OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Walk Behind Lawn Mower Frames Question On Scott Bonnar Cylinder Mowers New Member after info

Hi guys
Decided to join after stumbling across the forum whilst looking for parts
I have a Model 45 14" mower number 03944 briggs engine 61202 0144 01 dated 6808053
Which makes it relatively early I believe. If anyone has any further info on it that they could share that would be great. I have always had 45's as my dad and I have always had a love for lawns. Dad is the superintendent at a golf club which fortunately for us gives us access to a state of the art reel grinder and engineer which is very handy.
I have only recently picked this 45 up and have just rebuilt the clutch as the lining was shot and thrust bearing stuffed. She has had an oil change, degrease, carby tune and general going over and it runs a treat. It is getting taken in for reel grinding tomorrow and I have just a few more things to do, replace clutch cable, governor spring and a couple minor things. I may fully restore this one as it's in fair original condition. I would love any comments and opinions on it.
I am curious if I have a pulsa-jet on this one?
Hope you like it
Mike
Will post more pics as I go

Hi Mikegq, and a warm welcome to the forum.
It's always nice to welcome another Scott Bonnar Model 45 owner, as we all like to learn new things and tinker here.
Your machine is an early Series 1 Scotty (having the solid engine deck), and would have been manufactured in late 1968. The date of manufacture of the Briggs and Stratton is the 5th August 1968.
The solid deck Scotty's are more desirable as the Series 2 with the twin rail deck, are prone to fatigue cracking caused by engine vibration.

Your machine is in terrific original condition with the silver Briggs which is correct and with the TLC you are giving it, will give you hours of mowing pleasure.

Once again Mike, to OutdoorKing.

Hi Mike, and welcome also to the forum

Thanks for posting the pictures, the early 14" solid deck is my favourite of all the model 45's and yours is a great little mower. I bought a very similar one myself not long back and I absolutely love it. Here is a pic..



Going by your Briggs model, it should be a pulsa-jet. My own machine has had a carb and tank change at some point (hence the orange), but is a 60102 and still retains a vacu-jet. If you do end up restoring your machine, please post a thread, as I and others would love to see it!


Michael

Hi Mike, welcome to Outdoorking. Any model 61202 Briggs has a Pulsa-Jet carburetor - the same engine with a Vacu-Jet would be a 61102. There are two simple visual differences between the Pulsa-Jet and the Vacu-Jet - one of which was found only on those early versions with the pull-out choke. First and easiest to pick, the pull-out choke's grip runs vertically on the Pulsa-Jet and horizontally on the Vacu-Jet. (See red oval in illustration below) Second, and only found on the horizontal crankshaft Pulsa-Jet, is a bolted-on fuel pump (see green oval below. The Vacu-Jet does not have a fuel pump:


There may be a digit missing from the Code you have quoted: there are usually 8 digits. If you can find a missing one, we could perhaps identify the plant which manufactured it.

Here is the Illustrated Parts List for your engine:
http://bsintek.basco.com/BriggsDocumentDisplay/Z6jmsHVJ1DajI.pdf

You will see that the IPL shows the old Briggs kill-switch (as on rolla16v's 60102) which grounds the spark plug's HT electrode. Yours does not have this feature - if it has a kill switch integrated into the engine speed control, this will mean it was one of the differences between Briggs' first design generation (second digit in the model number is 0) and the second design generation (second digit is a 1). On the other hand, if yours has no kill switch at all, it will mean that this change did not happen until the third design generation, and your spark-plug-grounding switch has fallen off. Please let us know which of these is the case.

Thanks for all the great info guys. Very helpful. Grumpy I have the missing shorting lever but it is bent. Could someone please post a close up of one so I can rebend it. I imagine it was on the garage floor and the previous owner ran it over or something. Also that is the complete engine number so I'm not sure what happened their.
Tidy mower there Michael
I have also always liked the 14 but never had one.
Now time to replace the drive clutch cable
Cheers
Mike

Just replaced the clutch cable and fitted the correct spark plug. Adjusted mixture correctly. Fitted a temp governor spring thanks to bunnings until the genuine one arrives. And had a go at rebending and fitting the kill switch how I think it should go?




