OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums General Discussion Forum Off Topics What have I done?

I picked up a job lot of 40 mowers and a heap of catchers today, so now I'm wondering what have I done? Was all a rush job so I don't know too much about what is there, but there is the usual suspects there with Briggs on them, a couple of Chondas, and a few Victas. I did notice one called a Harry, a Victa self propelled, a Victa self propelled probably a 550 and a few of the silly little electric things that will go straight in the bin. If I come across anything that might be of interest I will put some pics up

Sound Like you have some fun times ahead of you. What sort of electric mowers are they I am looking some of the victa's from the early 80's?
I'd like to see some pictures of your awesome score.

Hi Blumbly, the electric mowers are the baby rubbish stuff from Bunnings etc, no idea why people buy these things, they are all destined for the grinder treatment then the rubbish bin

I guess they buy them cause they are cheap. I would like to see some photos of the rest though.

I'll get some photos once I get them all home, I dumped them at my sons place because they wanted then out of there in a hurry and my sons place was not far away

My missus would call a taxi truck to take them away.............
speedy

Speedy, I don't know how many I have here already, could be 50/60 plus a number of ride ons. My missus gave up years ago

The next step is the divorce courts I guess ?

Cheers,
BB

BB as long as I don't question her about bingo she doesn't question what I do

I feel this will go down as one of the great quotes of any collector.
Brilliant Norm!

I think a reality TV show or Netflix series will ensue named
Bingo Collector. It will be an off-spin of Breaking Bad and
Just Call Saul.

The pilot episode shows the drama surrounding a job lot of 40 mowers and a
heap of catchers and a wild bingo night...

Yes, drugs, murder and mayhem follow...

It will be compulsive viewing.
------------------------------------
Jack

Surely the only place for a reality tv show about bingo and out-of-control collectors would be 7mate !!

Can we see a pic of this whopping haul?

I will try and get some pics today, having camera problems, but they are spread over 4 areas, main shed, carport,under the house and in the garage under the house and they are all mixed up now so had to know what is from the latest haul. I have already cut up a lot of the catchers, don't know why people keep broken/cracked catchers

I came across a discarded Ozito electric mower yesterday. It had toy grade plastic wheels with one missing. A classic example of one of these Bunnings throwaways.

People must be so stupid to buy that rubbish, but obviously the is a lot of stupid people out there, can't blame Bunnings they just sell stuff, if it didn't sell they wouldn't stock it

These are the ones I can get to, I have created a nightmare, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

I think you might have bitten off more than you can chew.
Some nice classic Victas there with G3 carbs.

There is an old saying, "bite off more than you can chew, then chew like hell". And what you see in the pics is not the full story, there is a lot of Torana stuff in the back sheds

You'll certainly have some handy bits to harvest from that. I'm not ashamed to admit Victas are about the only thing I am conversant in.
I used to cop it from the girls in class when I drew mowers instead of getting on with my work.
Some of the guys thought it was semi cool though.

Victa 2 strokes are my favorite as well, I only tolerate Briggs because people love them but they are a junk motor compared to the Victas. I tackle anything with a motor on it but whipper snippers test my patience because my fingers are fat and short. Was a bit disappointed with the Victa self propelled slasher when I looked underneath and found no blade carrier and the end of the crank seems a bit strange. I think the motor may be different than the standard side pull motors because of the drive belt pulley. Be a while before I get to have a real look at it

I only like the side pull B&S with the circular grill spinning. They are good for a chuckle. Any of the later developments with top starter can go take a hike.
As for Hondas, they are a great cure for insomnia!!!

I would take a Chonda any day over a Briggs

A Chonda is good value for money. A Honda is not.

That looks identical to the one I brought over to you for an engine swap. We did have a few issues stopping the fins from hitting the frame from memory.

Here is a picture of the pulley



Then once the pulley is removed, there is what appears to be a standard blade boss underneath.

Hopefully that is all it is, motor is going to be swapped out, I will keep the barrel because it has the G4 spiggot

I wouldn't except for repowering lawn mowers. On saying that, I'd only buy Vanguard.

The best Briggs & Stratton in my opinion would be the c1990's Mitsubishi made single cylinder Vanguard horizontal shaft engines. I service one that has clocked over 19,000 hours with no issues whatsoever. Sadly these are now made in China as Briggs terminated the agreement with Mitsubishi as Briggs wanted to sell Briggs & Stratton engines in Japan. Briggs & Stratton-Wikipedia

Then there's the Vanguard V-Twin, as of 2016, these are still made in Japan by Daihatsu. I have a 2009 16HP V-Twin on a generator that has 9,500 hours on it.

I decided to strip it down as it was starting to blow a little smoke on start up and it's much better to replace the rings before they wear out completely. It still had cross hatch in the bores and the rings were half worn. The problem was the valve guides, as the engine has to come out of the frame to adjust them so I was a little too slack on doing the adjustment and the exhaust valve heads had recessed and wallowed out the guides.

LRT, I'm not a big fan of Honda either, sure their commercial motors are the best, but they sure damaged their reputation with those small OHC motors the used on some of the mowers. I would prefer a Chonda to one of those, they were junk

Yes you are right. I'm not really a fan of the GX's carby as they are notorious for flooding. We have 3 and they all flood if you don't turn off the fuel. Having said that, they always start on the first or second pull provided the fuel tap is always turned off. Mechanically they are much better than a Briggs. They use helical timing gears opposed to the straight-cut gears Briggs use.

We only use Honda ATV's on the farm and they always start first go. Sure, things break, but I wouldn't want to own any other brand ATV.

We still use a 1985 Honda 250ES Big Red ATC (3 wheeler) on the farm alongside a newer 2005 Honda TRX 500TM ATV (4 wheeler).

You can walk out on the coldest day and it will start first go. Honda-ATC250ESSX

The ATC is best on boggy ground as each wheel travels on fresh ground compared to the ATV, which is like a fish out of the water! It's scary how fast an ATV will go, the 500cc ATV is good for 110kph but I wouldn't dare take it over 80kph with the Ag tread tyres.

I have 2 of those GX's here and I have modified the choke arm so it closes fully but they both still take 3 pulls to start. Whiff of starter fluid and they start first pull