OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Restoring, Customising and Modifying Reel-Type Mowers Scott Bonnar 45 17" Resto

This is my daily mower that I picked up last year. The guy selling it said the engine was cactus as it runs and then stalls when you use it. So far I have done nothing to it other than changing the oil, cleaning the points, removing all the dog hair and grass clippings from around the engine vanes and back-lapping the reel. It seems that all the debris inside the engine cowl was causing the motor to overheat and stall.

I am fairly certain this is an all original mower, but can someone please help with identifying when the motor was made, and whether that date would be plausible for the era of the rest of the mower?

I was going to leave this as it is, but I have been enjoying restoring the solid deck 20" so I am thinking of doing something similar with this too.

Also, I had the old cheese around over the weekend who doesn't mind getting the lycra on and we starting talking chains. He told me that he immerses his bike chain in melted paraffin wax. Apparently it keeps all the dirt and debris from entering in the roller pin and grinding out the sprockets. Does this have any merit in our situation? If not what does everyone else use as lube as grease is just messy and attracts dirt and grass cuttings?

Number on the Briggs engine cowl;
80202 0607-02 76071903

Hi SimRice,

The engines date of manufacture is 19th July 1976 and is definitely of the right era.

I use a product on my chains called HHS Drylube by Wurth. It's a dry synthetic wax with PTFE that is specifically designed for chains and has excellent creep/gap penetration and doesn't attract dirt. Unfortunately it's bloody expensive and normally only sold to trade. You might consider hunting it down if the grease bothers you.

Hi SimRice,

Michael (Rolla) is spot on, with that engine date, your machine fits the time frame and would be an all original machine.

With regard to the chains and sprockets, the inner cutter sprocket and the small top primary sprocket are nearing the end of their service life, though serviceable at present.
If you replace these in the future, you will need to purchase a new primary chain as well, as it is pointless replacing sprockets and using an old chain....the sprockets would wear unacceptably in no time.

Regarding lubing the chain, I, personally use marine grease on mine..it tend to repel water and with my particular chain case, I get very little dirt or clippings in there. My machine is still on its original chains and sprockets.
I have not heard of the paraffin wax method before.

Thank you as usual for the input guys.

I won't be starting this resto for a few weeks as I think the lawn will need a few more mowings before the couch gets a bit sleepy in winter.

This will be a resto with a slight twist. This mower will be converted to a verticutter/groomer and the 20" will become the daily.

I have already done the homework with my reel engineer here in Adelaide so I will keep everyone updated with how it is done if there are others out there wanting to do something similar.

Deviosi did something similar with this machine

Simon

Hi Simon,
And thanks for the update. We will look forward to seeing the pics as you go along with this resto... will be nice to see another verticutter/groomer on ODK. This will be great for the archives.

Dunno that straight paraffin wax would work all that well as lube, but I'd say that the technique is derived from a chain lubricant type from years ago, that was aimed at the motorcycle market.

There were a couple of brands; 'Duckhams Chainguard' was one I used, and there was also 'Filtrate Linklyfe'. What they were, was a firm-textured wax/grease base, with powdered graphite and molybdenum disulphide added, as solid lubricants. They came in a large diameter[300mm or so] shallow tin, with one or two handles on it.

To use the stuff, you took off and cleaned the chain [with petrol, usually], coiled it up, and placed it in the tin, on top of the lube. It was a very good idea to hook a bit of wire to one end, to provide a handle! Then you heated the tin on a gas ring or such to melt the grease, so it would thoroughly penetrate beneath the rollers and elsewhere. Final step was to place the tin on the floor so it couldn't spill, lift the chain out by one end so it'd uncoil, and hang it up over the tin to drain off excess lube. A bit messy, but very effective for good chain life. Not nearly so much a dirt magnet as the chain oils of those days were.


A recent pic pinched from eBay UK; my bike mechanic has my old tin of the stuff. I run shaft drive bikes these days...

These products disappeared here after o-ring type chains, and good aerosol chain lubes, came on the market. There's still one available in the UK, though - 'Putoline chain wax'.

However, there are hard-drying aerosol 'chain wax' products available now, that would work well on mower drive chains - check your local motorcycle shop.

Hey Gadge, that is pretty much the method he uses with his chains, melts the wax puts the chain in with some wire, lets it immerse for 10-15 mins then hangs it up so the excess falls off.

I thought I would give this a try, so I found an old biscuit tin mixed some paraffin wax, lithium grease and some engine oil. Heated it up until it smoked and put the two primary chains in for about 15 mins. Hanged them both to dry and re-installed after they cooled. I would say both chains were about 1-2 links shorter than previously. Not sure what to make of that.

I stripped this mower down last night, and found that the rear roller assembly does not have the counter-weight that my 20" does. The question is should it?

