New to the whole scene, first ever cylinder mower, Scott Bonnar Model 17. 18" cut with a Villers 412 H2 motor, model ID 17 07506.
Know next to nothing about these old gals, or any Scott Bonnar for that matter, please share your wisdom with me?
This one seems to be in pretty good condition, apparently owned since new by a bloke who passed away several years ago and his daughter had been holding onto it, she sold it to the guy I got it from who had intended to do it up, but just sat it in his shed apparently for the last five years or so, now its mine.
These are reasonably plentiful around the traps but parts for them are basically non existent, but in saying that I don't think you'll need any as that one looks to have lived a sheltered life in an domestic environment and not a commercially used up old banger. I see that it has it's optional front roller scraper fitted and still has it's original Villiers power plant.
The only way you are going to get parts for it if required is to keep your eyes open for another to use as a donor. Sadly one has to die for another to live. The only Scotty that has parts available is the Model 45 which has a huge marketing network supporting it. Sadly no such luck for the model 33, 40 and 17's.
Pricewise the Model 17 has gone up compared to what they fetched around 6 years ago when you could pay basically scrap value, but now they have also been subjected to the dreaded "Scott Bonnar Tax" which is out of control at the moment.
Anyway I have to ask what are your intentions with this old Dame ?
Cheers, BB.
I live a 24 Hour lifestyle, but every now and again I seem to fall asleep, well at least that's what my wife tells me.
Cheers for the responses guys, appreciate the info.
Bonnar_Bloke, as to your inquiry, I intend to RTS (Return to standard), I’d like to get this back to as new, from factory condition.
Today I managed to get the old gal running, pulled the flywheel off and checked out the coil, condenser, points etc.
Took a bit to time it, as the flywheel is not keyed had to pull the head off to get an accurate TDC for setting the timing, all went well though and I think I got the timing pretty much spot on. Was happy with the condition of the bore as well, seems in real good condition.
Bit concerned with the coil though, suspect it could be somewhat intermittent, had a few random shut downs, which had to have been ignition related.
None the less she fired up easy and actually ran quite well, I’m rather impressed, think I've caught the Scott Bonnar bug!
Well someone has spent quite some time cleaning all the piston, valve and head related componentry !
I'd say that it may well be the main High Tension lead that's causing the intermittent fault. Some coils can have the lead changed while others can't. Most times they are glued into the coil to keep moisture out. Not that sure about the Villiers units though how they are.
So far all looking good though as that bore is spotless which confirms what I've mentioned that this one was a domesticated machine and definitely not used commercially, thus it'll have at least another 150 years of life left in it.
Cheers, BB.
I live a 24 Hour lifestyle, but every now and again I seem to fall asleep, well at least that's what my wife tells me.
I haven't had a lot of opportunity to get stuck into this project, it will defiantly be a bit here, bit there exercise, none the less I'm keen and will keep the forum updated.
As to the suspect ignition, I'm quite confident the HT lead is intact, however where it enters the resin filled coil pack the lead has become loose and can rotate, metering it and wiggling the HT lead around I got the odd open circuit, but when manipulating the lead on its own the metering had no issues.
I can only conclude the lead connection down in the solid state coil is not good, however I just pumped a bit of Loctite 401 down there to try and keep it all in place and it ran okay, cant say I'm confident in it though.
I'm in the process of pulling the engine down for a clean up and paint job so wont get to try and run it again for a while.
I've looked around for a replacement coil but they are far from common, but I managed to find a donor engine which I hope to get in the next week or two, hopefully it has a good coil. There are new coils available from the UK but at around 45 pounds plus postage, I cant justify that expense.
Anyway, the more I've looked into these Scott Bonnar machines and Villiers I'm actually real bloody happy with my pick up, it is in great original condition and has not been mucked with at all.
