Hi Sue, I don't know if it is doable for you but I recently converted the cup starter of a Chonda to fit on a Victa and it probably works better than the Victa ones did brand new. Probably not the best option for you but when things get a bit desperate......
I'm already using the desperate option, a cup from another make spaced upwards with washers, and inside diameter reduced with a ring of aluminium araldited in place! I don't think it'll last long. What are the dimensions of the Honda part?
Hi Sue with the Chonda ones (I think the Honda ones may be different) it is 55mm in diameter and about 40mm deep. What I had to do was bore the center to suit the shoulder on the Victa nut and then I cut about 4mm off the top of it removing the flange. That left the ribs in the cup exposed, I then knocked them down a little bit to give a bit more clearance to the starter. Works like a dream
Sue, not sure if there would be too many Chondas up Dalesford way, not sure if people in the bush are silly enough to buy them, we have plenty of silly people in Melbourne. I had a bloke text me a few days ago that he had broken the pull cord on a 24 I sold him a few weeks ago. I asked him if there was anything else wrong with it because I wondered why the cord would have broken when in that time he should have probably had to start it a dozen or so time. No nothing else is wrong it starts fine, just the pull cord broken. He brought it over this morning and I replaced the pull cord on the cup starter, and I noticed the cup starter had fresh ally exposed indicating to me the pull start had been given a lot of work recently. Anyway I put it back together and went to start it, no go, pulled the plug and it was light brown. I immediately said to him that it had been straight fueled and he was adamant that he had not done that, but then his wife might have used it. I can't imagine why you would not know if your wife had been out mowing the back yard and not told you, but anyway, I pulled the barrel and sure enough, barrel/piston all scored up. Sorry to ramble on it is just silly people who annoy me and as I said we have buckets of them in Melb
Well, I hope this doesn't look too silly! It works, but as you can see, starting is biting chunks out of the aluminium I glued in to reduce the cup's internal diameter. Anyway, the original Villiers cup must have been about 53mm across internally (minimum 50mm) and 45mm high measured from the top of the flywheel (maximum 50mm). So the Chonda cup might do, but it will still need spacing upwards.
Hi Sue, I doubt the Chonda one would need spacing up, the ones I have done including using a Honda cup have all given me problems with height so you could be lucky.
You can still buy the right starter cup but it would work out expensive (exchange rates plus postage)
Another option may be to change the starter locking pawls over with ones from a Victa starter,the orange Victa starter bolts straight on to the Villiers cowl but it won't look a factory standard mower .If you swap some Victa parts into the Villiers starter the standard Victa cup should work.
The Chonda cup looks a close size with the Villiers Cup so that may be the easiest option.
(in the image of the starter cup with the measurements under the cup is a 7mm spacer)
Hi Max, the advantage I found with the Chonda cup is that the pull cord only moves 50mm before it grabs and it is a positive grab every time.If only Victa had worked that out all those years ago.At least I have found a use for dead Chondas and I could not find the cups on ebay. The Honda ones I have are about 47mm deep 60mm internal diameter but they have 6 slots in them for the Honda pawls to go though and I think the Victa pawls would get caught in them. The 60mm diameter may also be an issue. At this stage my money is on the Chonda cup. I guess if push came to shove you could weld a Chonda cup inside the Honda cup to get the correct height. Another alternative is to weld a strip of metal on the outside of the cup so the Villiers pawls can't protrude through the Honda cup and get caught. Anything is doable
Might be expensive so Norms Chonda starter drum may be the cheapest option .
Changing the Villiers starter pawls with Victa pawls is not a good option, I tried a Villiers starter with the Victa pawls and it did not grip the starter cup enough.
Hi Max, I guess the Villiers starter cup supermarket has shut up shop a few years ago. I fitted a Honda pull start on a full crank a few years ago,worked perfectly but the amount of hours I spent on was silly /www.outdoorking-forum.com.au/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/85643/replacing-cup-starters-full-crank-victas.html#Post85643
Yes Villiers in Ballarat shut down a long time ago.
Looks good the modern Honda starter on the 2 stoke Victa full crank it looks a fair amount of work even welding up the old fuel tank hole in the cowl, it all takes time.
The Villiers starter I tried the Victa pawls in was slipping, so I dismantled it and someone had put one of the fibre washers in the wrong location. I think you could use the Villiers starter with Victa Pawls except you would need a few more modifications to the starter.
Sometimes when I can't redrill a starter to fit another mower I just make up an adapter plate.
Hi Max, that cowl didn't have a fuel tank , so no hole to plug, biggest issue was I had to lift the cowl up 12mm to get it to clear the cup, now that was a real pain
Hi Norm, An original 24 cowl ,I was thinking it was a replacement engine, the cowl doesn't stand out that it's been modified, most people would not know looking at the mower.
Hi, I may have solved the problem. I found another 1970s Supaswift at the local tip. This one has a Kirby VK30 engine with a pale green tank that looks like it came from a Victa Corvette (the plate says Model 16), and it has an OK wind-up starter that looks like it'll fit the Villiers 140. The VK30 had Phelon ignition, and therefore a similar flywheel to the Villiers, yes? I'll post a picture of the mower in tip finds soon.
