I spent much of the night coming up with this partial solution to front axle movement on a Tornado base. I discovered rear axle for and aft movement was causing the front axle to move up and down like it has suspension, what I call suspension effect. The LH bolt holding the retainer on for the rear axle was slightly loose but tightening it up didn't cure the problem. The retainer was still moving away from the chassis (see pics with arrows) when you pushed down on the front axle. I thought up the idea of fitting washers to the back of the bolt to add rigidity. First I put in the wider one but it wasn't making much difference and I was about to give up but after taking it out found it had bent a little after my earlier testing, so thought to put in a smaller but thicker washer over it to back it up. It's still not free of play, but noticably better. The Tornado base is a shocker but this may be a solution for anyone who wants to keep it going for its 19" cutting width and longer crankshaft engine that won't go on most other Victa chassis except the Razor alloy base(?).
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
