OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Engines Questions On Victa Two Stroke Engines Victa Lightweight - Crankshaft Oil Seals

Or at least it did.... Hope I can get this one back up and running again without any nasty surprises..!!

Ok, got the Permaseal / Piston & Rings / Seals & plenty of beer... here we go..!!

A good clean up first:






Engine No: 320 200017 does the “320” make this a Lightweight or a Compact engine?
I read on Blumbley’s post when he did his re-build: https://www.outdoorking-forum.com.au/forum/u...twins-compact-restoration.html#Post61823
From his observations the Lightweight had the 409 prefix and the Compacts had 207 or 208. Apparently the Compacts had electronic ignition and the Lightweight had points? Well this one has points so maybe this one is an early or late Lightweight?




Ah, a broken gasket... could this be part of the problem? When I last used it all of a sudden started to belch out a lot of smoke and then it wouldn’t start again until it had cooled down?




Lower crank case off, piston out next then I can inspect the barrel for damage (this is the bit I was dreading)









I have no experience but I don’t think this looks bad, certainly much better than I was expecting, maybe a clean up and a light hone along with the new piston/rings?


Bugger... hang on a minute, my replacement piston has a flat top..!!

I seem to remember that the rear cylinder on a 500 twin had a flat top - this must be it... what should I do now.. prise the rings/expanders off the flat one?

Hi Alan,
thanks for the update. I personally would clean up the old piston as long as it isn't full of deep score marks. If there are minor ones, you can give them a sand to make it smooth again. The flat piston will reduce compression, by how much I don't know but better to reuse the old one unless you can exchange it the flat crowned piston.
I would also clean the carbon out of the end of the bore as best you can while you have it apart. Maybe try degreaser or acetone/carby cleaner.

Hi Mowerfreak,

I agree, the old piston looks good, no real scratches on it. I'm a bit worried about breaking the rings in the process but I guess I have to do it.

I don't have any carb cleaner/acetone to hand so I'm gonna soak the cylinder/crank in diesel overnight to see if that softens the carbon up, then a bit of elbow grease I suppose.

As usual, thanks again for the advice. This is the first time I have stripped an engine down to this level, its nice to know that there is help here if you need it.

Will keep you posted.

Cheers

Alan.

Hi Alan,
Just be firm but gentle with the rings, practice getting the old rings off without breaking them, gently push them apart using both your thumbs, not too wide just enough for the opposite side of the rings to come clear of the piston. If you break an old you are doing something wrong so try a different way. To get the rings into the bore it is not going to be easy but my method would be to cut a strip of sheet metal about 25mm wide and long enough to wrap around the piston and overlap a bit then with a worm drive clip tighten it up so it is snug and the rings are compressed but not over tight as the sheet metal strip has to be able to slide off the rings as you gently tap (use the hammer handle lengthwise) to gently tap the crank back into position and the rings inside the bore. Then you have to be able to undo the worm drive and get the sheet metal strip out. Just go slowly and you should be ok. If it feels like the rings don't want to enter the bore you will have to pull it out again and make sure the sheet metal strip is holding the rings in. It has to go together gently, don't force it, this is where you can break a ring

Hi Alan and all,

If you don't have any acetone etc ,steel wool works well to remove carbon with some elbow grease.



Cheers
Max.

Hi guys,
why must they put in drum beats Inc some how to videos? Do some viewers need to be constantly entertained or turn off in the middle of a five minute video? Also I have no idea of all those American cleaning products he showed us. I don't recognise them here. They are really spoilt for choice over there, though you can usually find an equivalent over here somewhere -at a higher cost usually.

If people don't mind me asking here, how do I clean the caked up exhaust port of a 125 I have, without getting bits into the engine?

Hi MF ,

I usually just use a screwdriver to scrape the carbon from ports.
[video:youtube][/video]
Cheers
Max.

Hi Max,

I just saw that very helpful video. Thanks for the link.
I have less angst about this upcoming task now thanks to you!!

Hello Alan,

Just curious about how everything went with the rebuild? All good?

Hi Sapper,

Thanks for your interest, All good?..well sort of.

The rebuild went really well, I took my time and while it was in bits I gave the hard to find exhaust some attention (good clean and UHT paint up). Once it was all back together it started first pull but it was running really rough and it just wouldn't rev evenly, once it stalled I couldn't start it again.

I came to the conclusion that this was ignition related, the spark seemed to be a bit weak and intermittent so I suspected the coil was the problem. I watched a youtube video (posted by push mower repair) and they stated that the resistance between the primary and secondary windings on the coil should be between 9 - 9.5 Meg ohms, I was only getting around 6 tops so I suspected the coil was breaking down and needed replacing. Lucky enough I found find a NOS replacement on ebay, fitted it.... still the same result.

Now I'm buying a new condenser. I should have replaced this first as it would have been cheaper than a new coil but in the process I've found a really helpful guy here in the UK who stocks vintage/obsolete parts for mowers and he has some good Victa stock so, just waiting for delivery.

I have taken loads of pics of the rebuild and planned to follow this up but life has got in the way again!! I will get round to it soon.

Fingers crossed this is the problem, otherwise it's points next..!!

Hey Alan,

Yeah, I wondered whether you had hit a snag, or gotten too busy to complete it. Perhaps someone on here has a few ideas.

Yeah, the main job is done but I wont be that happy until I see it working again as it used too. When something like this happens it starts to throw doubts in your mind, you start to question what you did or didn't do to make it run right.