OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Engines Questions On Victa Two Stroke Engines Victa Charger 1983-84: Not used in 20 Years.

Damn, wishing harder than ever father dear father hadn't dumped my rusty source of side pull Victa spares. Also let another slip by as you know.
Any advice on what to do with a spare working 125/G4 on a knackered base?
BTW, yesterday was given three impact starters (no cups though) and six or seven G3 carbs, two with metal float bowl.

MF I have the same situation nearly every day looking at a number of full crank high arch mowers here. Problem with all these is the petrol tanks that they made to fit in behind the rear section. I got all carried away with cowl a couple of days ago on one with the tank at the front, I wanted to turn the cowl sideways so the motor could go east west with the cowl/starter north/south. All good, cut the side out of the cowl so it could go over the steel fan shroud as they did on the high arch ones, was looking good till I realized that in turning the cowl it put the petrol tank on top of the muffler.
As for your 125 the only thing I would be looking at is trying to pick up a sidethrow slasher base but you may still have redrill the base to get the motor in a north south orientation.
The motor I have to change the flywheel on this morning, I want the base from that (rusted out corner) so that I can cut the center of it out and weld that into a Powertorque sidethrow base so that I can fit a full crank to it just to use up one of the many good running full cranks I have here. If I could work out a way to mount a fuel tank on the cup starter cowls I could use the motors on the standard pressed metal bases. I go to bed at night thinking of ways to solve all these problems, keeps the grey matter spinning..
Just added a pic you can see my problem with it, the tank only clears the muffler by about 5mm.

MF I got spark by swapping the flywheel but still not a brilliant spark for some reason. The motor will go in the scrap pile, I want the center out of the base for another project.

I have been wondering what that cowl would look like mounted that way for decades and you did it! Any more pics from the left side and rear quarter view looking along the left side?
The only way to overcome the fuel tank issue would be to remove the built in tank and install one of those autonomous handle mounted tanks used in professional series mowers.
Interesting suggestions regards spare full cranks.

Ok here you go MF I know you like pics. The 2nd couple of pics are of a PT sidethrow I just converted to a full crank one today. Just need to strip it all down ,sand it back, paint it and put it all together with whatever bits and motor I can find. What you see is all I got with it from the side of the road

You've put a 125 shroud onto a 160! I never knew they could bolt on.
Very seamless welding on that ute base. Why do you set it up as north south though?

MF the reason I set them up north/south is so I can turn the cowl back the way it was meant to be and then I can use up some of these motors I have here from high arch bases that I don't have catchers for. Every one of the catchers I get for those are,broken/cracked/repaired so they just end up in the bin and the good bases go to the scrap. It is a shame but that is the way it goes.
The earlier cup starter ones were set up north/south as per the pic. They turned them 90 degrees when they went to the sidepulls.

Those cup starter side throws are little champions. It's funny to see a PT based one get converted back to these. I actually found a decrepit one on hard rubbish a little while ago. I was going to take it but got put off when I spotted a redback in residence.
My uncle had one of these on his property and another for parts back in 1988.
Ahh, almost forgot, tried the second module despite similar resistance readings with the multimeter and still no spark. I turned the high tension lead tighter into the both modules.

The thing is I can use the PT motors on any of the PT bases I have here,I still have a number of PT's here on high arch bases, but I can fit those to any of the pressed metal bases, I can't do that with the full cranks because even with the east/west full crank cup starters it brings me back to the fuel tank problems. I can sneak around that problem by fitting these motors on utility type bases or on the 24's but repairing the 24's does take a lot of time and I have to do most of that work on the ground because they are too big to get onto the bench.
How are you taking the readings on the modules, I can check some here and see if they are similar? Have you tried a PT module on it?
Redback bah humbug, nothing a stick won't fix,

Negative to trying a PT one. I thought I had pulled one off but I can't find it. I'll have to extract another. The bolt spacing is different though.
Regards readings, I put the negative on the end of the high tension spark plug lead and the positive on each of the electrodes for the kill switch/ timing.
This is based on a YouTube video on testing powertorque modules. They are meant to read in the 9.2 -11k olms range. Is the side pull FC different range to explain my much lower readings of around 6k olms with both my modules?

