Won't putting petrol, even with 25:1 oil mix, just wash away any oil that is left on the bearings? it's a catch 22. You have to start it without oil to get the oil via detonation of the two stroke fuel. Now I'm really confused. At least with the Powertorque, you can pull the starter off and gain access to the bearings with an oil can.
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
Took a look at it yesterday and discovered it has no spark. I have tried a spark plug from a working mower and cleaned the magnet surfaces on the flywheel and ignition module to no avail. Have run a multimeter and got a reading of 6.2 k-olms resistance reading from end of plug lead to both electrodes on the module. Ran it on a spare I found and got 5.95 on both it's electrodes. Does that leave the chip as the culprit?
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
MF not sure what you are testing but the usual thing that fails is the module. What chip are you talking about. When I replace the module on these I fit it on the top side of the plate in the hope air being blown over it can help keep it cool. To test I just hook a module up to the killswitch wire, clip the module to somewhere on the motor and then with the plug out give it a spin to test for spark, and it usually has. I did one yesterday an old cup start, high arch with a G4 carb, full crank that had obviously been sitting for years, had no spark (points condensor not working) I clipped a module onto it, had spark, put a modified carby on it and it started first pull and revved hard while I tried to grab the snorkel to shut it down, because it had no handelbar, snorkel was laying on the ground. I didn't want it to fire up like that because it had been sitting so long, but it now seems to be running fine.
This has electronic ignition with a microchip like the powertorques do. You can see a pop rivet in the flat piece of metal adjacent to the fan on the left hand side. With your finger you can feel the microchip underneath and there's a wire leading to it from the earth wire for the kill switch.
Last edited by Mowerfreak; 01/10/1811:01 PM. Reason: Understand now after re reading.
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
MF I got a sidepull full crank this afternoon with no spark, I put a known good module on it, still no spark, put a good known coil, ( had this coil and module on a running motor yesterday) still no spark, what I think the problem is the magnets seem a bit weak so I will have to swap the flywheels over in the morning, then it must have spark.
Let us know what happens NK. I don't have the luxury of a spare flywheel to experiment with. My old man seems to have thrown away the second mower I was going use for parts, unfortunately.
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
MF I'm on a bit of a mission at the moment going through lots of motors, testing and working out what is worth keeping, barrels and pistons, coils and modules etc have to do another scrap run to the tip shortly. I have a pile of Briggs stuff to dump as well, it just seems to keep building up all the time. Chondas seem to have slowed down so that is a good thing.
Take heart Norm, at least you DO make tip runs on a regular basis. Regular managed disposal is an important factor in keeping your hobby under some sense of control. I imagine a tip run has a therapeutic effect, even if you later realise there are more parts you could have used.
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
MF I can assure you that when it leaves here it is scrap, and I find nothing about it therapeutic, it is just something I have to do so I can bring in more mowers. I'm watching a show on opal hunters waiting to find their next big find, bit like my mower hunts, always waiting to find my next good mower score
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.
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
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.
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
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?
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
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.
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
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?
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!