OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Walk Behind Lawn Mower Frames Four Stroke Lawn Mower Frames Victa/Pace Mower - What Colour?

Just got given a Victa-Pace with a Briggs and Stratton 375 Sprint engine

Bloke who gave it to me said it was dead, couldn't be fixed - at least not for a doable price.

Poor thing was terribly neglected - almost no oil - only about 50mls came out - and that looked like it had been in since new - spark plug was rusty!! Broken throttle cable.

He said it worked until about 1 month ago when it just stopped - took it to mower shop who said it wasn't worth fixing and promptly sold him a new mower!!

So he gave this one to me because he knows I like to play with them.

"This one should give you a bit of a challenge" he said - "The bloke at the mower shop said it would be a lot of work and a lot of money!"

As I bet you are all predicting - changed the Carby Diaphragm and Gasket and she fired up straight away

The "donor" was pretty pissed off seeing me spend all of 20 minutes and $9.90 to fix his unfixable mower!!

It was running, but a bit rough - it was OK, but I wasn't satisfied.

Checked it - the spark was mediocre, and seemed to be inconsistent.

Checked the coil - good.

Had a look at the magnets on the flywheel - quite a lot of rust covering the surface - sanded away all the rust on the magnets snd fired her up - beeeeeudiful!!!!

Running like a clock! And only takes a half hearted tug on the pull start to get it going. My girlfriend is my "tester" - if she can pull start a mower then it passes my "Easy Starting" quality control test - (poor thing - I make her test all my mowers ...and even she said - "Oooooo this one is nice - so easy to start" which pissed off the donor even more

Which pissed off the "donor" even more - Last I saw him he was heading off down to the mower shop with s garden knome and evil intent.


So:
1: New Diaphragm/Gasket
2: New Oil
3: New Spark Plug
4: Clean and Oil Air Filter element

Running really well - even the governor is behaving well.

I will put on a new throttle cable tomorrow.

I must confess to being a little confused as to why sanding the rust off the magnets made such a big difference. The rust shouldn't have really affected the magnetic field in any significant way. I've gotta have a little bit of a think about this.

Anyway...... now to my real question.

I'd like to give this fella a coat of paint.

What colour red did Victa use - check out the photos.




Is the White Knight Rust Guard "Fire Red" a reasonable match?? Or is there a better (ie: closer match) colour to use.

Once again - thanks for your thoughts.


Polybus

You did well resurrecting this easy fixer. Are you sure you want to pull it all apart just to paint the base? It looks quite good to me. A clean would suffice I reckon. There is some rust visible so it may be worth it I'd you are wanting to eliminate all the rust spots.
How did you figure out that our needed the diaphragm and gasket replaced?
Could you tell me where the diaphragm is located?
I have a Victa with Chonda motor that is giving me problems and I might try replacing those if I can get it as cheap as you did.

Seems that mower shop is typical of many these days. Focused on selling more than servicing.
My local one is the same. You walk in and if feels like a showroom more than a mower shop.

Hi mowerfreak, no diaphragm in the Chonda motors.
Start a thread and we'll see if we can help out.
The red on that mower is pretty hard to match(god knows i've tried). If you must paint it pick csomething you think is suitable and go for it.

You could probably get the paint coulor matched, and that would give a pretty good result.

Well to be honest - I didn't "figure it out".

I've done a bit of work on the 2 stroke, but very little on the Briggs 4 strokes - so I have been reading/studying up on them lately. One of the articles I read (by a bloke who seemed to know what he was talking about) had a quote that stuck in my mind.


So I didn't really figure it out, I just assumed it was a safe bet - it was only $10, and if I was wrong, at least I learned how to do a very common job.

I bought them down the local shop for $10 (only because I wanted them straight away), but Bruce has them for $11.00 for the original Briggs or $5 for aftermarket - so if you have time to wait - the $5.00 version from Bruce (Outdoorking shop) would be the best best.

So I just took a punt - for $10 - to see if it worked - worked like a charm. Even if it didn't work - the $10 was well spent because I learned how to do that particular job. Good result

Polybus a mate of mine recently ordered the some parts related to the carburettor when fixing someone's B&S Victa (I think it was the same as your one actually!!). It does seem to be the main culprit indeed.
Bigted, I haven't got around to playing with the Chonda Vic of late, but your post might put it ahead in the queue!