OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Restoring, Customising and Modifying Reel-Type Mowers SB 45 - dual project (newbie)

Thanks for the advice, BB!
So, I cleaned the chain cases this afternoon and to my eye, they look a slightly different colour:

Which one should I take to be matched? They are both the same model no. Mower 1 is Mower no. 02061 and Mower 2 is mower no. 00348. So, would I take Mower 1 because it's 'newer'?

While I've brought Mower 2 into the discussion (sorry to confuse), the number on the Briggs & Stratton motor is 80102 0233-01 74101701. So, it was manufactured on the 17th Oct 1974? Would you consider this the original motor for this mower?





Please leave your advice regarding chains, sprockets, bed knife, etc. I will have to replace the reel ($$$) as there is a part of one blade that has snapped off. Can anyone point me in the direction of an affordable reel for sale? I'll check engine mounts tomorrow.

Am I right in saying that the rear roller and cylinder cutter bearings should be replaced while I am doing this? Is there anything else that is considered a 'must' to replace/service while I have everything apart in the coming weeks?

Hi emk,

Good ol' flash photography, it never gives the best representation of a colour at the best of times and also if there's one thing we've discovered over the years and that was the Scott Bonnar colour of Alpine Green was never 100% consistant over it's lifetime.

If you look at the distant photos you've taken the machines look far darker than the close up shot of both chain case interiors. This is the flash washing out the colour due to flash bounce.

My choice would be to choose the darker one as its closer to what most SB's are.

The sprockets on the second machine look better than the other machine to be truthful but they are pretty much of a muchness.

The engine number corrolates to the date you've suggested and also suggests that it's more than likely the original power plant for that mower.

If you are doing a total tear down I would most definitely replace all bearings as it's easier to do while it's all apart that have to revisit and worn bearing 6 months later.

Actually that bed knife looks really good and should lick up well by a competent machinist, but as far as the reel is concerned a new one will rather hurtfull on the wallet. I'd keep my eyes open for a rather flogged machine on Gumtree that's full of stree fractures and then take the reel out of that and salvage what else is good, then scrap the rest. I know that doesn't sound the best but it's the cold hard reality of life nowadays. Something must die for something else to live on.

Cheers,
BB.

Good news - I got it going! Converted to magnetron ignition and gave everything a bit of a service/clean out. Will spend more time on it over the weekend to fine tune some things and then will continue with the takedown of the motor and mower parts prior to cleaning and painting.
Pretty happy with my efforts, but I haven't had it running for any length of time and I haven't engaged clutch yet either....Hopefully everything works out this weekend so there are no other major hurdles.

The only thing I found odd - the mower only started when I left the choke in. When I bought the mower, the owner specifically said the choke needed to be pulled out to start and then pushed back in to continue running. This is the same for the second mower I bought. Can anyone justify this?

Hi Guys,

I stopped in at a local bike shop today and they're going to sort out new throttle cables for me made from a brake cable...I don't want to go to a plastic throttle assembly.

I'm also ordering some decals...which chain case matches these machines?

Hi emk,

Check out my Avatar and you'll see how yours should look.

Just a quick one on the throttle cable, they are much thinner on the inner opposed to a brake cable which is the same thickness to your landroll clutch cable.

Cheers,
BB.

Thanks BB,

I'l get onto those ASAP. My $5 throttle cables seem to have worked! I ran the mower (that had no spark) for half an hour or so and cut some of the lawn here. Currently staying with the in-laws while our house is built and they're on acreage, so I certainly wasn't going to mow their whole place...

I have a dilemma - I bought a 3rd SB45 for the reel and picked it up today, but I know I'm going to struggle to just scrap it...so I'm thinking of restoring a 3rd later on and just buy a new reel for ourselves in a year or so..

Of the three, if all engine mounting points, etc are all in good condition, which would you suggest is the best to keep for myself?


From L-R, engines are 1974, 1975 & 1977.
From L-R, model numbers are 450810, 450423 & 450810.

I guess what I'm struggling with is what are the pros and cons of each mower... Does anyone have any advice? Please ignore the missing chain cases and air cowling. I just didn't have them on for the photo.

Hi Em,

It's a bit of a disease isn't it.

