OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Welcome to Outdoorking Forum HELP Area Introductions Pitrack_1 - ACT - Hi all

Hi all,
I must be bit of a glutton for punishment with old equipment as I don't think I've ever owned, or even used, a new mower!

I've joined to find out a bit more about two old mowers I've found, I'll post about those in the "Identification of particular machines" section.

Meanwhile, I've been mowing (and trimming) lawns since I was a kid, for some reason I find it relaxing. I was also the only one who could get the equipment started with any reliability!

A brief history of the main mowing equipment I've used since I was young:

• Rover Princess mower (2-stroke Villiers wind-up). I couldn't wind it all the way (had to see-saw it) and also had to prime the trigger when I was young to be able to start it! The catcher disintegrated early and the safety flap only lowered toa 45 degree angle- great for all the dog bones scattered around...The carby tended to flood when the fuel tap was turned on. I eventually worked out a pattern which pretty much started it first go,e very go. It had little torque and was unsuited to heavy/thick grass, with much better options (as I found out with a B&S 4-stoke later)
• McCulloch "Eager Beaver" 200 whipper snipper. Tough as nails, had for 20 + years. A right B***ard to start at any time. Ended up with a free masport with exactly the same engine (and problems)eventually that died too. If it wasn't for the starting issues they could have run for ever.
• Victa Utility (side exit). My current mower, doesn't see much work in Canberra. It's an oldie, bought refurbished on Ebay from a retired engineer who refurbished them. I believe it's not original as it has an old (points ignition) 3hp B&S mated to a 4-blade flywheel. But it's light, manoevreable and does the job admirably. Might post queries about this one in the future...

Anyway, glad to be here! Now off to compose a thread about two old Victas...

Hello Pitrack_1

A warm welcome to these ODK forums.
I see that HT6 - the resident expert on 1950s-era Victas - has given you
advice on the two machines you have. I hope the Automatic turns out to have
its original engine, as these are highly sought after by collectors.
Both machines are prime candidates for restoration.

For me, the interesting thing was your childhood experiences.
It is common for those experiences to influence a person's disposition
for lawnmowers in later life. It is understandable that you find mowing and
trimming relaxing.

Welcome to OutdoorKing.
-------------------------------------
JACK

Hi Jack,

thank-you for the warm welcome, I'm glad you found my memories interesting! I can see already you've got a great forum community here.

As soon as I get on my main PC I'll post up a pic of the Victa utility.

And yes, HT6's laser eye has already picked things up regarding the old Victa 18s.

One thing I should add is my Victa Utility has a 2-blade, not 4-blade base plate like I stated earlier- I think I was channelling the old Rover Princess! I'll start a thread on the Victa Utility as I have a few questions around it. In the meantime is there any way to edit my previous post to correct it (can't see a button on this forum,there are on other forums I use)?

Many thanks,

Hello Pitrack_1

Yep, I believe there is a very strong link between early experience, and later interest in
certain things,and collecting ...

We are lucky to have HT6, who is, arguably, the No. 1 authority on 1950's Victa Specifications.
I'm sure he will be able to help here.

Your question on editing in this forum is a good one.
I'll have to look into that.

In the meantime:
Help for downloading photos HERE.
I also recommend you start with the 'Active Topics' button when you return.

Hope this helps.
---------------------------
JACK

Hi again Jack,

The 'Active topics' button is actually the first thing I went looking for

As for the downloading photos (actually uploading I think), I usually link off photobucket. That's 'cos I usually edit my pics before uploading them (crop, contrast, resize) and I figure it takes some bandwidth load off the site. But I'll give the button a go due to the 400 px 'thumbnail' (awfully big thumb to have a nail that size!) so I can upload slightly higher res images to photobucket.

Thanks

Well here it is below, my Victa Utility mower. I like it as it's simple, rugged and does the job. Please excuse the unkempt grass, but that's as good as it ever grows in a Canberra winter so I gotta enjoy it!




Cheers,

those utes are as tough as old boots (ozzie made that is!!), Patrack, would be doin it easy in what you call grass there mate... welcome to the forum too.

I'm a big fan of the 18" Victa utilities, i personally have 3 of them, all 2 strokes. I've never seen a 4 stroke on an early model, but that doesn't mean they didn't make them. Yours is a very neat and tidy example of one, especially for a daily driver.
Welcome to the forum.

Hi squizzy and bigted,

Yes squizzy it's not really grass, is it? Even with the small B&S 3 h.p. it manages fine.

Bigted, yes I have a suspicion it may have been re-engined with the B&S. I think it it proportions the mower better however as the two-strokes seem to hang over the edge of the base, especially with the big cowls/petrol tanks. Thanks for the compliment about the condition- I must say I purchased it second-hand from a refurbisher/restorer. He had stripped it back, repainted it, rebushed the axes, put new wheels on, new base plate/flywheel for the blades, new handle knobs and serviced/overhauled the B&S engine which is a points ignition but runs perfectly well. I paid a bit more than may be expected perhaps (fought off someone on EBay) but it's been worth it. The restorer threw in the Masport/McCulloch copy whipper-snipper for free 'cos he said he he was going to throw it out... it did me for about 5 years after I cleaned it out (varnished/gummed up, required new primer, fuel pipe) etc.

I've some more photos which I'll post later but in the meantime I've some new info on the two Victa 18's I posted about so I'll do those first

Cheers,

those ute bases usually rust out across the front, we had one in at work that looked brand new, still had plastic on the handles, but was rusted across the front!!

Well just to show I've been learning something from you guys on here I took another slightly-more-critical-and-trained look around my Victa 4-stroke utility which immediately led to a couple of points of interest (see pic below):

1) The B&S stamped crankcase/base number- 430 - does it mean anything? It's near the oil filler (top-right of pic)

2) The base-engine standoff spacers. I take it this is not a 'normal' arrangement?

I'm guessing point 2) points to a bit of a bitsa of a utility. Mind you if it is a bitsa then with the way it runs and cuts perhaps Victa was missing out on something.



Cheers,

Yep, bitsa for sure, the stamped number is nothing I've ever seen(or noticed) on a B&S engine. Probably a number stamped on by the refurbisher as a way of keeping track of what's been sold for warranty etc.
As for the spacers, nothing uncommon amongst certain manufacturers in order to space up the engine so the blades don't protrude below the lower edge of the base.
If you take a pick of the underside we can see if it has kept the original victa blade setup or something else.

Actually up a closer look at the above pic, i can see that the mower originally had a full crank 2 stroke mounted to it (the presence of metal under the sump and the hole it used to be mounted to) and the 4 stroke was a later fit and had to have the holes drilled out to accommodate it.

Hi bigted,

thanks for the reply. You confirm what I suspected both regarding bitsa engine replacement and spacers. There are also at least one (3 I think) square aperture holes unused if you look further up the thread at the earlier photo- I assumed for engine mounting. Surely not a washout port?

Wonder what happened to the original engine, must've been a write-off...guess no oil in fuel or some such similar disaster. Base must've been in good condition to be salvaged.

Will get an 'under-shot' for you later!

It must be said the replacement blades didn't seem to match/fit when I went to get some replacements and blades were on too tight, this probably explains why. Local mower shop changed them for me, they work fine too

New info regarding refurb stamping but it makes sense. Used to see turbopumps (vacuum pumps on the turbine principle, up to 60000rpm) sent away for overhaul, each time back they'd be stamped with an "X"- Max of 3 "X"s was all, after that it was out!

That base is really odd, the metal under the sump dips down, normally it rises up and the "engine sits on top of the hill".
Looking at the square holes and the lowered engine mount under the sump, i have come up with another theory. The Base if from an electric Victa utility and the square stamped out holes were used to anchor the motor cowl.

Here's 1 I found on another thread, courtesy of ODK member IanOz.


Here's the thread for some light reading
Victa Electric

Hi Bigted,

thanks for that again, some good detective work there. My it's getting to be a real mixed bag! I even had a quick look at Rover utility pics to see if it was just a changed badge (nope).

Cheers,

If it's a Victa Electric base I wonder if the Victa Electric went the way of the Automatic- the bases either got remanufactured into another (petrol) mower or they were sold off/kept as spare parts? The spare parts idea may explain the good condition of the base, but so would a recycled non-used or dead electric!

I do think Victa missed out on something here, a 4-stroke utility would've been good. I've even looked at the new ones online (and decided the old one's better).

The test I have is I ask myself: "given my experience, would I buy it/ buy it again?" If the answer is "yes" (and it is here) then it's good!

Cheers,

Hi Patrick

That's a great question.
I can only offer my thoughts on this.

I think not. The Automatic was just a poor design. The decision
to put an electric motor on a utility base in the 1980s was, in my view,
totally mis-conceived. The future of electric mowers lay in residential
mowers (rear-catcher), rather than utility mowers.

The proof is in the pudding. The electric utility lasted for just a season or so.
The rear-catcher mowers live on to this day.

This utility base was designed for a Victa 2-stroke.
The engine spacers were a cheap way to adapt to the standard c/shaft
4-stroke engines on offer.

All very electric.
-------------------------
Jack

Jack,

by saying "went the way of the Automatic" what I meant was (that's becoming a common saying for me ) the surplus parts were reused in other models. Certainly a electric utility is ill-conceived, the whole point of a utility is portability to mow 'remote' areas, the last place you'd consider power being available let alone being tethered by a cord!

Bigted,

Counted holes today.

There are three square aperture holes plus one round hole on the upper outer ring.

There are three (I think) round holes on the inner sunken ring

There are the three holes in use for the engine mount which (like bigted) I believe have been drilled to mount the engine, in a middle ring area just outside the inner sunken ring. As you can see from the pic below the bolts plus nuts are "normal". Should they be Nyloc?

Also, I don't see any mount holes for the red front 'bumper' and handle in the photo of the electric you've shown?

Underneath/blade photos: Here we go...
(Older photo) from the rear...


From the front...


Mounting bolt/nuts from underneath


Cheers,