Scrap Lawnmower Fix-up

[angellonewolf]

I have been scouring Facebook ads as I fancy doing another one. Hoping I might pick up a bargain soon as winter approaches. There's loads of them about.

best time is start of the season now is the time a lot of people that just play with them/ty make a few quid sell off there hard to repare ones as that wont keep them all over the winter and try to sell them as non starting

 

[seanchadwick2k3]

I already have a few on my eBay watch list and I've not even finished this one. This one was saved from the skip and used it a couple of times and left it to rust.

Totally stripped the engine down and carbs etc and got.the engine running the other day spot on so very happy. Quite a nice little thing to work on. Mine is very rusty so setup an electrolysis bath and bought.lots of flap wheels and wire wheels!

 

[Richiew]

I've got my hands on another one! This first post is again copied from the today I acquired thread. Will try and get this one running and looking reasonable. It belonged to our neighbours at my mam's place. They always had immaculate lawns like bowling greens using this. It would be nice to give this a bit of love. Sadly people have passed and it's not suitable for the remaining occupants. They saw me messing about and using the other mower so I was given this for nothing. I have done the odd job and favour for them over the years. Its been replaced by a plastic electric one as it was too heavy.



Got given this yesterday. Had been laid up under a tarp for the last two years and it has suffered a bit. The engine turns. That's my bank holiday tinkering sorted.

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[Richiew]

Well I couldn't wait so I got the spanners out. Apologies for the pictures. The camera battery was dying so I had to take a few shots quickly.

This Atco is a nicer designed model than the previous mower. It is an earlier example created before the cost cutting took hold. You don't need to bend over to pull the starter cord, the fuel tank is detachable and not plastic, thottle linkage is much more robust, that sort of thing. Almost certainly more expensive to make. It all feels very familiar though. I've got the same 11mm spanner out again for the cutting plate. Steel screws into aluminium again. The plastic fuel hose has gone hard but I have some left over from the last job and it fits. I should have a spare fuel filter on a shelf somewhere. The right hand side steel cover is the worst bit on the mower. I can get a replacement for £8.60 so that's a no brainer. We have spark. There was still fuel in the tank but it wont run. The fuel is a couple of years old I reckon. I removed the carb bowl to check but it actually looked quite good. No rust, no water The fuel tank needs a good clean out. Most of the metalwork needs a good wire brushing or even some electrolysis. Paintwork is too far gone to save and painting is not my strong point but never mind.

Ideally I would like to split the body to get the metal tined height adjustment crosspiece out to clean it up properly. It is the worst looking part. In order to do this I have to remove six very large screws going into the aluminium sides through the top plate and I'm not sure they will come out. I have sprayed all the screws and nuts with penetrating fluid and left them.

The engine has a small leak from the crank shaft. That is why the clutch side of the top plate is all clean and shiny despite being covered in grass cuttings and muck. Tradtional British rust proofing. The other side under the starter hasn't faired so well.

The drive belt under the cover on the left hand side is in good working order. I haven't managed to the get the left hand side cover off as one of the screws is stuck. The screw head is done for so I'll be welding a nut on to remove it.. The drive mechanism works. I've pulled the drive lever and turned the drive shaft by hand making the mover move forward without complaint.

The starter cord is worn but works. The blades turn fine. The sole plate/cutting plate just needs a clean. The deflector plate is better than it looks. Just surface rust. It's all fixable. Certainly not ecomomic to do so but it will keep me entertained and out of trouble.

 

[a111r]

My father's been hanging on to an old Atco mower he's not needed for 35 years.
I'd guess it's from the 60s, as it was left in a house he bought around 1974.
It was the first engine I had my hands on, maybe I should retrieve it. it's one of these.

 

[Richiew]

Great fun to tinker with and cheaper than restoring a motorbike.

 

[pedrobedro]

My father's been hanging on to an old Atco mower he's not needed for 35 years.

I worked on school playing fields when I left school in early 70s and that is the same as the ones we used for cricket squares, very solid steady mowers.

 

[Richiew]

I've finally got this one apart. Actually used a welder on this to weld some nuts on the screws that weren't giving up. I think the heat made the difference as they turned with very little effort once I had the spanner on them. I have ordered some button head cap screws to replace them, 5/16UNC. There are a number of Metric pitch threads on this machine too. Theres a big tubular steel loop that hold the grass collector on and it's showing cracks on both sides. The cracks will get ground out and welded too.

