Skip to main content
Collection, Preservation and Display of Old Lawn Mowers

Atco 24 chain

Enter a word or two to search the forum section and click the Search Forum button.

Hello Everyone. What an amazing site and forum. Very cool. I moved house last year and have since been obsessed with the finding the right lawn mower! Or lawn mowers!

I bought a 24in atco with roller seat as a winter project. I think I have attached a picture. It had sucked the perished air filter into the cyclinder and the carb needed a real good clean but managed to get the beast running. Great fun and instead of halving the mowing time I just go round the garden more times than is necessary.

Unfortunately the main drive chain broke last weekend and actually the chains in general are in bad condition and over greased. I'm trying to source some replacement chain but I'm not too sure what I'm looking for. Or where to get it. It's about a 12.7 mm pitch. Roller diameter approx 7.3ish. Roller width in 5mm. 

I was also trying to find a manual. I saw a link in the following thread  http://www.oldlawnmowerclub.co.uk/forum/atco-royale-24-manual but I think the target file has since been removed. I assume my model is a heavy duty atco 24 with a H60 Tecumseh, not sure about bsf threads or not?

Any advise would be very welcome

Tom

wristpin Mon, 01/05/2017

Welcome,

If it was one of my links I may have removed it to free up some FOC Dropbox space so try again.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/88rzg8sqlzm1npd/Atco%20B20%2024%2030%20HD%20T…

The chains are a standard imperial size so just take a bit to your local bearing and transmission factor. They will probably have it by the metre . Later Atco 24s were fitted with heavy duty chains (thicker side plates) and I'm guessing that having the Tecumseh H60 yours is a later machine. Probably with UNF threads.

bendrey Mon, 01/05/2017

Thank you Wristpin thats brilliant and very usefull. I love looking though the old parts diagrams too. You must have quite a collection on documents!

Cheers again

hillsider Wed, 03/05/2017

Do any of you folk you remember the old style Briggs and Stratton parts books? They were huge!

wristpin Wed, 03/05/2017

Do any of you folk you remember the old style Briggs and Stratton parts books? They were huge!

Like these?

hillsider Wed, 03/05/2017

Those are even bigger than the one that I remember that dated from the late sixties.

wristpin Wed, 03/05/2017

Those are even bigger than the one that I remember that dated from the late sixties.

They were well before the days of micro fiche many of which were poor resolution copies of the paper books and were prone to scratching in a workshop environment. .

In the day we would receive regular update pages and adding them involved releasing catches to dismantle the binders so that old pages could be removed and the updated ones added. In those days, before computers, a good storesman would often carry dozens, if not hundreds, of part numbers in his head . In the 90s I employed a 50 year old man who had started in a workshop parts department at the age of 15 and could still rattle off Suffolk and Atco part numbers for long forgotten machines.

Many of my books have a lovely oily workshoppy smell - a sort of olfactory patina! 

 

bendrey Mon, 22/05/2017

Impressive library of old books and manuals!

I had a bit of hassle sourcing some chain locally so searched online. I didn't know the chain code but ended up finding some wippermann 332 in the end. I have attached the link below if anyone struggles like I did. I can't guarantee its the perfect replacement but its dimensions match the chain I'm replacing. Don't forget to get the split links and also the crank links as I needed some of those too. Maybe helpful for someone?

I think RS sell it too. The chain code might be 083l but please check that first as I'm not confident with that.

Needless to say I mowed the grass at the weekend sitting down! Happy days!

http://www.beltingonline.com/wippermann-332-1-2-x-3-16-inch-pitch-chain…

wristpin Mon, 22/05/2017

Not sure why the chain should be difficult to find as it It's standard chain with a generic coding of AS40 or 41 - memory fails me as to which.

I presume that you are aware that both the intermediate sprockets are adjustable with both a slotted  and eccentric adjustment to give two dimensional adjustment. 

bendrey Tue, 23/05/2017

Thanks Wristpin

Yes I thinks it's a #42? It's narrower than the 41. Now I know what the code is I think I would get hold of it a lot easier. Because I didn't know the coding I didn't know what I was asking for and some of the companies I spoke were a bit vague on what they had. There are a couple of good lawn mower repair companies but they said they were out of stock.  So after driving around a few places I gave up and went the internet route. For someone new to chain coding there seams to be an aufull lots of codes and manufacturers numbers for similar and the exact same thing. Got the in the end. 

I didn't know about the eccentric adjustment, I adjusted it in the lateral plane and that seamed adiquate but I will check now to see if it can be improved. Thanks for the heads up. 

wristpin Tue, 23/05/2017

So long as it's not a very early machine the spindles for the two intermediate sprockets have the eccentric adjustment as well as the slot to obtain adjustment of both chains without too much compromise.

One of the problems with chain coding was that in the 90s the British made chain seemed to disappear and the factors were selling Indian and Polish chain each with its own coding and often a different pin diameter which meant having to stock two sets of con and crank links.