OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums General Discussion Forum Off Topics Deal of the Century (for me anyway)

Hello all,

It has been hard not spilling the beans yet, but wanted to see if this thing worked out.

Just finished up 'repairing' my newest acquisition, and from the looks of it, I will be flogging off my Tornado.

Today, I attended meetings for work regarding the big C. We got off early, and I looked on my phone for any local salvage yards, and came across one near Cabramatta.

The usual building materials, etc etc. I headed into the office building, and noticed a caged room to the right with quite a number of mowers there. One immediately took my interest; a late model Victa Mustang. It looked new. No really, new as in not used at all. It was parked with a bunch of other mowers all priced around the $50 to $70 mark, and it had a sign on it "not working".

I couldn't see what the hell could be wrong. Was it straight fueled on the first attempt to run it? The wheels had no grass marks. I looked underneath, nope, the blades were new. Everything on the mower looked new.

I took off the fuel cap, ah, petrol...but not straight petrol. I could see there was something like a big black blob on the bottom of the fuel tank, and petrol on top. I had a hunch. I took off the fuel line and black muck oozed onto my hand, so I quickly replaced it.

I wheeled it over to the counter, and asked young Mustapha, who was playing with his phone, whether he would take $50. He looked up for a second, "Fifty" he said. No worries, heres your money Mustapha.

After I got home, in between all the normal duties with the kids, dinner, baths, etc etc, I have been cleaning the fuel tank and Carburettor. Someone had obviously dumped a sh*t load of very thick engine oil into the tank, and then put petrol on top, and well it didn't work out for them..... A new mower. I didn't mention the manuals were in the catcher did I? Yep, they were in the catcher.

So, everything was cleaned out, and dried out. And I tried the mower (briefly, it is night time...) and started first pull, with a smoke blast. Sweet, sweet engine, but I will give it a full run tomorrow to burn off the rest of the oil. I felt like I was having a dream....but it gets better.

I picked up the manuals to take into the house, and a piece of paper falls out.

A receipt for sale.

A mower shop over in Bankstown sold a gentleman A Victa Mustang 2 stroke mark V (?) on 17th January 2019 for $799.

It is still under warranty. Yeah, I am still digesting it myself. I have to take a picture of this tomorrow and try to get it on here. It is similar to the ones you see with a google image search, except it has a bluish grey and black cowl, instead of the red and black.

So much for Friday the 13th eh? You couldn't make this stuff up, seriously.

So happy to hear you got the mower you were after in such fortunate circumstances Sapper.

Will you want to use such an amazing example, now that you have the bug and there are others you can turn to for daily driving?

We'll leave that for you to ponder. I can't believe it myself.

Hey MF,

I will take some pictures in shortly, but what hosting service do you use to put them up? I haven't had much luck getting pics up on this forum so far.

It does look 'too good' to use, but at the same time I always wanted one to use. Dilemma haha.

I will probably use it though. Thats what it was made for.

I have come across that before pull the fuel line off and either nothing comes out or just a dribble of oil and when you remove the primer cap it is full of oil.
Sapper as you say you got the deal of the century. That mower shop in Bankstown are nothing but a bunch of mongrels, the last of those Victas were selling for $599 and the fact he had not mixed the fuel and just put oil in first shows they did not give him any instructions on anything to do with a 2 stroke. I am disgusted with people like that but you had a good win congratulations and get rid of that Tornado before it rusts out

Here are a few images.

Totally agree Norm, but whoever bought it is one sorry soul. I cannot believe nothing was done about it to be honest, poor bugger.

Actually, now that I look at the engine serial, is that a correct one for a Mustang? Isn't it supposed to be VEX60? Perhaps this guy was ripped off more than we thought, or is that correct?

Hey there Sapper,

that is certainly the steal of the century right there. I believe it was relatively rare to see that base with a two stroke, especially so late.
I say use it as you wanted a mower that will last and as you are meticulous as you say with your stuff, it will have the best chance of doing just that. It even has a wash port included!!

What a steal and you haggled over it. King of the kids with that one now. I wasn't thinking when I said the last of them were selling for $599 they were the standard steel bodies, not the alloy bodies, I didn't realize they were $200 more, that is a superb machine.

Hi NormK,
fully agree on your last remark. What a dream come true.
Sapper, I just realised in that last picture you have the first PT Mustang sitting next to the last!!
You have a museum display in your garage.
Thanks for the pictures and your fabulous story.

Thanks guys,

When I first saw it and looked closer, I couldn't believe it. Then I saw the oil mass, and the bit out of the fuel line, and remembered someone here posting a similar finding and I suddenly became very tense. "Wtf is going on here" I remember thinking. I kept slyly looking up at the counter, wondering if this was some kind of trick, and I remember thinking "Mustn't make this guy suspicious, pretend it is a pos and try for the lower price" though I would have paid the $70 if necessary, even though I had nagging doubts as to what was really wrong with it, but hey, a base and parts like this would be worth the cost.

