OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Finding and Swapping Tip & Curb Side Finds My Victa And Some Hard Rubbish Finds

G'day everyone,

I thought I should post some pics of the Victa's that I have found on some hard rubbish finds from around 10 years ago here in Melbourne.

The green full crank Victa Commando i've had since new and is my pride and joy, I also have it pictured as my avatar on these forums. It's my everyday workhorse for mowing all the lawns around here. I have worked on it quite a few times over the years. The only main issue it ever had was about 10 years ago or so when it used to get hot like after maybe 30 minutes of mowing, it used to stall. I had rebuilt the carby, changed the decompressor etc. But it would still stall when it got hot. It wouldn't start again until it cooled down. The one thing I didn't change was the electronic module as some people say this can cause problems. Anyway I had the engine rebuilt by a mower shop because I thought that the engine was then about 27 years old and it may be tired and worn out and it needed a freshen up. After I rebuilt the engine I put all the mower back together again and I still used the original electronic module which it still has now and it has never stalled ever again. Now it's as good as gold and will run all day with no problems and never miss a beat. As long as it's got fuel it will mow all day long with no problems. Awesome lawnmower!

I found the Victa VC160 around 10 years ago on a hard rubbish find. This mower I did some work on back then I had the engine rebuilt by a mower shop and I rebuilt the carby back then. I also got a new set of points and condensor and I changed and fitted all of them and it was a good runner. I do also have a good condition catcher for it but it's buried somewhere in the shed for the time being. I think I put this mower aside for one because it's rare and in pretty good condition. Also the snorkel has broken and cracked and I didn't want to run it and destroy the engine. Also I knew that if I used this for everyday mowing around here the catcher lip wouldn't last long at all and I wanted to keep it all in good condition.

Now sadly for the Victa Craftsman powertorque the steel base and rear flap have rusted out bigtime. I pulled this out from where it was sitting for 10 years or so, damn I thought there was enough cover from the weather there but I guess not. When I found this on a hard rubbish find about 10 years ago I got it home and it started up easy and seemed to run ok, was reving a bit fast but it was running. Sadly now the engine has seized and even the bottom crankshaft bolt/nut has all rusted and peices are falling off everywhere. After reading about these things on here I thought i'd drag it out and see if it still runs. Oh well I took some photos of what I can from this mower and it's decals while I still can for people to check them out and for memories.

The Victa Craftsman powertorque also has some Victa service centre stickers on it and a noise level decal on the handle which I took pictures of and also added them here.

I can only add up to 10 photos with this post, so I will post the remaining pictures of the Victa Craftsman powertorque in the next post.

Cheers everyone!

G'day again here's the remaining photo's of the Victa Craftsman powertorque.

Cheers!

Hi Converse, Craftsman base looks fine to me I can't see where it has rusted, if it is just surface rust it is no big deal. As for the motor are you sure it is siezed, have you tried turning the blade carrier. Is it just the pull start that has siezed. Only place water can get into these is down the snorkel or maybe in through the exhaust.Easy enough to pick up a PT off ebay or Gumtree for $10/$15 often with a rusted out (I mean big holes in it) base and just swap the motor over and it is ready to go again. Tornado is the only PT you need to be aware of as it has a longer shaft. Bit of paint on this one and it will look like new again

They clean up pretty well with a bit of elbow grease and paint. Here is a couple I have just done. Both were in a similar condition to yours

Hi NormK,

Gees mate those mowers you have there look great! Good stuff!

On my powertorque, the underside is really rusted out alot, peices of the steel deck are falling off everywhere. Even the nut that holds the bottom blade carrier has rusted and it's breaking away, thread is also rusted and probably not repairable. Also the rear flap the right side hinge has rusted and broken away. Yes I tried to turn the blade carrier from the bottom and nope it's seized right up. It might need a decent knock or blow with a hammer or something to see if it moves again but I think it's too far gone to really bother getting it going again.

What I might do though if I ever see any again thrown on hard rubbish I might try and grab another one that's in better condition than this one.

Cheers!

You can tell very quickly if it is siezed up, remove the pull start and if that is ok, hang onto it they are worth more than the mower. I see on ebay all the time where people have pulled the starter off a good motor because they can sell it for more than they can get for a complete motor, makes me cry seeing them destroyed like that. If the motor is rusted, remove all the good bits,coil, ignition module carby etc. This may be difficult for you to get the blade carrier off but depending on where in Melb you are I can get it off in seconds for you if you brought it here. Keep watching hard rubbish they are still ending up there.

Thanks for all the help NormK,

Yes I remember using the starter cord when I picked it up and it worked fine. What's good about this mower is it looks like the handles, throttle control lever/air filter housing, and the steel base height adjuster all look very similar to what's on my older full crank Victa. So at least I have some spares that if I had to I could use from this mower on my other mower.

I might try and see if I can get the motor to turn again on the powertorque, if it doesn't I think I will just put it back into storage with some better weather covering for a later date.

Cheers!

If the base is as bad as you say and the motor is seized then why keep it taking up space, strip off the good bits and put them in a box out of the way. Wheels and carby bits will fit the F/C

G'day NormK,

Some good news on the old powertorque, I managed to unseize the engine! Here's what I did.

