OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Restoring, Customising and Modifying Victa Walk-Behind Rotary Mowers My First Attempt at a Restoration

Hey MF, I was just talking with the missus about how we came to have two mowers in that picture and my girls doing it and she reminded me of something; that was four days after I had my heart attack in 2014 and she got the girls to borrow the neighbour's mower and do it all before I came home and became to eager to do it myself lol.

Your darling daughters are can do people. Who needs sons?!!
So sorry you had to go though that. I regularly fear having one myself whenever I feel pain in my arm, chest or jaw. A scary thing the thought of dropping dead any moment.

Glad you made a recovery to keep on mowing!

Also glad you made a recovery. How many bypasses?

The guy over the road had a heart attack (then triple bypass) the same day as his mate 1 door down. 3 weeks later, I hear the mower, and he's out there mowing. His 2 sons wouldn't help him.

I offered to finish the lawn off, but he refused. Back to smoking a pack a day as well now

Good to see your daughters helped

Thats also one good reason to have 4 stroke engines - people not used to mowing can just put straight fuel in them without harm (so long as it doesn't run out of oil).

I know guys who keep a file containing relavent garden info just in case. Eg - sprinkler controller basic settings, how to start mower, line trimmer, check oil, mix 2 stroke.

Thx guys. Although the cardiologist said it wasn't a good one (as heart attacks go) I only had a one stent put it. I wasn't much overweight and ate pretty well, but I had a lot of Poo going on in my life at the time and I guess a combination of things set it on motion. Going fine now though. I never at any point got concerned that I would pass away. Life is much ore relaxed now, although having three daughters can be a bit stressful at times lol.

Oh dear. I don't know how I did it, even though I thought I checked it over twice, but I ordered the wrong coil. I managed to find the correct one eventually, apparently the last one, at All Mower Spares, so hopefully will be able to try getting a spark within a couple of weeks. I might as well start working on the second project in the meantime lol. I guess there's no hurry really.

I thought it was a bits strange you managed to find a SPFC coil so easily - they are a bit like hens teeth (especially NOS).

Number should be MA05495a or similar - what number have you ordered?

The original says MA05506A so that’s what I’ve ordered. Yeah, wasn’t easy to find.

If you ordered a coil for a PT you should have tried it, it is something I want to try when I get a chance.

The pic is the original I took off. I couldn’t try the one that came because the spark lead was too short and it can’t be removed otherwise I would’ve tried it with my longer lead

You could extend the lead if you wanted to to try it. These coils are getting a bit hard to find these days as they were only used on the side pull full crank motors. This is why I am interested in seeing if I can get a PT coil to work on the full crank cradle. I do know the terminals are reversed but hopefully that won't be a problem. I will get to it one day.

I’ve already ordered the right one and the seller is happy for me to return it so I don’t really want to muck about with the lead, but thanks.

What a damned pain in the a-hole. I ordered a new replacement coil from All Mower Spares a month ago and when I asked for an update on my purchase, they tell me their supplier didn't in fact have any to sell, so they're sorry for any inconvenience caused, but have refunded my money. Well they can stuff their sorries in a sack. Their online store said they had one in stock. I paid for it. Why wait until I ask them a month later to give me the update. How unprofessional. So I'm back to having to source another coil and then wait for that to arrive. Sheeeeeesh. I'm so sick of the lack of professionalism in today's society. Seems to be rampant across the board these days.

What a bunch of bludgers. That supplier needs an earful. Retail service in Australia in general is plain awful. Customers totally taken for granted.

I looked at the time, it said their supplier is GA for that part
GA have not had that part on their books since at least 2015. And it hasn’t been on their website for at least 3 years.

So to say it’s the SUPPLIER fault is bullsh*t. It is THEIR fault.

I am on the phone to EMPR computer parts (Toshiba registered preferred supplier). I ordered an internal screen cable 21/9/20. 4-6 week lead time. Turns out they cancelled the order on the 14/10 and never told me.

Luckily I pulled the laptop down and did a temp fix. For a 5 year old nearly $2000 laptop at the time, that is complete and utter bullsh*t.

