Hello to all of you wonderful people, I hope everyone is safe and well. I have had the good fortune to obtain 2 Atco mowers. I would like to know the model and year of manufacture. The reel is 20 inches wide on both of the mowers. One has a tag the other does not. I have attached some photo's to try to help with my request. I wish to restore them to as close to original condition as possible. The first 3 photo's are of the mower without a tag.
the mower with the tag 2048, indicates this is a 20 inch cut built in 1948 (English mower), re the mower with no tag, remove the aluminium cover off the engine flywheel (held on by 3 screws) stamped on the flywheel you will find numbers stamped, I have found on the ones I have looked at 3 sets of numbers, reading them from the left the last one on the right is the date. To confirm this take the cover off the mower with the tag as well it should have 48 stamped there, this is only an indicator as the mower with no tag could have had an engine transplant over its lifetime. Have fun, I started on one of my 5 Atcos yesterday very simple mower, providing each mower is complete, not all mine are so one may end up as a spare parts mower.
Hi Beech, Thank you for your information. I am of the belief that these mowers came from the original owner. His grandson thinks that everything on these are original. I suppose time will tell if that is true. The mower with the tag has a angle iron frame section at the rear which looks as if it could hold a battery or something of that size. See attached photo.
That is interesting, I must admit I have not seen that before but it may be some addition that was fitted by Atco to mount an attachment, or on the other hand has been fitted by the owner for his own purposes, someone else on the forum may know more.
I don't know if you can date the mower by these numbers unless you can get hold of the manufacturers listings. The date numbers I am referring to are under the aluminium plate that is held on by 3 screws to the flywheel, quite easy to remove and the numbers are stamped at the end of one of the spokes near the edge of the flywheel.
I don't know if you can date the mower by these numbers unless you can get hold of the manufacturers listings. The date numbers I am referring to are under the aluminium plate that is held on by 3 screws to the flywheel, quite easy to remove and the numbers are stamped at the end of one of the spokes near the edge of the flywheel.
Arty, some how I have attached two photos, but you can see the right hand number is 3.56 which I take as being March 1956 what the other two numbers are I have no idea, that right hand number also matches on other mowers I have. I hope from the photo you can understand which plate on the flywheel I am referring to.
Beech, I found the numbers you are referring to, but, they are not the same as your photo. Please have a look at what I have and let me know what you think. The aluminium one is on the mower without a tag.
The first mower is an Atco light mower they were a new post war design. They began production of the 12 & 14 inch first About 1946/7 with the 17 & 20 inch versions following in about 1950. This mower has the cone clutch and sideways facing pepper-pot exhaust which makes it most likely a 1952/3 mower. The clutch changed in 1954 to a plate clutch and the 20 inch mowers received the 98cc Villiers engine in place of the 79 cc Atco Villiers engine.
The other mower is was made in 1948 and was the model produced between about 1947 and 1949/50 before going to the light design. Engine is a 147cc Villiers. Flywheel date is 1946 but this may have been swapped at some point.
Arty, you have two different engines there, the one with the aluminium flywheel looks like the engine with the 45mm bore and the other may be the 50mm bore. You can also see the different construction of the mowers, the what I will call the English mower has angle iron as a frame between the sides, I have not seen this before not that I have seen all Atcos, the other has the rod with pipe spacers holding the sides together, this is the common construction that I have observed, the clutch is different on each mower, the English has a 3 piece roller whereas the other is a 2 piece roller. I am hoping that someone with more Atco knowledge than me can help us both here, looking at the numbers I would say that one is the 8th month 1948 and the other is the 7th month 1948, but this begs the question why the differences in the mowers? It may be a silly question but have you actually measured the cutting width at 20 inches? There was a 17 inch model that had a 2 piece rear roller and the 20 inch cut had the 3 piece roller. I think that I have confused the issue more than helping, but I am sure we as a collective will get to the bottom of it.
can you also clear up the question of the 2 and 3 piece rollers? Did some 20 inch mowers have 2 piece rollers and others 3 piece? I can now see where you got the date of 1946 I was reading the numbers incorrectly, this is the beauty of these forums there is always someone who is willing to impart their knowledge to others.
more questions, re the photo I placed of a flywheel and ID tag, if I read the numbers on the flywheel left to right as per the brass flywheel on Arty's mower I come up with the year 1952, but reading the righthand number I come up with 1956 which matches the ID tag 1455/56, which is the year number the left or the right?
