My son came across this Masport today not sure of anything about it except that the muffler is quite an elaborate alloy one built into the underside. Does anybody have any info on these Ok so Wikipedia helped it is a D400 Iron Horse engine manufactured by Outboard Marine Corporation for Lawn Boy and Masport . They were built between 1954 and 1977
Fascinating find and history NormK, but why oh why is the engine mounted like that? Couldn't the development budget stretch to different drilling positioning? Interesting seeing that bar blade on a vintage mower. Thanks for the piccies.
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
One thing I found interesting in the info was the variation in the oil ratio, the early ones were 16 to 1 and the later ones were 32 to 1, not sure what they did to reduce the oil ratio. I think this is what it should look like
Nice rare machine there NormK, I have seen some old 4 stroke Masport mowers years ago but never a 2 stroke model. So how did these work with throttle control? Adjustment somewhere on the engine cowl?
Cheers!
Last edited by Converse; 22/03/1906:35 PM.
Zip a dee doo dah, zip a dee ay, another trash picked Victa, hip hip Hooray!
Hi all, Whilst the Victa VC Sports/ 125 mkIII/ 1978 -1980 Power-plus Self Propelled engine cover always reminded me of a shark head, this one is the hammerhead counterpart! That rear flap looks like alien technology!
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
Yes it is an oddball one and the base is in exceptionally good undamaged condition, be certainly an interesting mower to use and get the neighbours scratching their heads. Converse the throttle control is a lever on the cowl, I think it says slow and fast. MF Wickipedia said they were called a brick head for obvious reasons
I also went on a search for clips of this lawnmower and I found one of a similar model to the one NormK has cutting some grass.
Hey Mowerfreak, now I know why it has that alien technology looking rear flap as you mentioned. It actually acts as a rear side thrower if you don't want to use the catcher.
Not a bad bit of machinery at all.
Cheers!
Zip a dee doo dah, zip a dee ay, another trash picked Victa, hip hip Hooray!
Ok so it had no spark so I fitted a Victa module and then good spark and with a bit of persuasion it ran for a few seconds so once the carby is cleaned out hopefully it should run ok
Speedy, on this one I think it should be kept original so I had better find some info on this carb, this is something not helping reduce my mower pile, you can spend so much time on one mower like this
Thanks Max, take me a week to read through it all Thanks again. The next problem I have is the wheels and axles were rusted solid. Taking the axles and wheels off complete and putting them in the press removes them but the axles will need a lot of welding repair work and new bushes made for the wheels but then I have a problem with one wheel as it has a big tyre section missing, probably somebody tried to hammer it off and broke a section out of it.
The oil in the fuel is usually less oil mixed with the fuel on later models because the manufacturer uses more robust crank bearings in the later models.I will have the specs somewhere but probably a lot more pages Norm
, but here's a B&W TV ad from 1972:
