OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Walk Behind Lawn Mower Frames Old Mower Pictures Mower Identification JAP Engine - Qualcast Royal Blade

hi gents, this Qualcast motor i picked up at a scrap yard for $30,after a good tank clean out and the carby stripped and cleaned it fired and ran on the second pull.
thought it had a bit of character.
it has qualcast on the head ,barrel fuel cap and casings,the name on the tank is duo drive
does any one have an idea of what mower/machinery it came from ?

G'day,
I think this engine may have come off a early qualcast cylinder mower. I had a qualcast cylinder mower a few years ago that was called 'duo drive'. From memory it was called duo drive because both wheels drove (it had no roller on the back, instead 2 wheels).
Anyway no matter what it was off its a great find, which im sure will suit some application perfectly .
Regards jay

My father had a 1950s Qualcast with an engine that looked much the same as that. I don't recall the rope pulley being as wide as that but I could be wrong.

My recollection is that both wheels drove. They had over-running clutches, so there was no problem steering the mower. However to avoid cut-marks in the grass you had to hold it back a bit - apparently the designer got the ratio of blade speed to wheel speed wrong. Holding the mower back induced the fairly narrow tyres to slip on the grass, which gave a smooth cut but the tyres fairly quickly became bald due to the slippage. There was a single clutch that operated by tightening the single V-belt that drove both cutter and wheels. We used it to cut a small area of kikuyu for a few years without any real problems.

For an el cheapo 1950s power mower I suppose it was more or less tolerable, but it certainly wasn't any Atco. It looked like a small motor bolted to the top of Qualcast's ordinary push-mower of that period.

Hi all That engine indeed was the same type as used on the Qualcast side wheel drive mowers . They were a great mower for converting into a go- kart sort of thing for small kids. .They had a long rod which ran up the handles and by pulling upwards on the knob on the end of rod , it worked a U shaped bracket down on the mower which tightened up the drive belt.
The earlier versions of this mower had a oblong shaped tank which sat alongdie the engine and had acarby bolted on to the top of it. The engine sucked up the fuel but had to be in good condition to do this.............. The gravity type fuel feed was much better idea. ..... I had several of these old mowers lying around the paddock and the grass grew up thru them . They all went to the tip after sitting around there for over 20 years Cheers Joe

Hi Joe, What a shame mate, I would love to see one of the old Qualcasts fully restored now, I remember when I was a kid, the old man's push mower was an Ogden, we kids always dreamed of putting an engine on it!!
Under pressure, he finally bought a Pace with the Villiers "Torque Master" engine.....great mower....very strong!!

Hi Steve just bought a qualcast duo drive cylinder mower to resto same engine as yours with body same colour etc. with regard to duo drive . you can mow without or without use of engine, maybe thats why they're called duo drive ? I'd post photo but can't upload for some reason I've requested followup from bruce. If you want to see mower I posted photo on vintagemowers.net under cylinder mowers rgds Peter

Hi Peter, I've had a look on the website, I can't see your pic anywhere....Have you resolved your upload issue as yet?
Best wishes,

I'd say it was from one of these...

Qualcast Royal Blade

Yep sure is. I have one that my grand father bought second hand in the late 50's.

That isn't anything like the one my father had - his looked like the ordinary push mower with the little engine mounted on top and belt-driving both reel and wheels. Yours is vastly more elaborate - a sort of poor man's ATCO. It does look like the same engine, though.

Hi Grumpy. Thats the exact same engine as what is on my Qualcast Royal Blade Deluxe, see gallery.

Yes, a JAP Model 80 engine off a Qualcast Royal Blade. circa late-1950s.