This is easily the oldest mower in my collection, a 1970's Victa VC Mustang. This is what my grandfather called his "motor-mower", always set to the lowest setting and virtually never ran at anything more than half throttle. As a kid, I loved this thing, I guess I still do.
In the late 90's, he finally decided to retire it from use and replaced it with a 4-stroke Rover, but I get the feeling he preferred his old Victa. Pa gave me that old Victa, which I have had running a few times over the years but it's sat idle for most of those 25 years.
With my latest run of mower resurrections, I wanted to focus some attention on the old Victa. It was running the last time I had it out several years ago, but would it today?
First, a little history on this era of Victa. With a 16-inch alloy deck and powered by 125 and 160cc "full crank" 2-stroke engines, these machines were very long lasting. They had a two-piece crankcase, a separate cylinder barrel and a flat cylinder head. The full crankshaft permitted a top mounted flywheel.
After 1984, those full crank engines were replaced by a simpler "half-crank" Power Torque engine. These were only made in 160cc form and had a single piece cast iron cylinder and crankcase capped with a flat alloy cylinder head. The flywheel was bottom mounted, and the top of the crankcase was capped with a plastic starter cup and sealed with a rubber o-ring. I feel these engines are a bit rougher running, but no less durable. Presumably, the Power Torque was quicker and cheaper to manufacture.
My VC Mustang is a later model, fitted with a plastic G4 carby rather than the metal G3. Earlier examples with the G4 didn't have a primer at all, later models like mine had a remote primer. The later generation of G4 LM carbs had an integrated primer and were used right up until they stopped making 2-stroke engines in the mid 2010's.
My first step was to clean the poor thing. P&S Brake Buster for the body and the excellent Bilt Hamber Surfex HD for the oily bits.
Removing the cowling proved difficult due to the rusted screws, but I persevered and got there in the end. I actually replaced them from some new ones I had in stock. Note the fuel cap must be removed as well.
With the mower clean, I spritzed some Carpro Hydr02 on, rinsed and then dried off with the EGO. The cowling was temporarily reattached with just a single screw just in case I needed to go back in. The air filter was not up to scratch so was replaced with a new one I had in stock.
It was then time for the moment of truth, would it start? As expected, the tank was bone dry, so some fresh 25:1 was added, the primer push and to my amazement, still worked. I selected the cold start position on the throttle. One full, two pulls, three pulls and it spluttered to life.............just. Initially, I thought it just needed to clear its throat, but it just wouldn't rev at all. Again, I thought I would just let it chug away and see where that would lead, to no effect.
I pulled the plug and it was clearly getting fuel, so as a hunch, I took off the cowling and removed the muffler, which is held on by a clip and through bolt.
The exhaust port was fine, save for the cactus gasket. I then got out a flat bladed screwdriver and started poking into the muffler outlet, which is routed downwards into the deck and not accessible on the machine. What came out of the muffler sort of confirmed what I was thinking........................50 years worth of carbon!
With as much carbon removed as possible, I opened up the outlet with the screwdriver and reinstalled the muffler and tired again......................
(Sorry about the video formatting, I just couldn't get it right).
So, the muffler was preventing the engine from breathing. As you can hear, it idles and runs hard! It's noisy, it's smoky............. I wouldn't have it any other way!
Idle speed -
Full throttle -
It cleaned up ok.................
I'm conflicted with this mower. I would love to return it to showroom condition, but I would never use it again, and that makes me sad. So, at this stage, I'm going to fix a few things that I can deal with: a replacement fuel cap with the integrated fuel gauge, a new spark plug boot, a new muffler, some replacement stickers, a replacement orange hub cap for the rear wheel and hopefully a catcher in better condition. Some of that I have already found, the hub cap and catcher are proving difficult.
But it is running. And I can't begin to express how happy that makes me feel.
