I guess you would need to have a mulch plug in the back of the mower Norm or make up a rear blade cowl so you don't loose air flow to throw the grass out ,then the base would need to be reinforced on the side where you cut the side discharge position out . The air flow is wrong with a rear discharge to be used as a side discharge as the rear discharge opens up mostly at the back where the side discharge opens up mostly at the side discharge port.
The rear side discharge sheet metal cover didn't seem to take off. I think people like the look of the Utility.
Pity we can't get 100 Utility bases stamped out at a cheap price.
I had forgotten about the rear discharge cover, nobody ever inquired about it, maybe the whole idea is dumb but the little sidethrow utilities are a cracking machine to use on long grass. I used one a few days ago and it just blitzes it. Pity they are in limited numbers
I was lucky enough to find a discarded PT ute chassis at a mower shop skip bin a year ago, complete with good wheels and the high capacity tank. I had found a domestic PT with worn out (but a still useable) surface rust coated rear catcher deck which turned out to have a good motor after a quick clean of the carb and moved it over to the ute which I now use as the household mower! Funny thing is the other mower had a chute attached to the back.
Last edited by Mowerfreak; 05/03/2204:39 PM.
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
There is not one word I am allowed to use on this forum to describe how I feel about these float needles/primer caps. The words I can use do not describe how I feel about them
I'd try pushing the old seat out of an old cap and pull the new seat out and push the old seat into the new cap as I use new needles in old caps and none have had a problem.
I think the new caps you could cut the seat to get a bigger seat but it's so small it's very difficult to see how much you are cutting the seat
Hi Max, I don't think there is any taper cut into the seats, It is very hard to see but I think they are cut flat and stuff the end user. When I use the cotton bud to polish the seat the end of the cotton bud ends up completely square with no sign of taper at all. Typical of Chinese manufacturing junk
Yes I've seen some like that with very minimum taper ,I might try putting an old brass seat into a new cap and see how that works with the Viton needle.
I've had a few new manufactured items from China that don't work from day one but usually you can use parts from the second hand item to get them working.
I have been trying to work out how I can cut a bit of a seat into them. I thought I had solved the problem cleaning the burr off the inside but that is only partially fixing the problem lately. Ok so now I have tried to cut a miniscule seat using a pointed Dremel HSS tip by hand with a couple of turns. I have pushed up on the float with a lot more pressure that the fuel could ever do and the float still drops. Some of the needles I have had to grind a fraction off the end to allow the float to drop enough to allow the fuel to flow. I will see if the seats now stop the fuel or I have to throw the caps out
Today, partial success , but still patchy. I reamed the seats and got the needles to drop without issues. Problem is some times fuel pours out the primer bulb. Put another needle in and it can work fine, motor starts straight up and works fine. Using this method I ended up getting 4 mowers starting and running fine. This method appears to be working but it is time consuming getting a needle and seat to work together but it appears now that once I get them working in this manner, they seem to keep starting and working fine. I will see how they shape up tomorrow, but this seems about the most success I have ever had with these caps and needles. Time will tell
Hi Max, I think the tiny reamer is the best option, it is nice and sharp and I can control it easily in a small chuck and give it a couple of turns with a bit of pressure on it. It pulls out small shaving of brass. I don't think there is much between the different suppliers they all seem as bad as each other, they are all coming out of the same factory. I would like to do another half dozen just to see if this is the answer
Latest update is all 4 mowers fired up this morning, a couple fired up and stopped a couple of time but eventually fired up and ran fine. Can I say for sure this fixes the problem, I'm not sure but at this stage I feel comfortable with these 4 that they have been fixed. I have wasted massive hours dealing with this Chinese junk but hopefully this info may help somebody in the future
Checked a couple of them today to see what was happening, one started up fine but the second one just flooded out the primer bulb. I guess I can live with a 50% strike rate
Hi Danny, you can always try them nothing to loose, just a bit of time. The different colours are different lengths, you put the needle in the cap and put the float on and put it up to the light so you can check when the float is up the float doesn't hit on the body of the cap. When you look at it you will see what I mean. Then fit the cap to the carby body and see what happens, either stick up or flood out the primer bulb
I need a yellow to complete the set...or are there others?
I was given a Victa Tornado mower (blue one) earlier in the year from a bloke who still seems to find stuff by the roadside (Campelltown NSW area}. I used it back in May and it started first time and worked fine. I went to start it a week ago and nothing, then noticed fuel dripping out of the primer cover(not the bulb).
I pulled the cover and the black needle was reluctant to part company with it's seat. Anyway, cleaned it all up, dropped everything, cleaned it all up, put it back together again and after blowing out the filter and, just because I came across some, gave it a puff of Aerostart down the tube. Went like a bought one. I suppose I can expect more trouble with that plastic needle? I have learnt that the black needles are probably hardest to find on the garage floor!
Hi Danny, There is no science or black art with the needles, it is just a complete crapshoot, keep trying till you find something that works and then keep your fingers crossed that it continues to work
Latest update from the front. Of the 4 motors I set up with the reamed seats, 2 are now working fine as I have been starting them once a day and they fire straight up. The third one is a PT on a 24 and it starts but takes several pulls. This 24 is one I filled the pulley with lead and I'm thinking the starting problem is most likely the lead is not quite enough spinning mass to allow the motor to kick over. It still has a minimal kickback on the odd occasion so I will work on adding some extra weight.The 4th motor, sometimes fuel pours out of the primer bulb so this one I believe is a needle problem. One interesting thing is that on these 4 test motors I have used needles that I have previously rejected as faulty so now I believe the needles were not the cause of all the problems, it was the seats in the new primer caps all along. I will go through all the reject needles I have and test them all but I believe they are only a minor part of the problem. The saga rolls on
Out of interest, as it seems the seats have been the problem the whole time, perhaps a good test would be to set up a test rig that will hold a primer cap and have a sizable tank above creating decent head pressure.
Then ream the seat and put a completed cap in the apparatus with an old plastic needle. If the bore of the seat is smooth enough to decently seal on a plastic needle, it will seal great on a viton tip and in theory would have no burr to catch the rubber
