OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Collectors Corner Collectors General Discussion Last Full Crank Victa Corvette.

Got this on the cheap on Ebay a couple of months back. I happen to have the right catcher lying around to attach for the photos.
The young lady who sold it wasn't sure if it worked but I took the plunge as it appeared in good original nick.
As it turned out, it sputtered to life after I put fuel in, but not before it leaked some fuel out the primer bulb, which stopped after a few seconds of running. It starts very easily, so I am very thrilled with this purchase.
I'd say this woman inherited it somehow and moved it on.

G'day Mowerfreak,

Reading through the forums I read this title and it reminded of that classic scene from the Mad Max movie "She's the last of the V8's"...lol Classic!

Probably can say that about the old full crank Victa's they are like the "Last of the Victa V8's" for mowing grass! haha!

That mower looks like the big daddy version of my old Victa Commando.

Here's a link to that scene from Mad Max! Cheers!

Hi Converse,
The steel deck on the Commando is a pretty tough base and replacement catchers are dead easy to get a hold of, compared to the thumb latch type on my Corvette, which suffer cracks too easily.
The half crank Powertorque has 7% more power in base form and even more on the higher output versions.
The full crank is supposed to last longer. For longevity, the 125cc is king. The last one of those was about 1977/78.
A twin overhead cam V8? That's Lexus territory. The Windsor in my 92 Fairlane is still pushrod!

Hi Mowerfreak,

Yes I am still learning about these old Victa's thanks to you and some other posts that i've read recently around here I didn't know that you could use catchers from later models on my old mower. I thought it had to be exactly the same shape and style as what I had. So you could imagine how many catchers that I have seen on hard rubbish days that I never grabbed because I thought they wouldn't fit on my mower.

I have only got one spare that I found years ago that's exactly the same as my original catcher but this has the broken and missing front lip section. But for now I managed to fit a catcher patcher to the front of mine and it's working really well, it should be good for a few more years of use again.

I have only ever worked on and have maintained my own old Victa Commando as i've had it since new. I am not familiar with the later powerstroke Victa's or any other mowers in general.

There has been many times when i've thought about buying a new 4 stroke mower. I was looking at getting a new bigger Rover 4 stroke from the Masters hardware store a few years ago. But before I knew it Masters had closed and all the mowers were gone. But when I was looking at all the plastics on those new mowers I really don't think they would hold up against the harsh mowing environment around this place...lol

Speaking of mowers in general, it's probably is the same all over the place these days. I remember many years ago most of the mowers you could hear were mostly good old 2 stroke Victa's everywhere and a few 4 stroke mowers could be heard around the neighbourhood.

These days I am a dinosaur from the past still running my old original Victa 2 stroke to mow the lawns. All the neighbours around here have new 4 stroke mowers. Gees they must love how quiet and clean burning my old Victa is...lol


Oh how times have changed...lol

As for the Mad Max movie, yes the twin overhead cam was a bit over the top. Some movie magic there for sure. I think she was just a good old 351 Cleveland engine in that beast.

Converse, you are not the only one using 2 strokes in Melb, no idea how many I have got back into service over the last few years, I even have a couple of mowing contractors using them, and they swear by their 24's, they love them for certain jobs. Having a beer last night my mate said he was thinking that he should have a second one as a standby machine just incase something broke on the one he has

I was mowing the nature strip the other week with a Powertorque, and the woman that lives in the next street (straight behind but 1 along) walks past with her dog. As when anyone gets close, I put it back to idle, and waited for her to walk past.

She says 'noisy pr*ck' and tries to turn off the engine by smashing the lever downwards. Now we all know that revs it up - it frightened the hell out of her though . Dog almost bolts over busy road.

I wont repeat what I yelled back

Appears that 'music' by Katy Perry, etc with the volume 'up to eleven' at 11:59 at night is fine, but a Victa 2 stroke at 4:30pm is uncouth. Go figure

It was friday, and they had their regular party - so I ran a speaker out and played the greatest hits of David Bowie, Air Supply, Elvis, Blondie, Cold Chisel, Wham and Laura Branigan - I figured they have to dislike one of the above.
Apparently 'Gloria' by Branigan struck a nerve - as about 15 beer bottles were chucked over my fence; mostly onto the awaiting tarpaulin (they have even thrown unprovoked before you see).

I go out of my way to help good neighbors, and I go out of my way to hinder annoying ones

I wish someone would hurl some bottles my way for the 10c refund I take regularly advantage of. And who did that b*** think she is messing with the controls of someone's equipment? She would be ringing the boys in blue first thing if you invaded her personal space. Why is it okay for her?
I guess it pays to have the muffler well baffled these days, as people's ears don't except the noise of a roaring two stroke mower like they used to.
it has gotten to the sad point where the sound of a victa two stroke mower is like seeing a rare Holden, Ford or Valiant, or, in my case, a classic bus sound.
Have you tried playing Hall and Oats on loudspeaker?

You always seem to be able to pick up a really dud neighbor close to you, just the way it is living in close communities.
Tyler, you obviously knew who she was and what she was like, but you you throttled it down so she could walk past, not me I would have increased the revs and kept mowing and hopefully she would have crossed to the other side of the road

G'day NormK, great stuff working on the old Victa 2 strokes and keeping them alive and working mate!

Problem with everything these days it's just easier to throw out the old and buy a new one. Yes most of the 4 strokers around here are probably el cheapo Aldi or K-mart machines. After a few years they probably throw them out then go buy another el cheapo 4 stroker again.

Hey Tyler gees mate that's a bit harsh from your neighbour. Do they mow their lawns? What do they use an electric mower or something? haha! Maybe you can just add a little bit more 2 stroke oil to your fuel when you mow, i'm sure they will love the look and scent of the smoky haze drifting there way on a windy day...lol Just kidding mate!