And guys what's the story with the 2.25hp sticker?

Hi Mike, the first Scotty 14" Model 45 were 2 1/4 HP engines.

The classic format of the Briggs "Code" (date of production and production plant number) has 8 digits, but I do not assert that it always did. The first 6 digits are the year, month and day of manufacture. At one time Briggs said that these were followed by two digits giving the shift number and plant number, but this does not seem to have applied for very long. Most engines had a zero as the second-last number, but Briggs plant numbers soon exceeded 9 and two digits were required for the plant number. It seems your engine was made in Plant 3, which is the Rolla, Missouri plant. Like most of the old Briggs plants it seems to be closed now - it's closure was announced in 2007.

With regard to the engine stopping device, there were two generations of those plug-top shorting levers. The first ones, used on WW2 lightweight generators, were made from spring steel: you sprung them onto the plug top, and then released them when the engine was stopped. The problem with that design was it did not keep the engine from restarting if it were rotated accidentally. The second generation of the levers was pivoted at the cylinder head end, and used a piece of the cowling as a spring so the shorting lever would either click into the run position - not touching the spark plug - or into the stop position - held against the spark plug by spring pressure. It's been a while since I had one and I don't recall the detail clearly, so my starting point would be to make it look like rolla 16V's one.

Your engine is only 6 cubic inches displacement (100 cc), side valve, with a compression ratio of 6:1 and a maximum speed of 3,600 rpm. Advertised power for the 60102 was 2 h.p. It seems for yours (61202) it was 2.25 hp. That is quite sufficient for a small (14") reel mower, which has very much higher cutting efficiency than a rotary mower. The 17" version used an 8 cubic inch Briggs engine advertised at 3 h.p.

Great thanks for the info guys. All very interesting learning the history. Just cut the lawn and dad has picked the mower up to go for reel grinding. It cut well with a blunt blade so looking forward to golf green standard of cut efficiency when it returns on Friday

Hi Mike, if you want some photos of the shorting levers, just let me know

If you could get me a close up that would be awesome mate thanks

No problems. I have a couple of Briggs engines with this setup, I'll grab some photos tomorrow.

I've noticed that the levers are a different style on my orange Briggs engines. Here are some photos..

And unfortunately the lever on my silver Briggs is not in great shape..

Thanks mate
I suspected that's how it goes. I have got it sort of working
But I'll have another go when it comes back Friday
What is your mower number? Mine is 03944 and I have a 2.25 hp motor ?
Happy new year

Hi Mike, the mower number on my 14" is 11320 and it's a 2hp engine. My Briggs is dated July '69 so odds are your mower is a year or so older than mine. I'm not sure you can get much info from the mower number but out of interest my early solid deck 17" SB45 with a Kirby engine is mower number 60861.

Hi to Mike, Rolla and ODK members,

Unfortunately, there is no rhyme or reason to the numbering sequence of Scott Bonnar mower numbers.
One thing is for sure, they do not run sequentially (ie. they do no start at 0001 and continue on) They may have been more of a batch numbering system..but we will probably never know as very few records exist.

The best way of dating a Scotty now, is by the date of manufacture of the Briggs engine (Model, Type and Code) stamped into the metal air cowling.
Unfortunately, Kirby-Lauson (Tecumseh) did not have this system in place...
Hoping this helps,

Hey guys esp Deejay, question on the early solid decks. I notice the nylon chain tensioner is worn, it's the round style, I assume the design facilitates rotating when one section is worn rather than replacing?
I'm getting orginiser to do my resto. But we are in the process of selling the house so will probably hold off till we have moved. The other mower is away getting sharpened ATM

Hi Mike, I haven't had much experience of the earlier tensioner, as my machine is a twin rail (later) model...I guess just rotate it and see how you go, If that doesn't work, you can replace it with the new style available HERE
Sorry for the delay in replying, I have been on a break, and have just returned home.