Hello Guys,
I am in the process of rebuilding a victa full crank 2 stroke engine off an old VC Mustang.
So far I have:
Stripped the engine down and checked the bearings (all in good condition)
Replaced both the top and bottom crankshaft seals
Resealed the crankcase with gasket goo
Honed the cylinder
Installed new piston and rings.
I am now at the stage of installing the stator plate. This is an engine older style engine where the timing can be adjusted via the two screws on the stator plate.
My understand is that the points should just start to open when the piston is 3mm before top dead centre.
I need some assistance as I am having trouble getting the timing correct. I think I may have misunderstood the manual requirements.
I�ll put some pictures of my work to date tonight but I think you guys might be able to help anyway!
Thanks

PJ

ok . remove the spark plug and turn the engine to top dead centre. put something down the plug hole(eg screwdriver) to determine the piston has risen all the way to the top of the chamber.now turn engine backwards till the screwdriver drops 3mm.

Thanks Gizmo,

I gather putting the engine back onto the frame with the blade plate on would be the best way to adjust the timing? I am thinking the drive shaft will be easier to turn.

No other tricks to remember when adjusting the timing?

Dont know why but the full cranks just seem to last much longer than power torques. I have pulled bearings out of power torques that are a couple of years old and they are stuffed yet I pull them out of full cranks and they as smooth as buggery. More often than not the crankcase just needs new seals.

You shouldnt need to have it on a base to set the timing, As above I also use a screwdriver or something similar to get the engine to TDC, then turn the crank anticlockwise until its 3mm before TDC (its best to have the points, coil stator plate loosely fitted for this), then without spinning the crank adjust the points so they are just starting to open and tighten the screws down.

Newer powertorque motors are chea and nasty peices of crap, chinese bearings, chinese casting, nasty nasty nasty. The older ones wear a bit quicker as the crank is only supported at one end, however I still like them, they have always been my best seller, though one day times will change when briggs decides to end the victa 2 stroke and noone will have a 2 stroke mower at all anymore.

gday peter. you must get the points gap correct for the timing to be perfect also. .685 i think it is but you could double check that. also get your spark plug gap correct.
i notice you said it has an older stator plate . thats good cos it gives you the option of getting the timing spot on.

on a car distributor it has a vaccuum advance control. whereby when the engine revs are high it rotates the whole points housing forward so it can keep up with the speed of the engine.
unfortunately mowers dont have this. BUT. you have a little bit of control as to whether you want the engine to run its best at high revs or low revs.by rotation of the stator housing to can acheive this to a limited degree.
in other words you can advance or retard the timing to suit your needs.you cannot achieve this with a fixed stator plate.

i guess victa eventually they worked out that its only a mower engine and there really was no need to have any adjustment on the stator plate .they could set the timing to its optimum position and leave it at that.

Thanks Joe and Gizmo. I like fiddling with the olders ones. it seems to keep my occupied.
Before repainting the base I decided to mount the motor tonight and get it ready for a test after work tomorrow night.
The rebuild went as planned. I only ended up putting in new crank seals and piston/rings as the bearings were in great condition. I also resealed the crankcase with gasket goo.
The timing went ok I think after you guys explained the requirements.
I had to replace the governer post as the old one had snapped. Not really sure how it snapped. I am pretty confident everything is ok however I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow night. I read the victa manual and followed in as best as I could.
Guess we will wait and see tomorrow night. I have a couple of photos to take a look if you wish.
This is one of Mr Davis�s old mowers (Ty) donated for me to work on.

Ok after replacing the governor gears a the g3 this mower is now a first pull starter with a great idle and full speed.

How ever I have 1 issue. I can't get it to stop. I have the stator cable connected to the pin on the carby connector but it's a no go!

Any hints on thoughts?

The more a play with the g3 the more I like them!!

Is it earthing out on the pin properly Pete?
What happens if you earth the wire directly to a metal surface; does it cut out?

yep exactly as bigted says. that will be your prob. sometimes the connections on the g3 are dirty or corroded or missaligned and dont touch when closed. have a look at this diagram 27 and 28 , 29 have to touch when closed so it earths to body.
it could be a break in the wire but i doubt it. try what bigted says first. pull off the wire from the g3 and earth it to the body whilst running . it should stop the mower.if it doesnt stop it then its not getting a proper ground.

i forgot to mention that it gets its earthing through the throttle cable.cos youve got it on a different base maybe the handle bars arent earthed properly to the body.

Appreciate the advice Gizmo and Joe.
I tried earthing the the cable to the body and the engine didnt cut out at all.
I suspect its to do with the throttle cable as it was stopping the engine before the throttle case fell apart because it was so brittle. I managed to source a second hand one that is in really good condition. I also scored a complete g3 carby off the same mower that only needed new govenor gears for $10 so I was pretty happy with that. Not a bad scrap mower deal.
Here is a photo of where I am at with the old Mustang. I went with the green colour as I could never find a decent white cowling.
It should come up a treat when its all done.
Its not quite the quality of blumbly�s work but I am only learning.

Very nice Peter. Looks like you are doing a similar mower to mine. I do not have the g3 carby though. Keep up the pictures. I would like to see a finished vc mustang on here.

looks awesome Pete

OH NO!!! I just wanted to let you know that the Red VC-Mustang is the rarest and hardest one of the VC-Mustang to find.Even if you couldn't find a white cowl I would have found a way to paint the green white.As for memory I think that green cowl was still in OK condition.Also if memory serves me right I think it even had the the red VC-Mustang sticker on the cowl (I could be wrong about that).As that mower was at my place for some time.I know this one isn't restored but it should look something like this.