I have a solid deck 14" that I used for parts and it has the counter-weight.

The exploded parts list in the outdoorking store does not show the counter weight.

Thoughts?

Hi SimRice,
This is one of the mysteries of the Scott Bonnar saga, and the reasons behind the design decisions remain just that...lost in the mists of time....and no records exist.

The solid deck 14" cutting width machines had the counter-weight to assist with the turning capabilities of the machine..(ie. the differential action of the split rear rollers) and the 20" machines of that period had a 3 segment rear roller (the middle one was 3" wide so as to be able to use the 2 outside rollers from the 17" machine) and most probably needed the counter-weight for the same reason.

Your machine is a post 1976 Series 2 twin rail machine and was the result of a design change....(and in my opinion) was a cost saving exercise...delete the solid deck, substitute the engine deck with 2 welded rails, maybe delete the counter-weight, and only produce the 17" and the 20" mowers (the 14" being deleted) and increase the price of the machines, to the public.
Just my thoughts,

Thanks deejay, I have one from the 14", in your expert opinion should I retro fit it?

Hi SimRice,
We are getting into unknown territory here, if the machine didn't have one fitted originally, it could be detrimental to fit one to your machine...(the design may have compensated for that weight integrally).
As I say, it is all very mysterious and unknown..but if in doubt, my advice is don't fit it..."If it aint broke, don't mess with it"

Fair call DeeJay, I appreciate your input

Simon

I have stripped and painted the chassis and other surfaces.

While the paint hardens up I want to de-grease the engine and get it ready for paint. Is there anything I should or should not do, like using water, solvents etc?

Should I drain all fluids first?

Haven't had a huge ammount of time to dedicate to my restos, but I thought I would share a couple of progress pics the 17". We're doing renos as home so we are staying at the in-laws. I bought this with me to work on as an escape!

I have sourced a new front roller for this, and my 20". I would be interesting in hearing people opinions on it. It's a 60mm OD (so 10mm smaller which means 5mm loss in height adjustment), zinc coated, shielded roller bearing housing, with an 8mm female threaded spindle. Just needs a 5/8" to 8mm bush one end and a 3/8" to 8mm bush on other. No more flogged out shafts or replacing end-caps. Cost, $33.47 + fixings








Still needs detail work done and a new muffler. Has come up better than I expected

I finally got around to having the shaft made for the grooming reel. Cost a little more than I anticipated, but in the end I am very satisfied with the way they did it. Ended up going slotted spanner nuts on either end, with the thread cut into the hex. This way I can load the reel all the way up as close to the bearing holder as possible. They also cut a woodruff keyway, rather than a straight key. The only issue I noticed when I picked it up that the thread they had cut for the 1/2" UNF thread for the sprocket nut was a little mashed at the very end of the thread. No big deal as the nut doesn't go that far on for it to impact anything.








The shaft will have 60 of these blades. Not as sexy as the carbide tipped saw type blades, but many bowling clubs here in SA run these successfully. Blades will hopefully be in early next week. I will get my mower man to remove the blade from the sole-plate when I pick them up.
I'll update when its all done.

Hi SimRice, very sexy....looking great! I can't wait to see the pics when it is all together...all good for the archives mate!
My on a great job.

Thanks DeeJay, definitely good to have for the archives in case a member wishes to do a similar thing. Divosi's archived groomer thread has been a great one for me to see how his was made.

Hi again SimRice,
Yes mate, it will be good for the archives...Steve (Deviosi) had his made for him by a proprietary company to his specs, we never got to see how it was actually manufactured...Yours, however, is a different design.
PS. I believe Steve also got hold of a spare soleplate for use in his machine, without the bedknife...and became a dedicated groomer.
But when complete SimRice, yours will be a ripper! Well done mate!

Very interested to see how this turns out, following this thread

I take it the machine shop began with an ordinary piece of hexagonal mild steel bar that fitted the standard plastic-centered groomer blades, then machined the ends to fit your mower, plus provided an extra thread to suit the clamping nut that holds the stack of groomer blades pressed together. That sounds like a very neat and simple way to make a kit that would allow a groomer conversion to be fitted to any SB45. The main inconvenience involved is that the bedknife has to be removed, which in practice means you need a soleplate to be provided as part of the conversion. If you were doing that, you might redesign the soleplate to make it specifically suitable for grooming purposes, unless you happened to have access to SB45 soleplates, which I have always thought are a rare item.

I'm inclined to think that Steve (deviosi) had the right idea in making a surplus SB45 into a dedicated groomer. Otherwise you'll be regularly removing and reinstalling your soleplate each time you change the machine over to the other function, and this seems likely to jeopardise the frame alignment of the mower.

Perhaps this whole project is better suited to one of the cassette-loading types of reel mower, on which the complete reel and bedknife is a drop-in assembly?