Hi Ironbark, Enfield Club has a weekend planned for the Lake Goldsmith steam rally and they are staying at Linton I believe and a mate of mine lives in Linton and I am planning on bringing up some doors and bonnet for his 56 Customline, just hope I can fit it all in the 6x4
I just had a look at 2 victa parts diagrams from the late 90s and the late 80s and have come up a blank
The late 80s one says the PT vac shares a crankshaft (hence output type) with a PT TAC edger. Looks like a straight drive not taper. Different than the regular motor
The 90s one says they all have the same crank an EN02118A – funnily enough this is the crank that both 80s and 90s manual says all the regular mustangs, commandos, etc have.
Maybe they standardised it in the early 90s, but whats confusing is both list the same part number for the fan impeller - hence same design.
Anyones guess until its torn down
By the way Norm, the newer manual says the super 600 uses a different flywheel – heavier maybe haha
Thanks Max and Tyler, Lots of good info there, if I get time today I will pull the motor off and see what we have here. Tyler, interesting and I would love to know how they fitted a heavier crank in there but I know I have a fix for them by adding 500 grams to the crank nut.. Not sure if I mentioned it with the 24 I built last week, but once I had fitted the F/C to the base and went to fit the decomp hose and took the cowl off and no decomp just a broken spark plug. I had been using this motor on my test mower with the Flintstone wheels and it was an easy starter with no issues starting.I thought low comp and I would have to put rings in it but I was against time as the bloke wanted it for a couple of jobs on the Saturday. Thought I would see if it would start but as you can guess the big kickback, just as bad as any the PT's could give. Put a decomp valve in it and perfect. The property the bloke wanted the 24 for, the owner had died at least 3 years ago and by the look of it probably hadn't been cut for a couple of years before she died. When I first saw the pics of the property I told the bloke he needed a 24, he had no idea what I was talking about but could I get him one in a hurry when I said to him it would get the place all chopped down in half/three quarters of an hour he couldn't believe it. All I could show him was a base and a box of bits a mower I would take the motor off he was staggered. I dropped the 24 off to him at the job on the Sat morning, showed him how to use it and before I had left he had the whole back yard slashed down in 20 minutes as he tapped on his watch. A very happy camper he is, couldn't wipe the smile off his face.
They’re definitely a good thing Norm. I noticed that Briggs discontinued them this month. For the first time in 50 years you can’t buy a new Super 24 or Super 600. Just when I reckon we’ll be needing more local production not less.
I’ve got two full crank motors partially disassembled at the moment; one off a 1972 Super 24 that had the points closed up and one off a 1974 alloy base Special 160 that needed a new flywheel. I’m debating whether I should pull off the cylinders give them a hone and replace rings while I’m down this far.
As soon as they dropped the 2 stroke motor the 24 was doomed, the 4 stroke motors they were putting on them were not a patch on the lightweight and powerful 2 strokes that you can just let rip. RIP the 24, I aim to try and save as many as I can
At least the 24 didn’t suffer the indignity of having one of the sumec chondas put on it.
I think part of the issue with them once the 2 stroke went was top rpm. As its 2:1 drive, although you double the torque you struggle with cut – the blade is just too slow.
A 4 stroke motor is spinning at 3200rpm if lucky – that’s 1600rpm at the disc (unless they changed ratio). I don’t own a 24 but I can’t get a decent cut of anything at 1600rpm
With a 2 stroke, they were going at between 3600 up to 4200 allowable on the FC
Hi Tyler, same old story with the old GP500 2 stroke race bikes, when they banned the 2 strokes they had to up the cc capacity to 1000cc so that the same riders on the same tracks could achieve the same lap times. Sort of tells you something. Anyway vac is stripped down and this one has a bog stock PT motor on it so now I am in a quandry, do I just put a motor on it and sell it as a vac or use the bits for a 24. Tough call now.
Norm, what I would do is post it on gumtree, state that "if anyone wants if for $x, it will be ready in a fortnight and will include the good bag, a newly honed and rebuild Powertorque and a modified carby."
If no one bites, then use it as a 24 parts donor
By the look of that fan disc with the holes on the opposite sides, I think I know what victa did with all the spare 1968-74 blade discs they had in stock (the ones that took the bolts with the big square heads)...