But when it just worked straight away after cleaning it out, and the lovely purr of the engine, I couldn't stop smiling. The receipt find was just the icing on the cake, and I couldn't stop laughing and smiling haha.

Oh, I forgot to mention, the mulching plug was in the catcher too....

I will have to take a few more pics when I get the chance, especially next to the original PT Mustang. First and Last.

That is probably on of the best finds of all time Sapper

I wouldn't suggest flogging off the tornado - you have a good running long shaft PT with a fully known history that has been looked after. Run the deck into the ground, keep wheels, catcher flap, engine, blade disc, handles and axles (if not rusty)

God forbid anything happened to you Mustang engine, you have a direct replacement, plus enough interchangeable spares

Hello Tyler,

I was under the impression that the long shaft pt wouldn't fit on that alloy deck?

In any case, it is also a case of room. I have at the moment 5 mowers; The new Mustang, the 1984 Mustang, the Tornado, a bitsa Victa alloy mulch and catch with an older PT engine on it I scrounged that I am just about ready to flog off. and a Rover that I am fiddling with in the hope of getting running to flog off, or in case of failure, steal the excellent wheels and other assorted pieces, and I have already started getting a small trickle of offers for pickups. Sound pretty good doesn't it?

But on the other side of the ledger we have THE WIFE. THE WIFE is fairly easy going, but 5 mowers is starting to push the issue a bit, and while the quality of the newcomer has impressed her, I wasn't supposed to have this much 'stock' around at any one time. It is impacting on garage space, and I was kind of hoping to keep the 1984 Mustang and the new Mustang. I see what you mean, and the engine is in very good condition, but it all comes down to choices now. I will put some thought into it.

Sapper,
then again you can put the longshaft on a Talon, just have to wait for the Tornado to rust out, but if you don't use it it will last a long time LOL

I'm starting to think this mower should be kept stored until the Tornado body gives up the ghost which it will.
Restore/refurbish the 84 for keeps and out with the rest. Dismantle the trashed Tornado you found recently and keep the mechanical bits and other good parts like wheels, handles etc, store away and you're set.
Surely three mowers can be tolerated.
Then work on fitting the Tornado engines to other chassis to sell them and then start using the Mustang.

Just my ideas. It's difficult I know!

I was thinking the long shaft PT was for the 19 inch alloy decks as well

from what I can see, some 19in alloy have a ring under the 4 strokes, others don't

Now I have also worked out 19in alloy deck PT's use the EN73096A blade boss - the same as the tornado (long boss) as opposed to EN72644B (used on the 18 inch)

So you might be in the clear - the tornado engine may fit

Hi Tyler,
I figure the difference will be the shaft lengths in the 4 strokes, not the difference in the alloy bases

Hey guys,

Would Bruce know the definitive answer to this question? I am pretty sure Victa would be useless in this regard, as any contact with them would just get a sales drone with the term "2 Stroke" wiped from their programmed responses, let alone being able to tell me whether EN73096A or EN72644B are correct for a certain chassis.

In either case, the Tornado is in fact EN73160A while the Mustang says EN73160E, so the confusion in that area continues on. Or so the labels say.

Hi Sapper,
All the numbers mean zip to me, all I can tell you is the Tornado boss is 20mm longer than the standard boss, this is because the shaft is 20mm longer. The are several designs of blade carriers but they all fit on these bosses. To get the wider cuts they just fitted longer blades. Even the 22 inch machines used the same diameter blade carrier as the 18 inch machines they just used the big blades that are used on the 24 inch machines

Hey Norm,

And as you yourself have said before, the 4 stroke engines seem to have different shaft lengths? With some requiring rings, others not?

My previous idea of checking the shafts of 4 strokes at shops (and getting odd looks and comments no doubt) of 4 stroke Mustangs kind of went out the window after that.

I will test the waters with the Tornado and see what comes on the line. If I just get a bunch of bargain hunters and tip shop pricers contacting me, I will store it away/use it in tandem. I know others here would store the Mustang, but I want to use the damn thing, and unless there is something wrong with the manufacture of it, with the way I treat my equipment, it will long outlast me.

Sapper,
Briggs used to make the short shaft motors many years ago, 50mm but they seem to have all standardized to the 70mm shaft. Only odd ball one I found last week was one of those , we can't build them any cheaper or nastier Yardman toy self propelled pile of junk and that had a 50mm shaft

Mowers with the "used but well cared for" patina are very appealing indeed. You do you Sapper and enjoy what you sought out to do. It's a mower, not a Rolls!

They're would be plenty of others out there storing the last two strokes, you can bet on it.

Just avoid hitting rocks!