OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Walk Behind Lawn Mower Frames Question On Scott Bonnar Cylinder Mowers My $20 Scott Bonnar Lawn King

Hi Guys,

Well every now and again one has to get lucky.

I managed to pick up at auction a Scott Bonnar Lawn King 17 inch mower and 2 fertiliser spreaders for a whole $20. The mower was listed as salvage because the pull start cowling was removed but included in the sale.

I spent about 10 minutes on it and had the engine up and going, the reel is another issue as it has a ceased bearing, but that's not much of an issue either as I've stripped the machine down and cleaned all the chains, sprockets and drive gear. The clutch assembly is fine as are most of the other major components.

I do require a few little bits to do a full restoration on the mower but most of those are just the regular consumables like catcher rest rubber blocks etc. and reproduce the "Lawn King" stickers at the end of the resto job as they are not available thru any of the sticker reproducers as yet.

The one odd part I require and I guess it would have to come from a wrecked chassis that's never going to be rebuilt is the small steel square blocks that are welded (one each side) to both side plates of the chassis on which the catcher rubbers mount onto.

If anyone has a wrecked chassis its merely just a quick hit with a 4 inch angle grinder to grind off the weld on the outside which will release the mounting block out of its location hole in the side plate.

Now my next query is what was the Lawn King all about as it used the (orange coloured) smaller powered 2 HP B&S motor on a 17 inch machine, chassis was painted Hammertone Blue and also had the more standard slasher type mower wrap around handle bar opposed to the criss cross style bars we are used to seeing on a SB 45. The stickers on the catcher and chain cover identifies it as a "Lawn King by Scott Bonnar".

My thoughts are it was a budget version of the SB45 designed to do smaller lawns due to the base unit 2 HP engine being fitted opposed to the standard 3 HP unit with the larger petrol tank ???????

If any of you guys have any ideas on the origins of this model I'd love to hear your opinion. I have seen the thread on this forum of a restoration of the exact same machine as I have, so it tells me nothing has been substituted as mine looks totally original.

Also if anyone has that small part (rubber block mount) on a wrecked chassis I'd only been too happy to buy it and thus keep another Bonnar all original and on the lawn (not the road) so to speak.

Cheers,
Marty. (bonnar_bloke)

Thought I'd add some pics of the $20 machine, but all I get is after about 10 seconds is the "This Page Can't Be Displayed" screen. Beats me what I'm doing wrong.

I have been havin that problem for weeks now. Are u on a mobile?

I have also been having that problem, reducing pic size to under 600kb helped for me, but nothing bigger will upload

Hi Nathan,
No I'm trying to do it from my PC at home. The "posting Photos" section tells us that photos up to 4 mb will be accepted and mine is only 2.8mb so I have no idea what's happening.

Cheers,
BB

Well Here we go with a reduced file size


As Commissioner Gordon shouted in the original Batman Movie " Success Success"

Well this is the first time I've uploaded any photos onto this site. The trick is to keep the file size to a maximum of 2mb and no longer 4mb as said by Bruce when the site used the old server. This is totally due to space constraints, anyway here's the shot of my $20 Lawn King.

BTW does anyone have the correct air cleaner box spare as this one has a vertical B&S motor air cleaner fitted.

I will be doing a complete ground up restoration of this one with photos on a new thread showing the whole process from start to finish.

Also as this one has a near perfect "Lawn King" decal on the catcher I have taken accurate photos of it and passed them on to Grant who does all our early mower decals on this site and as such he's on the case of making them available to the public. This decal is the same on both the catcher and the Chain case and I shall be taking exact measurements of where they are to be fitted as per factory before I strip this machine back to bare metal,

For now cheers to all !

BB

Hi BB and on a great score for $20!
It seems in great condition for its age, and will restore to fantastic condition.
Please keep us updated with plenty of pics as you go along....this will be great for the Scottie archives. If we can help you with any probs, just post your questions here mate.

Is it the same chassis as a model 45 (looks like it) I can cut any part from a model 45 im scrapping (im not sure what it would cost to post a bare chassis but it would probably be extortionate.)

Hi Joe, if you're going to wreck out the chassis, can you please save for me the clutch fork attachment fitting, that is spot welded to the flat plate between the rails.
Here's a pic of the part....
This will be perfect for a future project.
Many thanks Joe,

Hi Joe,

I've been off line for about 3 weeks now due to moving house and changing ISP's at the same time, thus I haven't been able to respond, but I'm fully up and running now.

The part that I require (square steel mount block for catcher rubber) would only need to have the weld ground off on the outside of the side plate and then punched out with a drift of suitable size. Taking that into consideration it would only cost a couple of $ to put into a bag and send via the postal system.

The Lawn King was a budget version of the Model 45 using the smallest motor (the 2.0 HP)and the Pram handle bars, but it's the lovely Pacific Blue colour that makes it stand out from the crowds.

Cheers,
Bonnar Bloke

Hi DeeJay,

Do you still require the Clutch Fork bracketry from a chassis that's going to scrap as I have a knackered Red Rover that will be heading that way shortly and I could cut the bracket off prior to sending it to China and returning as a piece of Reo rod ??

Let me know and we'll sort something out getting it to you.

Cheers,
BB

BB, may be a good idea to PM Deejay, so he doesn't miss this.

Many thanks BB and Gadge....Yes that would be great, I still have the future project in mind, and would gladly accept these parts. Please PM me the details, and we can sort it out.
Thanks BB,

Hi deejay,

It's all your's.

I'll get the 5 inch grinder out tomorrow with a cutting wheel on it and remove the rails off the side plates as they might come in handy for a Solid deck retro fit when we ever get kits up and going.

Speak to you soon.

Cheers,
BB