget98.

It may be that, under the Qualcast Group, this machine may have been branded as a Qualcast,
rather than a Suffolk (in later years). This may explain the handle-mounted tank, rather than the
engine-mounted tank, as midget98 and Sir Chook have observed.

In any case, the tank is not original even if the fixture point is.
If a Colt, the tank was added after the horse bolted

I can identify the fuel tank as an add-on - from a Kirby 4-stroke.



It may be that these handle-mounted tanks suffered from corrosion or age.
Here's one (another model) that has a replacement metal Victa tank replaced by a plastic Victa tank (I think).
That's desperation...




All very interesting.
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JACK.