Drill a couple holes, whack a fan blade on and they were set
Hi Tyler, too late, already have it up and running, left the carby alone and as it works I'm not looking for extra work for myself. Another bizare thing is with the pull start, they must have used a special pull starter on these, because it is turned one hole . No problem I thought just turn the one on the motor I was fitting and good to go. Went to pull it but motor locked solid. Pulled the starter off and checked, everything looked ok. put it back on and same thing. Pulled the starter off the original motor and it worked fine and the motor started first pull. Id id think the fan wheel was an old blade carrier but I didn't bother checking it for measurements
That was quick Norm, I suppose it was just a case of pulling a previously checked working PT off the shelf as it was nothing special shaft wise.
Interesting about the starter. I looked in the old manual, but it doesn't really say much - pretty much every PT in there has a number thats slightly different
Hi Tyler, I just pulled the motor off a PT I had sitting here, gets another one off the floor and out of the way. Starter has me stumped. I have never tried moving one around on the holes before. but I will try on another PT and see what happens
I get what you mean now - with a vac you have the pull handle facing the cyl head and up - pretty much 180 deg out. I know the PT tac has a different bit on the starter as they do the same
I did see this Victa Vac on gumtree but have no idea if you can find anyone that wants one ,I still have a Heavycut Vac here with a Honda motor ,it's been sitting in the rain for 3 years.
I've dragged up another 35 mowers from the back yard to scrap I wonder how many I will have to scrap before I notice a difference because I still don't notice any gone. At least I notice all the ride on mowers gone.
Are you seriously scrapping all those 2 strokes Max, I can't bear to see that happen, I won't be able to sleep at night if you do. Just seemed a bit of a shame to scrap the vac, seeing I had enough bits to get it back working, but if all else fails I can scrap it and build up another 24. At the moment I need to get another 20 Victa bases repaired and painted before the weather goes bad but I might be running out of time, starting to get cold now
Most of the Mowers take thumb latch catchers Norm ,the catchers would be worth more than the mowers .
The engines and wheels will be removed as I have a lot a Victa utility mowers ,then the alloy bases can go to scrap alloy.
The steel bases can be dropped off to you. I've tried advertising some ,perfect alloy base running motor with a catcher $20. and no interest. If you have to buy points and condenser it's $28. and module would be $22.
The Victa Vac is worth fixing if you can make some profit from it ,otherwise the wheels and fuel tank can be used on a 24.
I know someone who took a trailer load of 2 stroke Victa motors to the scrap metal yard.
Hi Max, I'm not really interested in the mowers or catchers or wheels (I'm sick of dealing with crappy Victa wheels) I'm interested in motors, particularly F/C's for slashers, but if you are keeping the motors then I can rest easy
G'day Norm, Tyler and all, Some of the PT starters are able to be rotated and others are not. The early type(pic1) with the removable "plastic ring" can be rotated in any of the 3 positions as long as you drill and tap the screw holes to match where you want to screw the ring back on. This allows for the piston to come right through it's stroke at bottom dead centre. The all alloy starters come in two types, the first(pic 2) being able to be rotated 120 degrees from the usual position again because it's got the cut away for clearance at bottom dead centre in 2 locations and the last pic which shows a starter that will only fit in the usual position. I hope this clarifies your starter woes a little.
Ok, having thought about this vac with the PT on it, I think I will scrap it because the wheels and fuel tank are worth far more to me than I would ever get for the unit..Pity but the slashers are more important to me than the vac
I reckon most people now (unless you have flame trees or pies or something that puts out mass amounts of leaves/needles/seedpods) can get away with the smaller vacs.
The echo vacsac was available up to a few years ago and that is a great machine. The problem arises that when briggs took over parts distribution they cheaped out on the replacement impellers. They flog out and strip in as little as 10 mins.
I saw a star products vac at the tip, checked and since the impeller spun freely, figured it wasn't worth the effort. Talked to a mechanic mate and discovered potential fixes, so I went back 3 days later and it was still sitting there.
Same as an echo body wise, but a 1e34f china motor.
Turned out it (unlike echo) has a clutch. Replaced the carby, new throttle lever and fuel lines and it is perfect. Doesn't like big frangipani leaves but good otherwise.
For $20 plus modifying a ryobi bag, it is definitely worth it.
Its a shame that the big victa vacs don't sell, but most commercial operators just see them as a 30 yr old machine.