First I removed the spark plug, then I just tried to hit the side of the blade carrier with a brick but it didn't budge.

Then I sprayed a fair amount of WD-40 into the spark plug hole and I also sprayed a bit underneath where the engine turns near the blade carrier.

Then I tried again this time I clamped some vice grips to one side of the blade carrier for some extra leverage to hold onto and I hit the other side again pretty hard with a brick and whilst using the brick and putting some force with my hand on the other side with the vice grips, the crank started to move just a little bit, maybe about 10 to 20 mm. Then I thought now i'll try the vice grips on the other side and turn it the other way. Bloody ripper, was slow to get it turning at the start but now it's free and seems like it's ok!

The pull starter still works great, I put the spark plug wire on the spark plug and held the plug against the head, turned the engine a bit with the pull starter and it's got a nice good spark also!

As for the rust, I have sprayed the whole lot underneath with WD-40, maybe I can scrape all the loose flaking rust away with a wire brush and just spray it with oil again. Either way if I can get the engine to run I will work on getting it all running and I even might mow the lawns with it here.

Just wanted to ask before I put some fuel in it and see if it starts, do these powertorque motors still run the same 25 to 1 mix of oil to unleaded petrol like my older full crank Victa does? This mower doesn't have a sticker on it telling me what fuel mixture to use.

Cheers!

I can't imagine why or what it was stuck, hopefully the bore has not been damaged. As for underneath I scrape them back as much as I can and paint the worst rusty parts with fish oil, in particular the left hand corner around the handle mount and all down the side. Wet grass left in this area is what kills these bases, they rust out big time. 25 to 1 is what they use

Thanks again NormK,

Well I can see the piston going up and down in the bore through the spark plug hole. It seems ok I put my thumb there and it seems to have some pressure there. It was making some grinding scraping noises when I first started turning the crank. Then it settled down a bit after a fair amount of WD-40 was sprayed into the spark plug hole.

Oh well it's just a bit of fun and learning at the same time. I might have to get a new blade carrier nut and washer if I want to use it for mowing. I don't trust what's left of the rusted nut on it at the moment.

Cheers!

G'day again and thanks for all the help NormK,

Great news, it actually starts and runs!

It took a while though, I took the spark plug out and turned the motor over quite a few times to try and clean out most of the WD-40 in the engine.

Then it still wouldn't start, took off the fuel line to make sure at least fuel was getting to the carby inlet, yep it was getting fuel, gave the primer bulb a few pumps as it's been sitting for about 10 years or so. Then kept trying and it still wouldn't start. Let it rest for a few minutes then I tried one more time and it fired up.

I ran it at idle for a few minutes and reved it up a couple of times, didn't want to go overboard with it yet just testing it out and well it sounds pretty good.

It does need a new muffler it's all rusted out and missing at the bottom. I also just tested it without an air filter on the snorkel as the filter had rotted to nothing.

Well at least I have something I can work on now to get it ready for mowing again one day.

Cheers!

Well done, amazing motor aren't they, float needles have been problematic with these, but if yours is working ok then leave it alone. Plenty of mufflers here if you need one

G'day NormK and thanks again for all the help mate,

Yeah i'm hoping to one day mow the lawns with this mower and the powertorque engine to see if there's much difference between this engine and the old full crank Victa which is the only lawnmower I have ever used to mow the lawns around here.

I am not in a rush to get it going as yet, I will just get a part every now and then and work on it in some spare time.

I have a mate who mows lawns and he found on the nature strip a F/C sidethrow and a PT sidethrow, not at the same time, both were in pretty run down condition. I spruced them up and got them working for him and he was saying the other day he liked the F/C better, it seemed to rev better or something, he wasn't sure

Yes when I use the powertorque one day I will have to come back here and post about how it went compared to the full crank.

You know there is many a time I just want to use a side thrower and bugger putting all the grass in a catcher, it would be faster and easier for me. But I think it would leave such a mess on the road and footpath around here if I did that.

I don't mow the grass all that often and the grass does get a bit tall here.

You know there is one person around here that has tied the back metal flap up on their mower and they mow the grass with no catcher and leave all the grass on the nature strip. it looks like a mess. Once I saw him cutting the grass like that and I was thinking how many things must get thrown up against his legs and feet with the mower blades throwing everything behind at him? lol

I guess that's his cheap version of a side thrower? The old lift up the back metal flap and you have a rear thrower into your body? lol

Yes you see alot of funny things around the place.

Cheers!

Hi Converse,

I have converted a few rear catcher types to side throw by making a deflector (one side and rear) so the grass is thrown to the opposite side. It's kind of a long way for the clippings to travel but it works well. My new (to me) Victa Utility 2 stroke is much better and lighter.

All the best
Jeff

Hi there Jefffrombrisbane,

Thanks for the idea there mate, I have seen some photos of other Victa models that had this deflector side throw kit as an option but I don't know if they were available for the full crank model like mine.

It would be great if you could maybe one day upload some photos of the deflector you made for the rear catcher models.

Cheers!

Converse I did convert a rear flap to rear sidethrow by moving the flap away from the left hand corner, that way the grass doesn't get blown all over your legs. Seemed to work ok, can't remember what happened to it

Use a side throw as a side throw. Use a catcher model as a mulch mower if there is no catcher.