OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Engines Questions On Briggs & Stratton Engines It isn't that hard to check the oil

Yesterday I had a bloke bring over a couple of mowers with Quantam motors on them, he wanted a few repairs done on them and maybe I could check the oil, says they were running fine.I put the first one up on the bench to drain the oil and not one drop came out and likewise with the second one. I'm not going to even bother going any further with them, not worth wasting good oil in them, but he is happy to drive around in a new ute but couldn't spend a few dollars on some oil for his mowers.
This bloke came over last week with a chainsaw he wanted me to repair, one of the bar studs was stripped and he wanted the chain sharpened. I asked him if it ran and he said it ran fine. He picked it up yesterday and he asked if I had started it to test it. I said I hadn't because he had told me it ran fine. Then he asked me how to start it. I guess it is all in the day of dealing with the public

Just like idiots in the leafy suburbs that drive current model Mercs and on Sundays have an old wooden trailer with non working faded out to clear lights and everything attached to it holding on with fencing wire hooked to the tow bar.

Some peoples priorities are just so out of whack it's no longer funny, but I guess they've spent $1800 on the latest iPhone Xs.

There's a bloke with a flash office block size house down my friend's street with two late model BMWs who thought he got himself a bargain by getting a cobbled together four stroke steel deck Victa from a man down the street who fixes them up as a hobby, painted with cheap silver paint, for $150. Could easily splurge on a gold plated Toro self drive but would much rather cheap out on his lawn equipment. He's a nice guy though, so let's go easy on him this time eh.

When mower shops charge upwards of $80 plus parts for a basic service, no wonder people often balk at paying it. The mower they are using probably only cost in the region of $300.
I personally couldn't justify spending over $1800 for a mobile phone; drop it once and your up for another $300 for a new glass screen. I wont be getting rid of my Samsung flip phone until Telstra shut off 3G.

I got this Masport Maxicatch from the tip for $20 with catcher. Very little oil, but started first pull (after adding oil of course) on somewhat stale fuel in the tank. Only thing wrong was almost non-existent blades. $650 new back in 2003.
Who ever threw it away has probably gone and bought an Aldi mower . I'll grab good one from the tip one day, just to see how bad they are.

People need to get their priorities back in the right order - I couldn't fathom putting a $80,000 Mercedes on Hire Purchase, and having a huge mortgage - and then having the Mercedes dealer servicing costs...

That sure looks like a good get Tyler, not bad for $20. I had to get another phone a few weeks ago because the charging port wouldn't charge it, I forked out $65 for another phone and that was close to my limit, can't see the point in spending a lot of money on something I use just to make a phone call or two

Wow, that looks near new. Good buy. I'm officially jealous Tyler, and NormK must be obsessing over those wheels -I am.

MF wheels like that don't interest me they are half inch shaft, to fit them on a Victa I have to cut the axles off and weld them to the Victa, done it many times but it all takes time

It not only over there that they when it comes to yard care equipment their brains goes in to neutral over here too.

I got a nursery customer that finally got their crews to check the oil and air filters. It only took me three years to get them to do it along multiple equipment failures (total losses) and finally just firing the operators for not doing this. But it finally got driven home that this is a necessity on equipment especially when operated in a very dusty environments.

And I just got in a ZTR that won't move. Previous tech installed the drive belt wrong so I was surprised it even moved but it did well enough to work until the tensioner froze up. I ask if there was any other problems besides the oil leaks. None reported and said the engine ran fine.

Apparently he wasn't big on taking care of the equipment either as when I pulled the shroud a mouse bed was found along the cylinder fins complete blocked by oily dirt. Cleaned out and repaired mouse chew wires. Well pull the valve covers, adjusted the valves, and while I was adjusting the valves heard an unusual air sound while spinning the engine. It turns out to be a blown head gasket; that is it and not warped head or top of the cylinder, I haven't pull the head yet. Same fellow just taped the chewed wires instead replacing them. The oil leak was cause also by the previous tech not using the surface prep stray for the RTV. Kind glad he didn't considering the amount excess RTV that was inside the valve cover. That cover fell off when I removed the retaining screws.

The engine does runs surprisingly well even with the 35% leakage on the # 2 cylinder. V-twins do run well off load on one cylinder so I tried just running it on #2 and ran poorly on just it.

Then I decided I better check the deck. Good thing all the spindle bearings are bad and the all three idler pulleys are flopping a lot. Rebuild time.

Calling with estimate this morning. Its the customer choice it he wants to fix it but considering the replacement cost it is more than worth it.

Yes it is pretty good Mowerfreak. It was just being wheeled out when i grabbed it.

From the front, you can see the badge is a bit faded and a little drop of paint splotched. On the left, there is scuffed paint where the previous owner obviously ran around a concrete edge. I don't have a photo from the left side.

But its very good - I am really happy with it. It had a newish spark plug, and air filter (which is strange given the oil). Just remembered, I did have to replace the snorkel as it was broken - some corrugated water pipe that was in the shed.

I was given one very similar, it needed a coil..........
It is a really rugged mower, big wheels,
Would have liked to keep it............
speedy

Masport are definitely superior to Victa, by a mile, frame wise.

Masport frames are better for sure but then I end up with all these useless Masport bases because the Briggs motors give up the ghost. Victa is the other way around, bases/wheels fail but the motors keep going. Can't win, guess that is the way manufacturers want it.

So why bother rehoning a PT when there is inevitably a glut out there? Just replace it with another.

That is what I do, maybe one day when the glut dries up a bit I will start honing them. I do the full cranks because I can fit them on utilities or slashers. I was doing that so I could use the barrels with the G4 manifold but now I just make up a manifold so I can fit the LM carby to the older spigot type barrels. It is all fun giving these old motors a new lease on life

Don't forget, you can convert a Victa four stroke model to take a PT, so that it's another chassis source to mitigate the PT glut.
FC's had generally better chassis and even the steel base was slightly better than these horrid PT steel bases.
FCs in turn were let down by fragile thumb latch catchers and physical wear of the softer alloy chassis as well as cracking and even holes getting punched through in treacherous mowing environments.
It's a constant battle on multiple fronts.
Of course, people giving up and throwing out their easily repairable two stroke because of a minor problem like a bad LM needle or worn throttle controller or other sundry item only to turn Rio a Chinese junk because it's 'easier' doesn't help.

I love getting a Victa 4 stroke (not the new models Briggs are dishing up) because any I get usually have a buggered motor but the wheels are often in good condition because they have not done a lot of work before the motor expires. Bases are often good as well. All those side pull full cranks take the standard catcher, it is those high arch thumblatchers that drive me crazy. It is very obvious why Victa stopped making them, must have been costing them a packet to get made compared to the later one

Victa also had side pull models on thumb latch bases. I have three at the moment. One self propelled with no catcher, and two regular push models with catchers that have patched up cracks.
EDIT: I may have misread what you meant. You said those side pull Victas as in referring specifically to the steel deck versions!