The three piece rollers were only used on the larger (pre 1950) version of the 20 inch. The 20 inch Atco light had a two piece roller. In the 14 inch Atco light the rollers were two piece up to the mid 1950's and then become one piece. It should be noted that three piece rollers were also used on the larger mowers.
With the flywheel, from memory it is the right hand number. Date would be 3/56.
I am absolutely astonished with how quickly this information has come to me. I must say thank you very much.
Now back on to the mowers.
From all this information can I assume that I have,
(a) An ATCO 20" Lightweight fitted with a 79cc Villiers two stroke engine, probably manufactured in 1952.
(b) An ATCO (Model?) 20" fitted with a 147cc Villiers two stroke engine, manufactured in 1948.
Question 1 Is there any schematic drawings of the rear roller assemblies? (I would like to disassemble for inspection and cleaning etc)
Question 2 Is there any schematic drawings of the clutches? ( I would like to clean and repair if required)
Question 3 Are Decals for these mowers available?
Question 4 Can anyone assist with a drawing or template of the grassbox for these mowers? ( I have asked the previous owner if his grandfather kept the grassboxes)
The 1948 mower has no model name and was just known as the Atco 20†motor mower. The date and cut width were the identifiers.
In terms of the questions:
1 & 2 - There are no assembly diagrams but these models have parts books that do show all of the components.
3 - Decals are available from a couple of suppliers. There is a fellow in SA that makes them but they are also available from the Old Lawnmower Club.
4 - Catchers/grassboxes are not the easiest to find for these particular mowers. Unfortunately, I do not have a template for either one. However, I know that they were made of aluminium and were well built (there was a steel version of the earlier box but I am not sure of the production dates). Both were different in design and had very different methods of attachment to the mower. The 1948 model had mushroom head pins (like the head of a coach bolt) on the side of the box that fit into slots on the mower frame. The 1952 model box had hanger brackets that hooked over the main spreader bars of the mower frame. The brackets also had an angled section that rested over the main side frames of the mower to keep it in position.
I have an aluminium grass catcher that came with my 1951 Atco which is an English model only 14 inch cut but I assume the shape is the same but wider, I cannot access the catcher at the moment (Covid Restrictions) but will take measurements and template and can draw up on CAD and post here, it may be sometime before I can do this.
On ebay silensmessor is the name of the decal site his name is Grant and good to deal with, go to ebay and search Atco Decal he will come up, he has quite a lot of decals for mowers.
these are a fairly simple mower so before you dismantle anything take a number of photos so you can go back to if you forget how the part was before dismantling.
For instance when working on the chain system it is easy to forget which side the tensioner mounts etc so lots of photos and you should not have any problems, for instance to remove the engine on the light you can take the two bolts from the engine mounts, or you can take off a nut from one end of the two rods that run across the mower and pull the rods out, when doing this there are a number of lengths of pipe and washers which will fall off as the rod comes out, again photos, photos.
Hi Sir Chook and Beech. Honestly between the two of you who needs a parts book.
Anyway I feel that the correct path for me to take is to dismantle the 20" Lightweight mower first. Take plenty of photo's and layout in order of disassembly. I will not dismantle the engine nor the rear roller at this time until I have completed the frame etc.
As the engine and the roller will be out of the mower at this time I am thinking that I may be able to glean some more information regarding the roller. I am fairly certain that the engine will not give me any major surprises, other than decoking and may be new rings. Well that's what I am hoping.
Regarding the other machine, I am a little apprehensive about the 3 piece rear roller, hence the decision to tackle the lightweight first. May be I will learn something from that.
I must say thank you very much for your help and expertise, I hope I can call on you for help when the time arises.
Beech, I will take you up on your very generous offer about the catcher for the lightweight. I am in no rush as this blasted covid is affecting all of us.
Sir Chook, The parts books that you refer to, can copies be obtained or just individual pages. Hopefully I will not need to purchase too many parts, .If I need parts are you able to assist me with their procurement?
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Hi Beech,
