OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Engines Questions On Victa Two Stroke Engines VC 160 Zip start issue

Interesting. The decomp on my 84 green Mustang is a sealed unit. Must have been only a few early examples that are take apart. Never knew they existed.

Have a look at my refurbishment of the Yellow Vortex.
https://www.outdoorking-forum.com.au/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/113126/1.html

I fixed the starter today and look what top it is.
It turned out it had a missing fibre washer. Fortunately I had a spare in my container of parts and now it's gripping well despite one of the fibre washer's backing plates being detached.
I used brake cleaner to remove any traces of lubricant.
I now know what I'm doing thanks to you maxwestern explaining how they operate.

Yep when the starter parts are in good condition these starters work well but if you don't have spares ,
it's not worth spending much money on these mowers if you're selling them ,that's when Norm's fix would be more cost
effective Mf.

Outdoorking sell parts for these starters so it's not too expensive to fix the mowers starter, for a keeper.



Cheers
Max.

Yes it's very good that Norm has devised a tried and tested method to get slipping pawls to engage the cup should you be unable to fix the core problem with the zip starter mechanism itself.

Wish I knew this decades ago.

Now should it start slipping likely due to the separated friction washer to it's metal backing, will super glue do a good enough job reattaching to the metal washer with square location hole or is there a specific adhesive you recommend instead like epoxy glue?

I've never seen the friction washer glued to the steel washer Mf ,but they can get stuck on the steel washers from age.

Okay. It's the reverse situation. I'll leave it as is unless it shows signs of slippage.

This is one I just did, I do them all before I fit them saves messing about and pulling the starter off and on. This time I just used a hacksaw blade and it was much easier and quicker than the file, all done in under 10 mins

Good job Norm. It would have cost Victa $.002 to treat them per engine. Unacceptable cost.

I would think only one pawl would lock into the hack-sawed line at a time Norm but must be enough to stop the starter slipping.

A couple of points we didn't mention is the pawl holder can't be installed upside down because the pawls will not
engage with the cup because of the 2 flat edges on the pawl holder, they keep the pawls straight when they engage
with the cup.

The pawls can't be reversed ,the hole in the pawl is off centre in the vertical direction. If you tried installing them
backwards the friction washer would not be in contact with the centre of the pawl holder on one side.

Cheers
Max.

Not sure how it works Max, but I think the second it grabs the other side would grab as well. Not that it matters much how it works, they work very well and grab withing 100mm of pulling on the cord and they never slip and I have been doing them this way for a number of years now

G'day maxwestern,
I noticed when I dismantled it yesterday. Another :

Even if only one pawl is doing most of the work gripping the cup, it will all average out as far as wear and you'll turn over the engine in the end.

Yep, pawls can’t be reversed because of the shape of the inner components and their fit around the mechanism which won’t operate correctly if they are.

Friction washers frequently stick to the steel washers of the starter mechanism but this isn’t an intended part of the design. It just happens because of long term contact and moisture in the atmosphere.

You have to assemble the whole thing the right way up and in the correct order as specified in the manual. That part is available here on the site. I’d put a link in but it’s easy enough to find.

My pawls that I hardened work well. I guess they changed to a less expensive source for the pawls at some point? Which would explain why some seem to last a long time and others are problematic.

Hey all,

Just letting you know that Norm's fix has worked a treat for months now, everything great. An old hacksaw blade did the trick, and it catches nice and easy when starting. The mower itself starts first go and runs perfectly, so the bloke wasn't telling porkies.

MF, I think I got the decomp mixed up. Looking at it now on the new PT here, I reckon it is actually one of the old top mounted decomps off the VC160's, but it seems to work perfectly with a 2016 PT, so I certainly won't complain. Now that I think about it, the rebuild kit I got for the decomp said "VC 160 decomp rebuild kit" which should have given the game away.

Just while I have you here; Old G4 carb on a VC160 I am rebuilding. It has a black poppet needle, with no markings on it, but does have the control knob for idle revs. What is the best way to replace this without having the old A, B and 3 markings on the poppet needle?

Hi Sapper,

From memory the black poppet valve is shorter and is used on the Victa Vortex that runs at a lower RPM also
used in the Victa compact 85cc so it's not suited to the VC 160cc.

The A B C poppet should be used with the correct carby body.

Cheers
Max.

I only use the ABC poppets and always set them on C except one recently that was running rich, no idea why so I set it to A and it runs fine and this was on a 24 inch slasher

Thanks Max and Norm,

I wonder how and why this black one got in there? Ah what am I thinking, it is a Victa carby, I should be getting used to finding 500 different parts in the same carb by now. I will dig out one of my spare marked poppets and give it a go.

Hi Sapper, maxwestern and NormK,

Sapper, only decompression valves with the longer stem are rebuildable. I did not know they could be run on a PT. Must be a somewhat awkward fit.

NormK, I remember you said you just stick in the first poppet valve that comes to hand with your rebuilds/modified G4 carbs.

Maxwestern, how do you tell which body goes with a certain poppet valve?

Hey MF, how is everything?

The fit is ok. The most difficult part was the 90 degree angle for the hose to go on, so I just took my time getting the vacuum hose around so it went on to the 90 degree stem and off it went. If I remember, I will take a photo of it tomorrow and post it up so you can have a look.

Hey Sapper,
in the process of getting rid of some mowers at long last. Trying to separate the non ferrous metals. Quite a bit of work at times. I aquired a very sorry looking red 83 -84 Vortex and with a bit of fillers and paint, got it appearing almost like new! After replacing some minor missing parts like decompression valve, some vacuum hoses and giving the carby a squirt with carb cleaner, it came to life very well. I had to travel to Cessnock to get this Gumtree freebie.

I also restored the yellow one.