One pulley that turns the blades didn't want to come off the spindle. I wasn't sure if there was something holding it on that I couldn't see but after a bit of fruitless research online I got brave and used a bit more force. I was a bit worried as the side casting is ally and so is the pulley which could crack but I got it shifted once I'd made my mind up. There's some nice bronze or brass bushings showing. The machine stamp on the castings shows March 1993 but the design could be 30 years earlier to my eyes. The side castings have hint of 1950s/60s hoover about them. I had trouble with two small M4 screws that hold one of the side cover panels on. One lost its head but I managed to double nut it to get it out as there was plenty of thread showing under the cover. The other snapped well below ground level, welding a nut didn't work and I made a mess of trying to drill it out. I think one screw will be OK to hold the cover on. I could drill it all out and weld the casting and rethread but many castings don't weld well and its a lot of extra work.

I've starting sanding rust and loose paint off some parts and priming them. Its a quick brush job and wont look pretty close up. It's just a rust prevention measure. I have one of those fake Makita battery grinders and it does a good job with a twist knot brush on the end. The grinder isn't very powerful so it suits the work. It doesn't spin the brush as fast or hard as a mains grinder and the wires don't seem to fall out or embed themselves in my arms like they usually try to do. I still wear eye protection.

I also have a fake Chinese impact gun and that made short work of the spindle nuts. I was impressed with it. I prefer to use hand tools where I can but I think the impact gun was kinder with the efficient removal of nuts that hadn't shifted in 28 years. I would have been there ages with a spanner or socket rounding the nuts off or whatever without it.


I should really ensure that the engine still works before I go any further with this.

 

[Richiew]

The engine runs sweet as nut. It's not currently attached to anything so I dragged it outside, attached the fuel tank and new gas hose. Foot on top of the engine to keep it steady and with fresh fuel it ran first pull of the cord. I've had a bit of luck with the fuel as the general concensus is that it goes off after a period of time. I've just finished off the five litre can of fuel I bought twelve months ago and it has still run both mowers this weekend without any problem

I won't touch the carb as I'm likely to do more harm than good. I knew this was a good mower, it just fell out of favour. Incidently I have swapped out the original carb on the first mower in this thread with the cheap chinese carb that I bought last year. The engine was running a bit too fast for my liking and was dragging me round the garden a bit. I can get the new carb to run the mower at a more sedate pace which is the old man at one with his mower vibe that I am after. I just need to sort out the throttle linkage on that one. The governor spring seems a bit rubbish and I need to make a new throttle linkage. The throttle control was all a bit vague unfortunately. The mower cuts really well though.

I found this youtube video helpful as the old carb had a fixed jet and this has an extra adjustment on the bottom of the float bowl. Pretty elementary stuff for most on here I expect but if you don't know then this is quite a straightforward and popular video which outlines the basics. The idle speed adjustment was obvious even to me as I could see what it did to the throttle but the rest is helpfully explained.

Back to the engine on the Atco mower. The oil filler cap doesn't have an oil fill mark on it like the other mower so I've just filled it up to the top of the filling point. It is probably overfilled but it's likely to leak a bit of oil anyway so I see it as insurance against running dry. Even at this height it still doesn't seem an awful lot.

This is the oil filler screw cap. The previous mower has a dip stick attached in the centre but this one doesn't.

This mower hasn't been quite as interesting to me as the last one was. I been doing a lot of sanding and painting in the main. I expect it will get more interesting when I put it back together. I can't sharpen the blades until it is reconstructed. It's not a modular cassette like the last one.

I've done a bit of electrolysis on the metal tines and associated hardware on the front of the mower. This is my dad's old battery charger doing the business.

I moved the cathode a bit nearer.

Marginally better after a few hours in the soup. It got sprayed down with oil after I dried it off just to interfere with the painting later. The shiny bar was in the green tube so has been protected from the elements over the years. I'll take another look at it tomorrow. It might go back in for a few more hours. It will still need rubbing down and painting regardless. (But not the shiny bit.)

This bar (below) holds the grass collector. It stands roughly about 20 degrees off vertical. It has to carry a fairly heavy load at times and is subject to vibration so it's no surprise it was suffering from stress cracks at both ends.

Ground out, welded and ground back. If it fails again it will be an easy fix.

