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Collection, Preservation and Display of Old Lawn Mowers

Information required on Flymo GCL Professional

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I have recently acquired this machine. It is a twin rotor/blade hover mower with 2 drive wheels and a 5 speed gearbox. The 5hp Briggs and Stratton Industrial engine is from 1990, according to the code stamped on its side. I can find very little information on this mower, but there is a copy of a poster showing it which supposedly dates from the 60s. On the poster, it has a sulky (seat on wheels). I have found an advert and some parts drawings for a GCL75, which was very similar but had safety features such as deadman's handle and ability to engage and disengage the blade drive from the "driving position". 

Forums

wristpin Sat, 06/03/2021

We used to look after some being used on a Haven static holiday caravan site . Not really robust enough when being used by seasonal casual labour. The later GCL75 with the 8hp motor addressed some of the issues but they still were nor robust enough for their intended commercial market.

I may still have some service bulletins but I remember that belt setup / adjustment was fairly critical.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/d4z6gijhehrjocq/FLYMO%20GCL0001.pdf?dl=0

Adrian Sun, 07/03/2021

I suspect it's from between those dates, my Dad bought a Flymo DM (I think) rotovator at the back end of the 1970s with a very similar engine and the exact stool brown and orange colour scheme.

Andy K Sun, 07/03/2021

Many thanks for the advice/comments so far. The parts diagrams are very useful. It looks like there are 2 main areas of concern.

  • The cutter belt which I should be able to get by ordering one the same length as the perished one.
  • One of the bearings on the impellor/blade unit is shot. I hope they are a standard size and that the old bearing comes out without leaving any serious damage.

I can imagine that it wouldn't stand up serious use/abuse, but hopefully it will cut my fairly large and uneven lawn.