I think that this would be a seventies child (?) I haven't been able to find any numbers yet. No catcher but the rest is in near running condition. Rescued from the scrap heap today. Any ideas? Cheers JohnA
I'm going to be very "Diplomatic" here and say if it doesn't drive take the engine off and send the rest back to where it came from. Sadly these are worth absolutely nothing except the value in the engine itself.
These won an Australian Design award but with that plastic drive gear which fails without fail they simply become a push mower and that's hard work.
There is a guy that's been replicating the gear with a 3D Printer but how that'll hold up is anybodies guess. There were some years ago a batch of steel gears made up but no more followed. They sold for around $150 each back in the mid 1990's.
A catcher can be found locally here for $20 but it's been available for a long time now which pretty much shows how popular these mowers are.
Wow, what a spectacular design blunder, but it was not the first! Some time in the 70s engineers got the brainwave that they could replace metal parts with nylon, and in some cases plastic! There was little experience with such a modification and the early ones resulted in a lot of failures. Reminds me of my mother's old Husqvarna sewing machine from around that same era. Hers was the first model on which they had replaced a lot of the moving metal parts and bearings with nylon and plastic ones. She only had it for a few months and it started playing up. As time went by it gradually fell to pieces. It was more times in the shop getting fixed than being used.
Engineering has improved since those times, but it seems they still haven't learnt their lesson. My self-propelled Supa-swift mower has been no good since Day One. They have a very weak plastic pully working with a solid metal one on the drive shaft. Of course it suffers from slipping and the friction causes heat which causes warping. I only get about three rounds of the lawn and without fail the belt falls off. Then I spend half an hour re-positioning the belt, only to have the same thing happen. The only good thing about it is the big Kohler engine. But it is so big that it is a very hard mower to push around without the belt drive. This mower has basically sat in the shed since I bought it and has had very little use. One day I will remove the Kohler engine and get rid of the geared wheels and belt drive. Put ordinary rear wheels on it and buy a much light 450e B&S engine. At least I may be able to use it, instead of keeping it as a shed ornament.
Just a thought, I wonder if an engineering place (or clever backyard engineer?) could make you up the same drive gear out of metal? A 3D printed gear drive sounds like a bad joke to me!
VM, pull the Kohler off and put it on a normal push mower base there is too much drag trying to push a self propelled that is not self propelled BB is the dislike of the Diplomat because the drive gear is unobtainable or some other reason. I'm sure a fitter working in his shed could make a steel gear, even if it cost a bit, if that is the only killer of the Diplomat it might be worth the effort?
Just a thought, I wonder if an engineering place (or clever backyard engineer?) could make you up the same drive gear out of metal? A 3D printed gear drive sounds like a bad joke to me!
I doubt that even a backyarder could make one of these gears for an affordable cost - it's quite a complex component.
Also shown there, is a steel repro gear which a now defunct parts specialist [Turf Machinery Services] had made - even though it was cheaply constructed of stacked steel stampings, their sell price was $132 for these.
Cheers, Gadge
"ODK Mods can explain it to you, but they can't understand it for you..."
"Crazy can be medicated, ignorance can be educated - but there is no cure for stupid..."
Hi Gadge, one of the problems now is all the old fitters/turners that could do this stuff are sadly disappearing off this earth and I would say within the next ten years it will be near impossible to get things repaired
I'm hoping 3D plastic and metal printing technologies will come to the rescue, and make available economical parts reproduction.
I have a hate/love relationship with the Diplomats. The design was compromised primarily because it had to be made within a strict budget.
The worst of the Diplomats was the 590 Series. This is the 430 Series with dual clutch and the original built-in edger. A real Ford Edsel of design - but one well-worth saving ... even if just for the 'What were they thinking?' factor.
G'day folks, As BB has mentioned, there is currently a FleaBay Oz seller offering 3D printed plastic repro gears, which use a modified original centre bush. These are made on demand. From the seller's feedback, he's been selling them for a few months.
A FleaBay search on 'diplomat drive gear' will find them.
Dunno how close a match they are dimensionally, though - the gear tooth form looks quite different to the used original part.
Also, I'd be asking the seller which type of plastic filament is used to make these. ABS or Nylon should work quite well. A concise rundown on the filament types currently available: https://www.tomsguide.com/us/3d-printing-materials,news-24392.html
Cheers, Gadge
"ODK Mods can explain it to you, but they can't understand it for you..."
"Crazy can be medicated, ignorance can be educated - but there is no cure for stupid..."
I was in touch with several 3D printer people some years ago when I had wanted to reproduce some old H.G. Palmer labels and wheel caps. The prices varied enormously from one seller to the other. One seller on the coast wanted $350 for one wheel cap!!! Another person wanted a more reasonable $11. A local university offered to make them for free. I was told that there are many different types of printers and many different types of plastics. As Gadge suggested above, only accept ABS or nylon or similar. Anything else could result in failure in a very short time.
VM, pull the Kohler off and put it on a normal push mower base there is too much drag trying to push a self propelled that is not self propelled BB is the dislike of the Diplomat because the drive gear is unobtainable or some other reason. I'm sure a fitter working in his shed could make a steel gear, even if it cost a bit, if that is the only killer of the Diplomat it might be worth the effort?
Hi Norm,
The base is in really great condition. Would it be possible to remove the existing rear wheels and replace them with standard wheels?
Its a pity you are so far away. I have a Diplomat which has not been started for 20 yrs but the drive still worked last time I used it. I would have happily given the whole thing to you. Transport costs make it all theoretical and, of course, a 40 yr old gear might fail the first time you used it. It actually worked quite well when I used to bother with it but my lawn is only good enough for a rotary mower these days.
It is exciting to see applied science 'in the field' in our field. I guess this must be the earliest example of 3D printing applicable to vintage lawnmower parts.
It is exciting! A big thank you to the person behind the gear reproduction. I hope this is just the beginning.
One for the record ------------------------------------ Jack
