OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Walk Behind Lawn Mower Frames Four Stroke Lawn Mower Frames Massport handle fail

I only had one piece of pipe steel, so made this quick fix......I know it leaves a weak spot....

speedy

Pity you are not closer speedy, I have plenty of those bases with handles kicking around here

And if postage rates were reasonable I could post one to you but postage would probably cost $8 the way it is currently structured

Hi Speedy, a certain Scott Bonnar enthusiast will be non too thrilled with that attaching method.

ok I'll bite.

Thanks for the offer, but it's all good.
It belongs to a single mum and her boy mows the lawn..... so that's a good boy.
speedy

I thought BB would be excited by this.

Hi Speedy, Norm & BB,
I recently diced a steel Masport with probably the same handle fittings by memory.
This looks to be a nice alloy chassis with a flasher looking Briggs motor. As long as it cuts grass I suppose...

Hi Norm, Speedy and MF,

You'll probably find that an alloy base will fatigue in that area somewhat quicker than the Victa steel chassis.

Die cast simply doesn't like to be flexed in any way, shape or form. It generally will bend one way but will break when attempted to be bent back.


Cheers,
.

Not in my experience Bonnar Bloke.
It won't fatigue if it doesn't flex in the first place. The thicker alloy metal is very rigid and doesn't seem to pose a problem with these handle mounts.

You might have missed BB's point in that it is now bolted with a single bolt through the top. The original 2 bolted side mounted handle doesn't cause any problems

Thanks for that Norm, you are spot on.

The side mounts puts all the stress onto the bolts in a shearing type action while the top single point mount creates flex in the surface that the handle is mounted to.

Cheers,
BB

Hi Bonnar Bloke,
I have owned a couple of alloy versions of the Victa steel chassis with the same handle bolts on top and they seem to do alright as there is no flexing at the mounting points like the steel version, where you can feel it bending as you push it. This doesn't occur with the alloy version of this mould.

MF that is probably because they are reinforced up in that area with plenty of alloy in the handle area on those alloy Victa bases. I have a few of those here