It's a no brainer regarding which one, left, right or centre. I'd take the bullseye. But only as I dislike the pram bars.

Am I correct in saying the centre one has a 2.5 HP power plant on it ?



Cheers,
BB.

It really is, BB! If only work didn't get in the way of spending every waking minute on them...Ha!

Yes, it is a 2.5 HP...60102 0347-01 75060503. I was thinking this might be the one to keep for myself as well. The first one to work on will be the Craftsman on the right with the 1977 motor. This is the one that I plan on having done by Christmas for Dad.

Do you have any advice for preparing and repainting the engine? Some advice has been to paint it assembled and other advice has been to remove as many parts as I can to repaint separately. How did you go about yours? Which is the closest to original engine colour - chevy orange or International? I'm guessing signal red is for the reel and sole plate? I want the final product to be as close to original as possible. I'm also getting Craftsman stickers done up for the catcher so that they remain identifiable in the future.

Hi Em,

It's the black chain case and handle bar shield that was the give away as that was the transition livery when Scott Bonnar did their last Kirby powered machines and swapped over to the full Briggs line up of power plants across the full range of mowers.

The Craftsman was a "Store line" mower, by that I mean that it was made as a budget machine exclusively for particular hardware outlets. Basically like a "Walmart" special in the USA.

Ah........ painting engines, it's a bugger of a job at the best of times. It's not the painting that's hard, rather the preparation that's infuriating as there are so many nooks and crannies that hold flaking paint etc. etc. etc. I've always used a bit of paint stripper that you can purchase at your local automotive store, eg. Autobarn, Supercheap etc. and just apply and clean off and keep repeating the process with small wire brushes and screwdriver blades to remove all the dead paint.

If you have the engine in pieces I would do it piece by piece and then assemble it after you've painted the components and then once it's all back together give it a final coat to cover up all the parts where you've knocked off fresh paint like the bolt heads. don't aim too much at the carby as that will only act as a glue over the smaller moving parts.

Paint colour ? International Orange it is for me.

Cheers,
BB.

Hi again Em,

Just a quick one regarding the signal red, that's for the reel only as the sole plate is generally painted in the same colour as the chassis and associated sheetmetal body items.

Cheers,
BB.

Thanks, BB.

Sorry I've been a bit quiet...work has been busy, but I've been doing what I can in my spare time. I have now stripped most of the paint and will be sandblasting next week. I've got a new bag of the finest sandblasting grit I could get, so hopefully that will do the trick.


Now that I've started cleaning and polishing all of the nuts and bolts, I'm wondering am I better off just replacing them all as there are a few that are damaged. Is there a nut and bolt kit for the SB45 or do I have to go through the Outdoor King shop and select each piece?

Also, what do you think of these sprockets? I realise I should have taken a photo of everything set up inside the chain case, but it was a last minute decision to actually restore this mower first instead of the last one that you advised...This mower is the middle one from that photo of 3 sporting the traditional handlebars and not the pram style units.

Another question, does the cutter bearing housing get painted? It seems to have been painted in the past, but I've seen other threads where people have been told not to paint it. I'm also considering upgrading to a stainless steel front roller with bearings. Can anyone point me in the right direction? I've read through old posts, but none of the links work.

I also noticed that I had no bearing seal/felt/sponge for the cutter. It has worn into the chassis as a result. I've noticed that this item is no longer for sale. How would I go about making one up?

Am I correct in saying that the front roller assembly is painted silver and not hammertone green? I apologise for bombarding you with questions, but I'd really like to replicate the original colour scheme. My nan would get a kick out of it. Apparently my grandfather used to have 3 SB45's on the go at any one time. I guess it runs in the family...

If anyone has any close up pictures of a restored SB45 (to original paint/decals) that they could PM to me or post here as a guide, I'd really appreciate it.

Hi Em,

Generally the the bearing carriers were not painted and just left natural die cast finish, but yes I've also seen them painted and I'd say that was generally done by previous tenants of the machine, but at times I've also felt that some have come from the factory painted. This is only evident in the earlier built machines and not the later 45's which were definitely straight die cast finish.

