OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Restoring, Customising and Modifying Victa Walk-Behind Rotary Mowers My Victa Utility full crank

Hi All, I have been here for a little while lurking and read a lot of info which has helped to fix my mowers and keep them running. Now I am fixing up a utility which came home with me from the tip a couple of years ago and has been hanging around the shed since then waiting for some attention. I thought that i might start a thread here to document how it goes.

This is the beast


Here it is next to its friend


I have had the green utility for nearly 20 years and it works great.

Pull down the engine to see what is wrong with it. Flywheel off, it is a points ignition model.


Head looks like it has done very little work


Bore has a few scratches


Oh dear, this came out of the crankcase


Some nice gouges in the sides of the piston



Since these pics I have managed to separate the crankcase and I think that the big end bearing on the piston rod has failed causing the piston to slap around like that. I will get some more pics at the weekend and probably ask some questions in the engine section on getting the crank apart.

Cheers
B

Hi BRC, and my congrats on your first post. The pics of the beast are clear and that makes it easier to diagnose problems, and are excellent for the archives. Well done, B.
We would also like to formally welcome you to the ODK forum and hope that you enjoy the site.

Looking forward to your posts in 'Questions On Victa Two Stroke Engines, and I'm sure the Victa gurus will chime in and give you the advice you require.
Once again BRC, to OutdoorKing.

Hi BRC and welcome.
As Deejay says good pic's. Will be great to follow your restoration.
I really like the ol' utilities and remote tanks and of course full cranks.
I don't know why you couldn't ask questions here, to keep it all in one thread?

Thanks Deejay and Bushie!

I'll add some pics of the crank on the weekend

Hi Bushie and BRC,
The answer is, that for archival purposes, we like to keep threads on topic and applicable to what is being discussed.

In this case BRC will be discussing repairs to a full crank Victa 2 Stroke engine. That belongs in the engine category. He has not indicated that he is contemplating a complete restore of the machine.
If he was restoring, customising or modifying his Utility, the thread could be continued in this forum, which is this forum's category.
We can move any pics that need to be shifted when BRC starts the new thread.

Hey BRC , nice utility you have there even if the motors a tad rough, it appears to have the high compression cylinder head if its original the muffler should be a pair with the cylinder head indicated by a hole in the end of the muffler where the exaust comes out.
the cylinder looks average but there is always the option of a rebore or secondhand barrel.
when you say you think the conrod big end bearing has failed it would be the first victa full crank ive ever seen fail like that photo's ? 9/10 times piston slap is caused by excessive play between the piston and the barrel.
cheers, mitch

OK a few little updates. Hi Mitch, keen eyes there! I scraped away a little bit of black stuff on the head and came up with this...


Then I cleaned up the dirt from around the exhaust and came up with a hole which is I am guessing is the one you were referring to.


So it looks like a worthwhile motor to fix up.

Now the reason that I think that it is a conrod big end bearing is due to the amount of movement I can get it to do, and not in the proper direction .

This is where it should be



But if I jiggle it a little, I can get it to move like this




This bearing needs replacing



I need to find a bearing puller now and get the crank apart, I am guessing the bits of metal which came out of the crankcase are mangled bits of rollers.

B

Also, Deejay, I forgot to ask, I am going to restore (or at least fix as nicely as I can) this utility. Should I be asking about getting the crank apart in this thread or in the engines section?

B

Hi BRC,
Seeing as you are doing a restore, you are in the right place, right here...This will keep it tidy for the archives.

Hey ,
that is indeed the high compression combo there ! you can transfer them to a more healthy engine , in regard to the big end of the con rod they do have a fair amount of movement when they are in good usable condition ,but that is massively excessive that's the first one Ive ever seen collapse , as far as crank separation goes it requires a press and a huge amount of accuracy in reassembly mainly balance related. but if you want to have a go i do have the instructions i can upload if you wish.
in your last pic of the upper bearing , you can tap that free though the flywheel side with a punch and hammer without disturbing the oil seal however if you proceed with a rebuild seals will be changed no doubt.

Agree with Mitch you should be able to find an engine that doesn't need as much work (and risk of not getting it right) and transfer your head and muffler to that, that will make it a HC engine.
Completely your decision though.

Edit: I have been given 5 of theses engines, 2 of which were almost perfect and none had any crankcase bearing problems, just pointing out they are available.
Cheers and good luck.

Hi Mitch and Bushie,

Sounds like a bit of a plan. I pulled it apart to see what was broken. Sounds like it needs special tools to fix, I have the gregory's manual and it has a pic of a special crank tool, I might sit that in the too hard basket and look out for a working one to swap the head onto. I am guessing that you wouldn't even know if the balance was right on the crank until you started it up.

I'll move onto painting the base and handles and cleaning out the tank and carby. The underside of the base looks like it has not done much work, the motor must have cracked it fairly early in its life and it just sat around until someone eventually took it to the tip.

If anyone on the north side of Melbourne or Central Vic has a working 80 series points type motor that might be a good candidate to become a HC160 on a Utility, please send a pm!

Thanks for the input!

B

OK small update, I have another motor to work with thanks to forum member Big Ted, thanks mate!

More updates soon.

B

I have an identical Utility which will be my next project so I'm keeping an eye on this.
This looks like the place to get my dumb questions answered without having to ask them
I just finished a powertorque Utility which came up a treat so I'm looking forward to doing a full crank.

I have been a bit distracted from this, I bought a tractor so still having fun with machines. I will get back to this one shortly!