Hi Bumbly,
Ahhh Yes, it looks exactly like that, silver body and grey dress cowl. I decided to dismantle it yesterday to see if the the drive belt supplied by CBC was correct - it was'nt ! Does anybody know the correct belt size ? I believe it is an M profile but the size I have of 815mm ID is too small. I also pressure cleaned all the parts and chassis so it now looks quite good. I could not resist pulling down the engine to see what it was like - it actually runs well - but when I took off the barrel there were next to no rings left! So I have decided to overhaul the complete engine. The bore is standard and in excellent order with no scratches or scores or wear. Without the piston rings fitted and the bore honed I could just get a 0.15mm feeler guage between the piston and bore - all good. The carby is the plastic bowl G3 which I cleaned and put aside.
I was surprised that for a Mk3 160 engine it still had a bushed small end bearing - I thought by Mk3 they had all gone to roller bearings. I shall have to wait 'til I get to work to dismantle the lower half of the crankcase as the drive pulley and blade driver are proving difficult to remove. At work I have presses, pullers and( heaven forbid ), oxy equipment, so I'm not sure if it has the 6204 / 6004 bearing combo or the 6204 / 6203 combo. I may choose to fit the brand new crankshaft that I picked up the other week along with a new piston & ring set as, in my opinion, this mower will be the king of my VC collection.
( I have a V80, V96 and V111 all awaiting my attention - the V111 is excellent mechanically and only requires the handle pivot bushes to be repaired to get rid of all the slop.)
A bit more exciting news - last week I picked up a Victa 500 Supreme twin with two spare engines that I swapped for rewinding a bloke's drill press motor. I was told it had not run for about two years. I got it home, fueled it up, primed it and after two pulls away she went. I then mowed my lawn with it. Needs a bit of a clean up but it is complete. The catcher is poor but still does the job. One of the spare engines is in pieces and needs rings. Any body know where I might get some ? Being all alloy, I can only guess the bore on these was either chrome plated ( or Nickasil ??) Any info welcomed.
I still have not figured out how to post photos on this forum but when I do, I'll post the photos of what I have. Can you post short videos ?
Cheers,
Wombatini