As far as that piece of sponge foam is concerned that's merely nothing more than a dust seal as the original bearings were open sided. The bearings should not be able to move laterally in the carriers when the caps are secured tightly. This piece of sponge is no longer required as all the replacement bearings are sealed RLS5 units and thus require no extra dust seals nor oiling through the oiler points in the top of the carrier caps.

The front roller assembly frame was originally zinc plated and bright dip finished, thus it had a silver type finish, the same as all the nuts and bolts were.

Also while I remember the reel bearings are meant to be a resonably tight fit onto the reel shafts, but after time they become loose on the shafts and the reel starts to rotate inside the bearing. This must be rectified before reassembly by either knurling the shaft lightly or spot peining around the shaft at equal spacings using a centre punch and hammer.

This must be done prior to reel machining as you engineer will use the newly installed bearings to rotate the reel on the spin grinder.

Cheers,
BB.

Thanks BB. I forgot to mention that I just had to get a $50 20 inch machine the other day...So, that's why I changed my mind with which machine to restore. I'll keep the 20 inch and restore that after I get this one sorted for my dad. It is finished in a lighter hammertone green and it made me think - is the darker hammertone green definitely the right colour for this mower? It's hard to tell because it's definitely been repainted.
This is the mower I'm currently restoring:

Model 450423 with 2.5HP B&S motor..

Hi em

The 45 im cleaning up at the moment has never been touched. I can tell you that the bearing carriers were painted on my '68 built scotty.

Cheers

Donny

Hi Donny,

I'd say yours probably had painted carriers as it was done like that on the earlier models like the Model 33 etc. and initially would've carried over in the early run of model 45's, but was later deleted in a cost cutting measure like so many other little things were on the 45.

Cheers,
BB.

Hi Em,

There are a few variations of Alpine Green that were used by the factory over the years which were a tad inconsistant in colour but that sort of makes it easier for the trained eagle eye to age identify many machines. If that engine is the original unit then the machine was made in very late 1975 ~ possibly very early 1976.

The above pictured 17 inch machine has had a clutch half changed at some point in time, note the diferent green used on the engine side ?

Also has there been a piece of steel plate welded just above the shield on the handle bar as strengthening due to a mishap that has bent one side down ?

I also note that the throttle position actuator has been changed at some point as well as it should have the circular lever unit.

As far as identifying the the 20 inch machine goes can you please supply some photos so that I can be somewhat more accurate than just a wild guess because at this stage that's all it would be and I don't want to do that as it doesn't help anyone.

Cheers,
BB.

You're right, BB.
The handle has been snapped and welded back together (poorly) and then that piece of metal has also been added to keep it all together. Is there anywhere that still sells the upper handlebar piece? I'd rather replace it than have some sort of Frankenstein handlebar on my freshly restored mower.
Will get you a photo of the 20 inch when I get a chance. This whole full time work thing is really getting in the way of my new hobby. Ha!

I've gone through the Outdoorking store and all of the expanded parts diagrams and written a list of nuts and bolts to order. There are a couple that are cracked and there is a fair bit of rust. For the sake of $100, I'd rather just get all new parts for peace of mind. I'd feel pretty silly trying to save money and then have a bolt crack when I start the mower for dad on Christmas day.

Em

Hi All,

Just an update on progress: the sandblasting turned out to be painful so I put a wire wheel attachment on a grinder and that seems to be the most efficient way of getting rid of the rust. Not really sure of how to get out those deeper scratches on the chain case...I'm hoping the etch and metal filler primers will conceal it prior to applying the hammertone paint?



This is as good as I could get them. Would you recommend spraying them with a rust converter and then try to re-sand or do you think I should put the primer straight over what I've done? It's all smooth, but it doesn't look perfect and no matter how much I sand or wire wheel it, this is as good as it comes up.

I picked up my catcher. Pretty happy with it!



I've been tinkering with the motor at home and I've hit a road block. I cannot get the flywheel off! I've removed 2 from other motors, so I know the process, but this start clutch will not budge! Any recommendations? I turned it into a 2 person job and we still couldn't get it to move! I plan on spending the weekend cleaning the motor out and sanding it back for painting, but I can't do that until I get this done. Any advice would be appreciated.

Hi Em,

From whom did you get the catcher from ? Cameron (opeparts) ? and any chance of a side on shot of it ?

Cheers,
BB.