OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions On Ride On Mowers Questions on Rover Ride On Mower Old Colt Major - Bolt Sizes

Hello, I'm a domestic mowing contractor with decades of experience but only with Honda mowers. Recently I bought 2 old 1980's rover colts, one to mow a small bit of bush property and the other as spare parts (Probable restoration project)
Trouble is the metric and AF sockets and spanners I have don't fit it? I have been reading this forum for a couple of weeks gleaning info but cannot find any reference to this. Are the older cox ride ons BSW Whitworth or some such?
Thanks for any info. Frank.

Details:
Mower Model No. 7313
Engine code. 86031206

The Briggs bolts should all be normal AF spanners being American and the Rover being made in Australia post adoption of metric standard, the engine being made in 1986 so the machine is probably a year or two after that, should be all metric. I don't think too many manufacturers used Whitworth in Australia but happy to stand corrected.

No, your correct Trev, It's metric but I have to hammer the sockets on with a nylon mallet. I think it must be a combination of tight a fitting bolt set to begin with combined with some rust, yet I rubbed all the nuts and bolts with a wire brush till they looked clean? Thanks for the impetus to give it a more concerted try.

Here are some pix of the rust conversion I did under the deck. I used a sanding wheel on a small grinder and then Septone rust converter. Odd that the cutting disc bolts were an easy fit but the rest are a tight sizing. Actually, that's the other mower I bought for spare parts. The one I'm working on today is the blue one.

Looking good so far Frank. Keep us posted on your progress.

G'day Frank. Welcome aboard. I have also found times that fasteners don't seem to fit either imperial or metric known spanners. That's a nice job on he deck. Have you used the septone rust converter before? I am always a bit weary of the claims made by rust converters.

Sometimes the previous tenant may have slightly graunched the hex making it a hammer on fit. Good idea to fit new ones when you are putting it back together anyway.

That's a good idea for the restoration one trev but the little blue one I'm doing now is just a workhorse for a very dusty speargrass bit of level ground up country. I have actually robbed a few parts off the red one(Deck flap, belt retainer hoop)so will have to buy another one now lol. Thankfully their cheap.

Thats the way....Just one more............You'll be bringing them home under the cover of darkness soon and stashing them down the back shed.

I was very wary once too but have been using the septone for 6 or 7 years on everything to good effect, even the checkerplate bed of my trailer. I buy it in big 4L packs that are now $70. You can soak tools in it too, or soak nuts and bolts.

Just be careful to wire brush them or thread them in and out a bit after they have soaked for half an hour or the threads will be oversize because the acid converts the iron oxide into ferric phosphate, a hardish black non-porous coating. It will come off under abrasion like paint would but it's the only way I know of for killing rust in it's tracks short of grinding back to bare metal and quickly priming.

Most people give up on it because they follow the directions on the bottle (paint on, wait ten minutes, wipe off with a damp rag) Those directions are useless for serious rust and pitted metal. You need 2~3 coats, leaving it till it dries but soaking is the best way.

LOL, yes, that's how it goes. But I can justify them ALL! They are rare, beoming scarse, and one day...

Actually they still make the exact same gearboxes for snow blowers, $400 each. Perhaps I can restore some and ship the little boxes back to the USA.

That's interesting about the cog boxes. Should mean spare parts are still available for them.

Frank is that the same forward/reverse gearbox Greenfield used on the Stallion? I think I have seen it on other mowers as well.

Yes it looks like it to me.
Here is the greenfield and the cox in diagram form. It's a pretty distinctive shape isn't it Norm

Thanks Frank, good simple little gearbox. One disadvantage from the heel and toe setup is if used on sloping ground you need a brake fitted because you have no real way of slowing them down if you go into neutral to change direction, they quickly become a billy cart.

G'day folks,
That's a Foote Model 35 gearbox; they were used by quite a few different makes.

Don't know about parts availability for them now - the mob that make them as the Powertow 'Quicksilver 3500' seem to list only the complete unit [for US$500], not the individual components.

Yes I have inspected the brake, useless. It will only be used on level ground thankfully.

You might regret saying that, here, I've been working on a spare gearbox, 1200 wet n dry to 2000 and then a rub over with autosol. No need to go inside it as I was told it was freshly serviced.




As soon as the blue workhorse is shipped up to the property (This one)



I'll start restoring the red one from the frame up. I will respray it of course, I wonder if a spray shop would do it at a cheap price? Otherwise I'll have to use the spray gun and compressor here but I have no experience on what sort of paint to buy, any ideas?

Change of plans, am restoring the blue one and the red one will be a pile of spare parts.
Waiting on a new seat, will repaint motor matte black


Am polishing the rims too.
Will refurbish the tires with some black I bought a while back

That wheel came up a great. Did you use rogue and a rag mop? How did you remove the oxide first? They'll look like mini mag wheels!

No, paint stripper followed by progressive sanding with 80 wet-n-dry, then 180, 360, 800, 1200, 2000 followed by hand polishing with autosol. It's not finished yet but after a final polish and sealing will look like that. I'm doing the next rim with a synthetic polishing mop then auto sol but this one I screwed up by using a rotary sander that was too course. Once they are shiny as I'll apply Wattle Incralac to seal them.



The paint is a bitch, I thought it was anodizing at first but when oven cleaner wouldn't remove it I figured it for what it was.