Anyway got the cover off, thanks Tyler, comes off from the rear easily enough but then there is another 2 clips mid way along that are going to get broken off on a regular basis because you can only release them by forcing the cover up, lucky for me they let go this time, once the plastic gets a bit weathered they will probably snap off. Now down to the designer who must go to the top of the class for stupidity, what nut job would fit a thermal controller for the auto choke which relies on heat coming from the muffler and fit it under the fan shroud so it sits in the airflow to keep it cool. Good one you dumb nut, now to work out how to fit a manual choke cable to it.
Sounds like they put minimal thought to it getting serviced or repairs almost -perish the thought- like they expected them to be disposed of pretty quickly.
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
Anyway I have proven that it is a filter problem, I ran it with a long Victa 2 stroke filter pushed hard up against the carby inlet and it ran fine. The original filter looks fine, can see through it easily when you put it up to the light but it just chokes it, I guess you have to replace the filter every time you fuel it up or I will have to make up a snorkel setup and use the 2 stroke filters
Ok getting back to this one, thinking about it I'm beginning to think it is a design problem with these in the fact that the crank breather just discharges into the filter chamber and as Tyler suggests maybe an oil mist gets on the inside of the filter. Most other mowers that vent into the filter area have a shield that contains the vent vapours and this is directed straight into the carby throat. This is not the case with these later Briggs motors. As a trial when I get the new filters I will remove the vent from the filter housing, plug it and run the vent tube away from the motor and see if this solves the problem. As a long term fix I think the crank vent would need to be fitted directly into the filter housing/carby throat. I will have to investigate how I can do this.
I have now decided with this heap of garbage, got nothing to loose so I will modify the air filter housing and fit a Rover snorkel to it and hopefully that will remove the air filter problems. Then I will go the next step and bin the useless bar blade and fit a round Victa disc and use the 20 inch blades. Might just end up a reasonable machine even though it will still have a Briggs on it
Norm, I have seen a 450e completely stuffed after the first mow - spewing oil out the breather and thick smoke when revved up - left it running for 10 minutes, no improvement.
Oil level was perfect - it went back to the shop and got exchanged
AVB, maybe Briggs send all their rejects to 'the colonies' haha
I think Briggs and DRATton are running Victa and their own reputation into the ground with cheap out designs they are churningv out. The stupid dumb public keep coming back for more. Many must have been conditioned to think it's normal for a mower to last a matter of months than at least a few years.
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
MF, it will be a long time before they can trash the Victa brand people just trust it so much because over the years because one of their relatives had one and it was a ripper
because one of their relatives had one and it was a ripper
And I bet it was a 2 stroke - like comparing apples and oranges
I picked up the new victa brochure and some of the claims are laughable - they say the Quiet Power engine is 40% quieter *
*than a side valve quantum
Just being OHV probably does half that
and they reckon the corvette 100 ( $449) has 7.5nm torque - on their website they quote a PT as 8 Nm. However they do their tests its obviously designed to favour 4 strokes.
I know which I would rather if I had overgrown grass to turn into lawn. The briggs would have a coronary within 10 metres
I agree MF - a 67 wind up corvette would be a ripper
And I agree about the old briggs - I have a few of the old briggs myself - 79 Victa monaro, 80 storebrand along with some early 90s Masports with quantum 35's, 50's and classic 35's
The downhill spiral is increasingly noticeable from the turn of the century onwards
After that, they get the job done, but never shake that it is built to a price
MF, chalk and cheese there the old vertical pull Briggs were a good motor and many would have been saved from the scrap if they had been fitted with a primer, people just gave up once they got hard to start and nobody could be bothered removing the air filter to put a teaspoon of petrol in the carby throat
A friend drilled and tapped a small steel nozzle into his carby and attached a piece of fuel line. He took out the sealing bung, gives it a shot of start ya ba***rd, puts the sealing plug back in and it always went first or second go
A later carby with primer ended up on it
Saw the nice Rover on gumtree Norm - especially like the phrase 'gumtree nutters' haha
Hi Tyler, They drive me nuts because it is too easy for them to just press "is it still available" and when you say yes you don't get a response, or then you get the others that make an offer of $40, I just can't be bothered with them after I spend many hours/days putting these mowers together plus running around buying and picking up mowers that all require heaps of work and parts to get to a good working condition. It is not easy to keep a cost neutral hobby cost neutral and most of the idiots that bug me wouldn't know which end of a screwdriver to use. I had a bloke ring this afternoon after one of the alloy base PT's I have and he said he was not a gumtree nutter, he just wanted a mower and could he pick one up tomorrow
Norm, I have seen a 450e completely stuffed after the first mow - spewing oil out the breather and thick smoke when revved up - left it running for 10 minutes, no improvement.
Oil level was perfect - it went back to the shop and got exchanged
AVB, maybe Briggs send all their rejects to 'the colonies' haha
If they do then it is NOT very good business.
Now it may be just me but Quality is still a standard I go by in my repairs. I have however seen the quality of equipment on the market now that is of much less quality then in the past. I repair engines from the 1960's that are going strong where engine from the first decade of this century are either on the last leg or already dead.
I had work for a Foutune 500 company that their equipment division managers came in and told us Field Techs in the mid 2000's that if a machine was 5 years old we were to kill it off in favor of selling a new machine even if the equipment was in good condition. I couldn't bring myself to do this so I left their employment. I now seeing times where equipment that is only a year or two old having parts not available as soon as they stop producing a model they destroy the machinery that was used to produce the parts.
To me it seems everyone is taking the Chinese throw away attitude. And even the parts are available they are made too costly. For example it the handheld leaf blower I kill last Saturday that it needed was a PNC instead having this available MTD was only willing to sale a shortblock at the dealer cost of new machine and by the time I added an hour of labor charge for a four hour repair it would have as much as the retail price of a new one. Well I went and parted it out along checking the prices of various items. They were attempting to sell replacement screws for 3 usd a piece. No wonder I save every screw I can reclaim items like these. IF I had to buy all the screws alone it would have costed over 40 usd for a 99 usd blower.
Norm, I have seen a 450e completely stuffed after the first mow - spewing oil out the breather and thick smoke when revved up - left it running for 10 minutes, no improvement.
Oil level was perfect - it went back to the shop and got exchanged
AVB, maybe Briggs send all their rejects to 'the colonies' haha
If they do then it is NOT very good business.
Now it may be just me but Quality is still a standard I go by in my repairs. I have however seen the quality of equipment on the market now that is of much less quality then in the past. I repair engines from the 1960's that are going strong where engine from the first decade of this century are either on the last leg or already dead.
I had work for a Foutune 500 company that their equipment division managers came in and told us Field Techs in the mid 2000's that if a machine was 5 years old we were to kill it off in favor of selling a new machine even if the equipment was in good condition.
That mind set is what has lead to GM and Chrysler products now having a horrid reputation for multiple problems and limited longevity. 2000s Cadillacs in otherwise beautiful looking condition are ending up in scrap yards for the reasons cited. Bordering on evil.
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
Hi Tyler, I think the Rover must have been too cheap going by the flood of emails about it this morning, never seen anything like it. I have noticed there is very few of the cheaper end mowers around these days. There is none of the job lots of 5/10 mowers showing up either so that is drying up as well
