You could rebuild the motor yourself for probably under $100 as long as you have the tools and a hone. Plenty of info on here about how you do it.
Or as was said, find a mower with a rusty/broken base and swap the 4 stroke off it.
If you want less hassles steer clear of a not running Tecumseh. Good thing if they are running right. They are OK, if you have the parts.
If you can, take a 1/2" socket and ratchet with you. Any mower you are looking at buying pull the head off and check the condition of the bore, thats the most important, second would be rust in the bottom of the fuel tank. steer clear. The rest is not hard to get up to scratch, set the valve clearances, A carb diaphragm is $10-15 from a mower shop and easy to fit.
Best bet would be a sideways mounted, black geared start motor. Dont stress if the starter wont retract theres usually stuff all wrong with them.
You dont need primer start. You are better off with out it. Any carb with primer start has fixed jetting, its better if you can actually tune the motor.
My sister in law has a manky old high arch with an old (white cover points ignition) geared start Briggs on it that i sorted for her. It goes first pull every time. She says it does a better job than her less than 10 year old sprint powered SupaSwift.
A new 450 is $170, an extra 60-70 gets you the whole mower. Not a Victa but an orange Victa by another name from Bunnings. You could of course, buy the mower, strip the engine and sell the new base and catcher. Not sure if you would get the extra coin back.
The Orange Victas dont have the right boss for the Victa disc, they use a bar blade and i think its a Masport boss. You are getting what you pay for thats for sure, cheap and nasty.
