OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Finding and Swapping Idle Chatter A special mower get's a makover.

Of all the mowers that have come, gone and stayed, there is only one mower I have had the privilege of knowing since it was new.

In the early 90's my grandfather bought a Power torque utility, and over the years it always ran well, by the time I got into mowers, at about 13, it was starting to need a little work, the first thing was the cowl, which went from orange to red due to cracks and chips.

then later the base rust gave way, and the engine hit the ground running, so a new base was on the cards, going from silver to red, and a new cowl soon after, this time black.

Along the way the engine has needed very little, a new spark plug boot, and a repair to one of the cut out wires.

A few years ago the mower moved onto my parents lawn, and it's life became a little harder, moving from my grandparents flat suburban yard to a very steep, tricky and in parts rough acre, and it's light weight and tough engine made it perfect for the Job.

Last weekend I was up visiting, and I repaired my parent whipper snipper, while i was in the shed, I noticed a crack forming around one of the engine mounts on the mower, so I popped it in the boot, and brought it home for a new base this week.

It's now on the new base (silver) and during the migration I found the blade disk to be quite badly damaged (I don't thing it would have been to long till ejection) so I have swapped that out to.

I have also decided to give it a makeover, with a VS-160 cowl, comfort grip handles, new wheels, lever locks, and a new muffler, as well as filters, spark plug and blades.

It's also getting a full clean up, and having the governed speed returned down to normal (time has revved it up a notch) so by the end of this it should be looking quite flashy.

The engine however has never really faltered, and continues to power on strong, unlike allot of the newer power torque engines, it can handle the rough load.

I'll have pictures up soon of it's makeover, so far it's coming along great, and should get another 10 years out of it's new base, and I really cant see the engine giving out any time in the next 20 years.

Hi Ty, you're a good lad for doing this for your parents....and the old girl will now soldier on hopefully for years! I guess one day you will inherit this machine and also know its complete history. Magic!!
Looking forward to seeing the pics mate....

Here we go,

Here she is on arrival this time:



Here's the crack in the base, it's not much at the moment, But I thought it best to get it now as I already had the replacement base:


And here is what I found when I pulled it apart, a blade disk that's certainly not a keeper, and may not have held on too much longer!



and of coarse, here is where she's up to

In today's light I noticed the base was actually worse than I thought!!







All good though, the new base has worked out well, and this base actually found a good home with a friend who needed a base to use as a trolley for a small air compressor.

If you really want an orange cowling let me know

I probably would Joe, is that the flat top type, or the round one.

This mower will get the modern looking VS-160 cowl, just to spruce it up, but at this point the only one I have of those is on my daily mow, so i will be borrowing it for now, and getting myself a new cowl later.

Orange would suit my mower well!

I might have a little something here for you too...

Same shape as the one in the background of the last photo of the new base, needs a little rejuvenating but is solid and has a large fuel tank on it

Cool, That should look pretty good on my mower!

I'll get some pic's together of my little find for you!

Id say that disc caused the base cracking.

I have a feeling your on the money there Bob, damn lucky it was found too, that could have ended badly!

Dont turf that orange base out Ty. Plenty of handy bits on it.


Do you have a handle mount tank??? Ive got a few short cowls here.

Ahh, the orange base has found a new home, A friend of mine needed a base to mount a small compressor on, and it was perfect for the Job.

I do have a handle mount tank somwhere... Hmm, that could be an interesting idea...

Perhaps keep the handle mount tank for the other one with the series 70 on it.

I think I might, It's a newer tank, so I will need to change the fold to separate dual levers, but otherwise it should fit well!