Will be going HP next time, who apparently keep parts 10-15 years.

HP don't make the prettiest equipment, but that leaves other better reasons to buy their products.
I bought a pack of 5 blank DVDs with individual cases and fancy packaging (forget brand) claiming it's good for 100 years archiving footage and after a decade in my drawer they wouldn't record. My blank DVDs made by HP that came in a 50 pack stack, still record fine after having them about the same amount of time.

Dan,
If you get super stuck I can send you one but I would do it with great reluctance because I hate feeding that bitch at Aus Post. I have vowed several times that I would never under any circumstances ever post anything again using that thieving mob

Thanks Norm. Appreciate the offer. Will see how it pans out.

So, the saga continues. I got the new replacement coil in the mail from outdoorking.com (is that affiliated with this site?) and anyway, the coil that arrived has a different wiring setup than my original and I'm wondering how I should got about connecting it together.

Just swap the connectors and use the old coil as a guide. Your very lucky to have got a new one.
Hopefully NormK can give more details.

Hi Dan,
This is going on a sidepull from memory and this coil from what I see requires an ignition module to get spark. Did your motor have a module fitted, most did but some of the later ones had the electronic coil. I will check it out in the morning to see which wires need to be connected. I have to pull the flywheel off a motor in the morning and after cleaning up and finding new homes for everything I have to go looking for my puller. At a guess I would think the green wires connect to the black wire from the coil with the round connector. These can be connected to one of the coil mounting screws. The other wires are then connected together

I have a module on it yes. I know how the wires normally connect, but the new coil has wires on it that my old coil didn’t and my original wiring doesn’t connect straight onto the new coil wires, so I’d have to do some rewriting of the ends to be able to join them and I’m not too clever with such things. Here are the two coils; my original one being the one of the right.

Hi Dan

Go down to supercheap and buy one of these (if you don't already have one) https://www.supercheapauto.com.au/p.../562987.html?cgid=SCA0106060403#start=11

I hate electrics with a passion, but had to put in a new alarm system battery - and one of the terminals had to be cut off due to corrosion. Did it in 5 minutes - not hard at all

First cut the old bits off, 2 strip the wire - probably a 1.0 thickness. Note, turn the whole crimper to slice through the plastic coating right the way around, then pull outward to get it off.

Put on the correct size connector and crimp it closed using the equivalent size at the top (blue connector = crimp location beside blue dot)



If I can do it, anyone can

Hi Dan,
the only difference is the original coil has spade terminals on it and the new one has wires protruding. Cut the ends off and connect them up with terminal connectors or do as Tyler suggested

Thanks Tyler. I already had one and have done it now. Cheers The design of the coil is a bit of a nuisance though, because you have to mind how you attach it to the e-coil as the wiring can interfere with the cowling.

(A SHORT TIME LATER)

Woohoo, I managed to get a spark, so that's one issue solved! Tomorrow I'll see if I can get her started. I was too tired to get into it today so looking forward to testing it.

Just so you know why the wires are different Shannon, the new coil is from the earlier cup starter type motors with the coil mounted inside the flywheel, not outside as it is on the sidepull.

I went to test the pull and something was causing a major clunk. So I pulled the cover and cowl off yet again and saw that the magnets on the flywheel were hitting the e-coil, which I didn't think could move, but sure enough they had just a couple millimetres of play when I loosened the bolts. I tightened the bolts with a gap enough for the magnets to pass by. The last thing to attach was the new cutting blades. I was really happy that she started first go and gave it a little test mow. Worked just fine, if not a little fast on the revs, but I can adjust that on the carby. All in all I'm pretty happy with the result and proud of myself for accomplishing this project. Thanks for all the advice guys.

Video of it running Mowing Test

Well done Dan

In case you are wondering, you adjust top end speed via the port on the cowl the rear vac hose plugs onto. The knob on the carby only does idle adjustment

https://www.outdoorking-forum.com.au/forum/u...que-high-speed-adjustment.html#Post76965

Thanks Tyler. I had no idea about that. I’ll give it a try next time I start it. Cheers.