OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums The History Forum Model Histories ENGINES KIRBY GE-A1 - The First Kirby Lawnmower Engine

Hello ODK members,

Kirby's first lawnmower engine was a two-stroke.
It appeared on the Australian Carter lawnmower from late 1957. The engine - best guess -
was 'made' or assembled under licence from Outboard Marine of Canada.

I document two versions here: the fully governed GE-A1 (requiring no hand throttle control), and the
GE-A3 with throttle hand control. The Carter was advertised as fully automatic, meaning it was the GE-A1.
[NOTE: Carter also offered a hand control using the GE-A3]

The engine was rated at 2 Brake h.p. and it was all-alloy and of the reed valve design,
meaning that the fuel mixture was injected into the crankcase and then scavenged to the combustion chamber.
It was not a loop scavenge design as in the more basic Victa engines of the time.

The governor was mechanical but mounted external to the crankcase. It was situated above the flywheel and
fan, but under the cooling cowl.

This would be an enduring design overseas, but short-lived on Australian rotary mowers.
Here, it would be Victa and Villiers and then the Kirby-Tecumseh 2-strokes that
would define the 1960s 2-stroke lawnmower market.

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PART TWO – Thoughts …
A most interesting question is why Kirby quickly abandoned production
of the Outboard Marine Ironhorse in favour of Tecumseh 4-stroke engines
and then Tecumseh 2-stroke engines.

I’m happy to speculate …

James Kirby was involved from the earliest days of rotary lawnmower
production in Australia. He was a director of Tecnico, the maker of our first rotary!

We know Kirby was making Victa components in the 1950s, and there must
have been a close business relationship between James and Victa’s Merv.

I would think Merv would have been not-too-keen on an advanced [and governed]
foreign 2-stroke engine being released here; just a couple of years after the
release of his own un-governed 125cc engine!



Read between the lines …

The Kirby Hi-Torque had a limited release here, but it was the
No 1 engine for rotary lawnmowers in New Zealand at this time.
Kirby GEs were sold to New Zealand.

TO BE CONTINUED …

PART THREE – Operator and Parts Manual
This was a great find! Here we have an Operator Manual and
Spare Parts List for the Kirby GE-A1 two stroke engine.

This manual is from my collection and it is in good condition.
As always, I make it available to members for viewing or as a
high-quality download.

A sincere thank-you to eBay seller Lyn [twwglyn] for her generous
support of these OutdoorKing forums.

OPERATOR MANUAL – PART A



SPARE PARTS MANUAL - PART B