OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Engines Questions On Briggs & Stratton Engines 625 EXi

Gave it a bit of a run today, some of the grass was a bit long and it handled it fine, no issues with the cutting height, with the heavy blade carrier it had a nice solid feel to it (I didn't use it before with the bar blade so I can't really compare it) but I would say that if these mowers were modified in this manner they would be a pretty good machine. I don't know how robust the gearbox is I guess time will tell with that. I really wonder with all the people having cutting height problems maybe the Chinese kid putting them on was putting them on upside down, could be, all I can think of.

Hi NormK,
was this after doing any work on the engine?
Could you try an oval two blade carrier on your next conversion? Is a lathe essential for all of them such as the 16" Aldi mower you did?
I have read one review where their self propelled system stopped working, leaving a heavy mower to push around.
It seems the much needed momentum of a blade disc might well be the magic bullet to many of the bar bladed mowers out there. A good use for all the excess blade carriers and catchers from rusted away steel Victas out there.

MF,
all I did was fit a new air filter, to be honest I didn't even use the self propelled today I just pushed it I didn't notice it being all that heavy. I might be working on the other one you mentioned on ebay and doing the conversion on it although he wants to do the 4 blade not the 2. The one I was using today has been handed back to the owner so I won't be trying the 2 blade conversion on it. By the sound of it it probably won't be long before they start popping up everywhere

Norm, I will just rebirth this thread instead of making a new one

Have a guy whos sick of his thunder flintstoning its way over the lawn (lots of spinning, not much propelling) and not keen on bar blades.

I have a victa winged boss and 18in disc and 19 blades. so we need to lower the blades a bit

The only problems I see the combined SP pulley and blade boss key with a chamfered end( will cut that in half as the new boss has an inbuilt key) and the boss height

My question is, did you turn some of the top of the boss down to get clearance between the boss and the SP pulley so the boss will seat on the end of the crank?

Or did it just bolt on

Hi Tyler,
sorry, can't remember a lot about it, been a while now. I remember turning the blade boss down, obviously to suit the round disc and then I probably pumped the center of the blade carrier up to lower the blades. Was a bit of messing around but it ended up a reasonable mower in the end. I think there was also the problem of the bar blade being on upside down which didn't help matter much. Unless you get the blades low enough the body will drag on the ground causing the wheelspin problem

Thanks Norm

By the look of it I need to grind a bit of the top of the boss off and add some washers between it and the crank

Not sure where you are heading with it Tyler, are you going to continue with the bar blade but trying to get it lower. I can't remember if the drive pulley and boss were one piece or not, but I can't remember removing the belt so I assume they are separate. I do remember turning the boss down for the round blade carrier and I fitted 4 blades to it.

No desire to keep the bar blade Norm, The boss and pully are separate, I think it will work ok

Tyler,
With the round disc fitted it made the mower feel more solid, obviously removes some of the higher level vibrations the bar blades can't remove. I can't remember the weight difference between to disc with 4 blades and the single bar

The blade feels about 800 grams Norm.

The blade disc would be 3 times that easily