It was a 1973-1974 V137 VC-Sports (Mark IR)- Red.

They also were the only one to have a remote tap.As you can see below the fitting coming out of the tank.


All I can say is please paint it red,if you don't want to paint the cowl then wait one will show up.They are harder to find but they are still out there.This model was released the same time as the green one.There just was no where near as many.

ok point taken. I have been searching for a white cowl for some time with no luck.

The old girl is nearly all back together.

How about I meet you half way! If I find a white cowl in really good condition like the green one I will repaint the base.

The engine has already been re-built and runs so nice. I love the roaring sound of a full crank at full throttle. For a nearly 30 year old engine it amazed me how good the insides were.

PS, I already tried painting on a crap green cowl I found and it just didnt look right.

Well it's really up to you I just wanted you to know how rare it is.I'm surprised Ty let it go.As he originally had the one I have and I had to make a sweet deal before he let it go.Then he found that one and was really over the moon.I had to lasso him (like a cowboy) to bring him back to earth.If it has the original engine it should start with 11173 or 11174,where as the green one should be 11073 or 11074.So I guess if it has the red engine number it should really be red.If your going to paint a cowl you really have to get it clean.Then there is a special primer for plastic.Same as the paint they use on plastic bumpers.I guess the only good thing about cars with plastic bumpers is they had to come up with the paint that works.Which certainly helps us with painting things on mowers,but like I said it is up to you,but I have only ever seen 3 of the red VC-Mustang and the third one was wrecked and sent to scrap.I was too slow to save it.

Can I ask how you would recomend I clean the green mustang cowling? I read one of ty's posts about not using armour all so I steered away from that however so many people suggest a number of methods.

I also have a guy who I bought corvette decals from working on the Mustang decals for me. Have to wait and see how that goes. The last set he made came out really good.

Cleaning you would only need to use some degreaser.Not too strong and then wash it with soapy water.No don't use armour-all as it has oil in it and in the sun the oil dries the plastic out.You could use 303 (I think it's called) Supabarn has it or Autopro (If you go to auto pro you'd have to ask a sales guy.As they don't have it on their shelf.Don't know why they just don't).303 is the same as Armour-all but without the oil mixed in.So it protects better and does a great job.

If these decals work out for you Peter and are very close to the originals, I would be interested. I am in need of front cowling decal and side.

The Mustang is coming along ok. Its my first go at a restore so please be semi friendy! Its looking ok I think. Well must better than it was. I have tried to keep as many of the parts as original as possible.
Tomorrow I might give it a run.
It really cold here and the black cowling paint didnt go to well so I am going to have to redo it on a warmer day. In canberra at this time of the year warm days are rare.
Bonus today was that I found a catcher in good condition to match.When I get onto my next restore I will get the paint exact matched. I also managed to find an original spark plus cover in lieu of the newer boot style.

I only just read some threads about head polishing so I might give that a go tomorrow.

Blumbly thanks for the tip on the 303 cleaner. It works really good I thought.

James. Once I get the stickers I'll let you know and I am sure we can sort something out.

Well for a first go, I think you did a great job. Well done.

I would have really loved to seen the original colour base though, as I am doing the same mower. But don't worry about it, thanks for posting the pictures.

Thanks James.

Well I managed to test the mustang today and I can confirm it is a first pull starter. It idles pretty nice and full throttle sounds sweet.

I have one problem I cant get the damm thing to stop without turning the fuel off.

I replaced the carby connector arm thinking it might be faulty however the same problem still happens. I took the carby arm connector off and tried to earth the engine on the body as suggested by Gizmo and Bigted but still no go.

I would appreciate some assistance.

Thank you

there must be a break in that wire as it should earth out when touching the body.
i have put in this pic how the earthing works.
the arrow on the left shows the coil wiring earthed to the plate.
the coil wire on the right goes to the points.
if this wire is also earthed to body somewhere as in the rh arrows ,the ignition system wont work and earths out.
this is where the wire from the carby should start from.
so thats why maybe it is broken or does not have a good connection in there.

Ok thanks Gizmo. I am away this weekend however when I get home tonight I will get the flywheel off and let you know how I go.

The actual mower has come up really well I thought and runs perfectly apart from the little stop start issue.

Whilst the flywheel is off I will also double check the timing I think.

Ok the stop start issue has been rectified.gizmo you were spot on a out the cable.
I can't seem to get the throttle cable adjusted right. I can either get it to idle good or full speed smoothly. I just can't get a nice idle and full throttle.

Any tricks with installing the cable onto the carby or do you guys think it could be something else .

thats great news Pete. not sure about your throttle issue?
there is however an issue with the g3 carb ive had happen a few times . its the pinion gear thats connected to the governor vane. slipping a cog or 2.there is a cover plate covering the gears. the vane should fully open and close the butterfly valve if correctly attached.you might want to look at this. dont start pulling anything apart before you test it though cos they are a bugger to get right again.if it looks like it may be at fault let me know and i will find the proper procedure for assembly in my manual and post it for you. i havent done it often enough to remember it off heart.
cheers bazz

Well it's now working spot on my problem was with not adjusting the throttle cable correctly. I now have a smooth idle and a nice full throttle. The mower also stops correctly when the throttle is moved to the stop position.
Today I polished a seperate engine head after soaking it is degreaser and pressure washing it about 10 times. I am going to put it on during the week. That should compete the mustang. I know it's not completely original but I am only learning this restore stuff. Ill put some photos up once complete.

Thanks for your help gizmo. It is appreciated as always.