I think with my old VIcta around here it gets respect because it was here first and i've been here for a long time. Most of the neighbours haven't been here as long as me and their 4 strokers have come along way after my old Victa...lol

Yes if I am mowing the front nature strip and I see a pedestrian or cyclist coming I do stop and bring the mower down to idle until they have past me a fair distance then I slowly rev it up and start again. I usually get a friendly nod or wave as they go past and I nod or wave back. I also get a friendly wave or nod from the postie if he goes past while I am mowing.

I think maybe people that are old enough and remember the good old Victa 2 strokes respect them and don't mind hearing one still in action, it probably brings back memories of times gone by. I think it's probably the younger ones that dislike them the most as they didn't grow up with them around and don't remember them much at all. Also as Mowerfreak said, I think running an old Victa 2 stroke now is a bit like a driving an old classic car or something. Some people respect and admire them and others just loathe and laugh at them.

I swapped with my Postie, he had a Lawn Beetle, I gave him an early Victa full crank I had refurbed , can't remember what catcher it had but anyway he was stoked. Just after that one of our clown neighbors wrote a 2 page letter to Aus Post complaining that he was not delivering their mail or delivering it to the wrong address. He asked me who/what were they and what their problem might be, he said didn't give a [Censored] about letters or them, if it had a number on it it went in their box. As he said he might make the occasional mistake but it wouldn't be too often. Anyway he was transferred to another area. Who could be bothered to write 2 page complaint letter anyway

Hi,

I was interested in the comments on the muffler packing. I have one here that could be a little noisy to some ears. I found i could quieten a bit by squeezing in the output slot. Just a little difficult to know how much to squeeze it. What do you use for packing? How do you put it in and how do you know enough is enough? This muffler is sound though. If I open up that slot you would swear that there is no muffler at all.


Thanks
Jeff

Oh you'd be suprised what some people are capable of NormK.

I won't say much but I used to have a neighbour (thankfully they are no longer neighbours) and I swear these people must have had the following organisations on their phone's speed dial in this order:

1. Local council
2. Police
3. EPA
4. Any other organisation/s you can think of to dob in your neighbours to!

I think you get the picture now...it was a total nightmare for many years. They would ring these all the time for pointless petty reasons just to cause trouble and annoy the neighbours. In the end they got their own medicine and they are no longer around. What a relief!

We don't have the 10c refund on bottles here MF. Hall and Oates would probably work quite well.

Norm, I will be revving it up next time - I only usually mow half throttle as there isn't really any need for it to be going flat out on already short grass. The people who would write 2 page complaint lettters, are the same ones that complain about Holden ads more than companies promoting affairs.

Converse, the woman rents so she has no interest in maintaining her house - the front is slashed with a line trimmer when at knee height. That being said, the bloke across the road rents, and keeps his garden nice (fixed his Masport for him last month).

The elderly man next door used to tell people the ground rules when new people moved in - no noise before 7:30 week days, 9:30 weekends, 1:30 to 2:30 (when he had his afternoon sleep), and between 4:30 and 5 weekdays (when his wife watched bold and beautiful).
And everyone did so. Occasionally he would make noise in these times, and his neighbors would get a ladder and say over the fence 'Peter, your breaking your own rules.' He'd agree, and have a chat, and be quiet until the correct time.

Unfortunately, one afternoon at 1:30 he went for his afternoon sleep, and passed away in his chair.

We still have many good neighbours in our street, but less than 10 years ago

I saw a you tube video on the subject of Victa mufflers. I just got a spare one I had when I had to replace a Power-speak muffler recently. The replacement hardly had any of that metal mesh, so I just pulled the rest out of the old one with needle nose pliers, out of the inward port that goes into the barrel and pushed it all into the other one. I recall I pulled out two lengths of the mesh stuffing from the old one, so the replacement one had about three lots of mesh when I put it on. General rule of thumb is the mesh should easily fill up all the cavity without having to force any more in. Make sure it gets distributed around the sides of the interior and you should be set. It sounded like a different mower afterwards and also eliminated the over revving it was doing.

Has anybody tried putting insulwool in one

Is that a similar material to fibreglass batts? If so, I would be concerned about breathing in any fine fibres it sheds.

MF you could stuff one of these in through the muffler inlet, should quieten it a bit.
/www.ebay.com.au/itm/5-Pieces-Kitchen-Stainless-Steel-Spiral-Scourer-Pot-Scraper-Silver-Y4G6-K3J0/253213330934?

I crammed that stuff on top of the regular packing on a Chinese cast Powertorque. It sounds ok but not extraordinarily quiet. Piston bounces back just
before the motor stops winding down completely. Could excess exhaust restriction as a result of this packing be the reason?

Take the muffler off and see if it still kicks back. I have been checking a few mufflers, some have packing in them others seem to have nothing inside them and they appear in reasonable condition, not burnt out, I think some got packing, others got nothing

Hi NormK,
just bumping this topic because I have another deck I intend to fit the Corvette engine to.

The problem with the powertorque turned out to be a faulty decompression valve. The bounce back upon shutting down stopped after swapping it out with a spare.

Onto the original topic, I recently obtained this deck that's less worn on the left hand side and I gave it a thorough clean and touched up missing paint on the left hand side and front skirt with some pretty close green I got at a panel beaters supply shop.
It's a bit brighter but barely noticeable to the casual observer and looks a lot better than before. You can barely notice the slight wear on the left side now that it's been painted over.

Next I painted the outer edge of the tires with matte black paint to disguise the exposed white plastic from some scrubbing.
The wheels are in otherwise good shape with decent tread (well, visible!) and no missing inner donut inserts.

The deck is in good condition for it's age and now looks very tidy after the clean and touching up. Handle bars well be next.