I have sanded the loose paint and rust off the mower blades and given them a coat of primer. There's lots of boring, shoddy painting in store for the next week until it all goes back together. I've bought some "No Nonsense" branded red oxide primer from Screwfix as the 30 year old Holts cellulose primer I was using ran out. The old stuff felt quite rough and grainy in texure but the new paint feels very much like standard gloss.

I hope to have a nice mower by the end of all of this. It will look awful, except at long distances but it should cut grass like a champ.

 

[Onoff]

Just realised I've an old petrol mower hiding away.....

 

[Richiew]

Hours, if not days of fun await. As long as it doesn't need painting....

 

[a111r]

If I do up the old man's Atco, it will be 'oily rag style'.
It's spent it's life in the dry, so there is not much flaky rust, it has a nice patina to the 50+ year old paintwork.

 

[angellonewolf]

Just realised I've an old petrol mower hiding away.....

Hours, if not days of fun await. As long as it doesn't need painting....

If I do up the old man's Atco, it will be 'oily rag style'.
It's spent it's life in the dry, so there is not much flaky rust, it has a nice patina to the 50+ year old paintwork.

you lot are better than me i think playing with mowers are great but i loose intrest as soon as its running fine then sell it as is

 

[Richiew]

They are still a bit of a novelty for me. I like them as they are a lot of machine for the money and they do a really good job. Rather undervalued I think.

 

[angellonewolf]

They are still a bit of a novelty for me. I like them as they are a lot of machine for the money and they do a really good job. Rather undervalued I think.

i tend to got out my way to get them fix them spending a few hours to fix then flog on for less than a 5er per hour in time end up breaking even but i like the play so i think a cheap hobby but thats it

 

[Richiew]

Yes, I think breaking even is the best you can expect on these. There's a mover the same as my first one for sale locally for 55 quid on facebook! Other sellers ask more like 120 but they wont sell. I know these need a bit of fettling to keep cutting well but it is a shame they are not better regarded by people. It's a bit like old vices. They are really cheap, good value and it's sad that you only need one. I can't justify hoarding a load of mowers unfortunately.

I don't own a petrol chainsaw, strimmer or hedge trimmer yet though....

 

[angellonewolf]

I don't own a petrol chainsaw, strimmer or hedge trimmer yet though....

dont if you value your time and money spent

i know of a few people near me have play and failed to even brake even the 2 i know well one now buys £20-50 for a decent honda that needs a service and knows what to look for

the 2nd now only looks for honda mowers briggs and strattion mowers older versions and only sthil and echo and kawasaki hedge trimmer chain saws and strimmers as people will pay the money there worth but parts are cheaper and easy to get
but any thing less is a £35 sale and parts and time its not worth buying fixing and selling

 

[Richiew]

It's just for me, not for selling on. I knew at the outset of getting the second mower that I wouldn't get my time or money back. I just like playing with the things and learning as I go along. There is nothing to rust or need painting on a strimer or chainsaw either which is a bonus.

I spotted a strimmer left out for scrap on a walk with my wife earlier today. It was electric though and the missus muttered under her breath " Keep on walking" as we passed it. I told her in no uncertain terms that if it was petrol it would have been going straight back to the car with me.

 

[angellonewolf]

^^^^if i walked/drove passed any thing petrol thrown away id be having it free as you can have a play for nothing
but its the fix a mccullunck chainsaw needs more than a clean up and clean carb its working it fine as soon as it needs parts it a break even or even out of pocket job

 

[Richiew]

As pointed out above by wiser heads than me, this restoration/fettling lark is costly. 14 quid for a tin of green gloss! It's got a hint of sage about it but it is a suitably dark green. The hue was described as "Vine Green". Painting is coming along. It hasn't improved and looks like the efforts of a year three painting class but I can sand the worst paint runs out if I spot them.

The red is all primer. I have a proper red for the blades later. It might not look fancy but I'm determined it won't rust again. Rust is a pet peeve of mine. Doubtless some of the paint will rub off before the first cut of the lawn. I hope everything will still fit together. There's a couple of push fit tubes that will be marginal with four coats of paint on them.

This (below) is the height level adjustment bar that went into the electrolysis bath. It got dried off and rubbed over with a sanding block. The worst of the rust has gone and it's not as bad as it first appeared. There's no flakiness left and surprisingly little pitting. Bit of paint and it will be good as new, nearly.

Edit: The camera flash has brought out the rust in the picture. It's not quite as brown as that. The first picture shows a more accurate but smaller impression. (Bottom left of pic)