MF, I have only tested one PT and one FC using the method you describe, the PT measures 8.6 and the FC measures 6.5 but I don't think that is testing the module, that is testing the coil, anyway they are the readings I have. Just because it is on You Tube is a bit like, I read it in the paper so it must be correct

Norm K, it might be the chip. I can't see how the magnet could fail. I might try a flywheel off a working side pull to be sure.
Meanwhile, here's a Victa twin with a difference.

OK you have my attention now MF, is it one of yours and how is the petrol tank fitted? This would solve a lot of my problems with these high arch full cranks although as the grass is getting longer I think I had better get on and build a few more slashers and those full cranks go well on those.

There is no fuel tank, I was just posing the cover on the mower to see how it would look. I presume the tank that comes with these, won't clear the frame (haven't tried it). It's off a high arch with 125 engine I am cosmetically restoring. The cover looks quite good on this!

Yes the tank wont fit, they are a vertical tank that tucked inside the high arch area. Pity, I have looked at fitting a different tank, possibly from a side pull and weld that into the plastic cowl somehow. . Maybe a winter project for next year, too busy at the moment now the grass is starting to grow

You need a shallower tank that will fit under and with a filler neck that lines up with the fuel port on the cover, then use a zip tie through a couple of holes.

No zip ties on my mowers MF, if it doesn't look factory I don't do it. I need to find a pile of utility bases. I saw a NOS one today on ebay but they wanted $140 for it, no wheels or anything else

Here you go MF this will use up one of those high arch full cranks I have here. It was fitted with a Briggs so I had to modify the Briggs plate to fit the full crank. One very interesting thing I found was that Victa was very clever in that they fitted a boss that would take a standard Victa blade carrier and the pulley just fits instead of the carrier. Couldn't believe my luck

Is that an adapter you've made to take the full crank instead of a powertorque or four stroke?
Glad to hear the pulley is a straight on job. A welcome break from the myriad of dramas mowers keep presenting.

It was the existing adapter plate to take the Briggs, I hadn't bothered checking the Powertorque for a fit, my aim is to use up the high arch full crank motors I can't use on anything else, but slasher type bases because of the fuel tank problems. I can use the Powertorques on any of the standard mower bases I have here

MF I couldn't see how to send you a pic using the pm function. Is this the type of base you are looking for, they all look the same to me.This one was sitting on a pile of bases, is it similar to the Mayfair you want? I hate throwing these out but I don't have much choice without catchers for them.

Yep that's pretty much it. The only difference with that moulding is the bit that juts out the front with the Victa label has a slightly different raise to it. The one on mine is more angled, you will notice. I think there are at least three variations of this aspect, but yeah essentially the same base. These were the second tier high arch base or also known as the store brand hi arch. They cannot take the top tier Mustang base thumb latch catchers of the time, but the Mustang type base can take theirs!

This is the only other Mayfair I have at the moment but it is an early one. I haven't looked at this one but I will probably pull the motor off and fit it to a slasher base at some stage. I thought I had sold all of those off a while back, must have missed this one

Right colour wrong base this time. Now to get the two to align.

Hi Norm, just an idea if you are throwing out good alloy Victa bases I don't mind swapping them for good steel bases that are not rusted through,I have
a few that just have a little surface rust on them.

I have a few alloy base mowers that are too far gone and are looking for replacements.

Cheers
Max.

Hi Max, you are welcome to them, not sure what is there but freight would probably be a killer. As for the metal bases, not worth shipping them down here and besides I have piles of them and if they are only worn out around the front axle I weld them up. If they are rusty in the left corner I usually don't bother fixing those. I was planning on pulling all the alloy bases out and test the motors and remove them in the next couple of weeks anyway

Stupid alloy bases. If they don't rust, they crack, wear out and get holes punched in them. They should last forever !!

They should last forever mad!!,
Can't see that being in the interest of any manufacturer, Not too high on their list of " we must look into this"

Hi Norm ,those steel bases are only about half an hour away from your place ,it's not a problem dropping some off, the ones that have rust holes in them I throw
out, the steel bases just need a little paint.

Thanks Norm.

This one is for you Max, that mower the bloke dropped off here today while you were here that wouldn't start. Guess what, no fuel in it, put some fuel in it and it started second pull. Some people should not use mowers