Hello everyone- this is my first post here- I just got myself a nice Scott Bonnar model 45 (?) I think... mower. I love it!

Came out of an estate and had no idea how long since it was last used or if it worked. Had petrol and oil in it. I got a new spark plug, and tried to start it to no avail after many pulls. I then put a half teaspoon of petrol into the spark plug hole- put the plug back in: hey Presto the mower sprang to life after a few pulls with a decent bang and splutter.

Have used it to mow down my back yard golf course project on four occasions: starting has not been easy- requiring many pulls. There doesn't appear to be any primer that I can see? After that it runs fine and mows nice but does blow a little more smoke than I like. Actually I have another Scott Bonnar cylinder mower that has been converted to us an electric motor. A while back the coupler that connects the motor to the drive shaft failed and stopped gripping. I never got around to figuring out a suitable replacement part and neglected it. Then I grabbed this mower for a steal at $85- I couldn't resist. I thought it would be nice to do away with the extension cord (and worrying about running it over) but now I am wondering if the fumes and noise are worth it... so first I want to tune this thing up- the vibrations were pretty bad in the handles: not sure if they are meant to that bad?

I am looking at grabbing a new muffler: will this help at all with vibrations? I checked the air filter and it is good- there is a lot of crap around the carb, etc.

Basically I know nothing about this machine and would like to give the engine a service before I use it much more. I note it has two oil plugs- there is oil in there but after a few uses it has gone down a bit. What oil am I supposed to use and how can I change over the old oil? Is it different oil for each hole? I know nothing...

I would really appreciate the help.

If I can get the engine starting and running smooth I will do the body up.

I hope you can identify my machine from these photos- I realise I should have photographed the little identity plate. I can take a pic of that as well if it helps.

Thanks in advance.

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