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Collection, Preservation and Display of Old Lawn Mowers

New Member, New Hobby, Atco/Briggs & Stratton Question

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Hello,

I would like to say how great this forum and club seems to be, so full of real experts with amazing machines

I am a complete novice but really hope to get more involved in the hobby.

Having for many years loved older lawnmowers I recently acquired a couple of atco mowers, a balmoral 14" and  a 17". After swapping a few parts around I managed to get the 14" mower working and cutting. Unfortunately I didnt check the oil and I believe that the engine seized. I can't move the flywheel or crankshaft at all. The two engines from both mowers seem identical and so I plan to swap them to get one mower working but I have a few questions, I am not a mechanic, I have a basic knowledge but am looking to develop that!

Q: Is there a restoration guide / manual available?

Q: If my engine is seized can I do anything with it?

Q: Where's the best place to source replacement parts for the engine and mower?

Thanks

Forums

wristpin Mon, 18/05/2015

Welcome to the forum.

The Balmoral is a modern mower and is, in fact, still in production under the Allett brand . I think that the best you will find is an operator's manual/ instruction book . However, although still in production I suspect that yours will have a Tecumseh derived "Atco engine" and not the one currently used.

The only way to assess the damage to your engine is to pull it apart but before you do just check that it is internally seized and not locked by the recoil starter or something in the drive line. If it has seized without lumps of metal flying out it may have just gone tight on the crank and this is sometimes recoverable.

Atco sold all their parts stock to the Gateshead Mower Centre and some are common with the Allett branded machine.

 

Glenfish Fri, 29/05/2015

Hi. Thanks for the information. I have opened up the engine. Looks like a small rod has snapped. Both valves seem to be closed. I have taken a picture. Can someone pls tell me how to display it ?

wristpin Fri, 29/05/2015

From your description the connecting rod has snapped - that is the rod that connects the piston to the crankshaft. The next step is to undo the two hex head bolts that clamp the lower end of that rod to the crank ( the I big- end bearing and big-end cap) . Then inspect the crank journal ( the area around which the big- end was clamped. )

You will probably see a bit of a mess where the softer metal of the big- end bearing has transferred to the crank journal  . All is not necessarily lost as it's often possible to clean up the crank either by using wet or dry paper or acid to etch off the soft alloy.  However to do this you will need to remove the crank which first involves removing the flywheel.. 

Another job for another post !

The attached may be of some assistance but as it's too big for my scanner I've had to take an image - I will fold it up and scan it quarter at a time so hopefully a combination of the two will make sense. It may not be the exact same engine as the one that you have but it will give the general idea.

Forum wont allow me to post the scans as pdf files so here's a Dropbox link. Ignore the Dropbox requests for you sign up  and the scans should open  - you may have to click on "download".

https://www.dropbox.com/s/owgvno8m2zpztb8/Suffolk%20114%20cc%20engine%2…

Glenfish Fri, 29/05/2015

Thanks for the info. I will see if i can upload a pic later. The piece tgat looks like it has snapped is 5mm wide. It is attached under one of the hex bolts that you have mentioned. The larger arm/ rod coonecting tge piston looks ok?

Glenfish Fri, 29/05/2015

The piece that I believe is broken is the small section angled towards 5 0'clock from the crankshaft, it's approx 5mm wide, 50mm in length.

I am very chuffed to announce that this afternoon I swapped the engines over and first pull  the mower started, I gave the lawn a lovely cut! It did run a bit rough but I guess that the carb and settings need tuning correctly?

wristpin Fri, 29/05/2015

Sounds as though it could be the oil dipper/splasher or even the governor arm - is it round or flat section?. Is this engine just going to be used as a source of parts etc or is it your intention to get it back up and running?

Glenfish Mon, 08/06/2015

Update on my post.

To start with this engine problem was an ideal opportunity for me to open up an engine and get stuck in, I have a basic idea how it all works but really want to build on that. I have established that the engine is infact a suffolk qualcast engine, this info from Gateshead Mowers.

My father in law is a retired engineer and I managed to provoke his interest enough to have a look.  My thought before he had a look was that there may be no real damage as I couldn;t see anything obvious, no pieces of metal laying around etc So my expert diagnosis was that I overheated the engine due to lack of oil and seized the piston in the cylinder. So with his help we managed to free the piston and it was soon moving up and down nicely as we turned the flywheel.  Happy days, I now plan to put it all back together and restore the mower.So plenty more help will be required!!!

I have been looking for carb gaskets for the dellorto carb, I found a local supplier on ebay that I plan to try unless others can direct me elsewhere?

Ultimately I want to restore myself a sit on cylinder mower!!

Many Thanks to all for your input. I have already learnt so much and really enjoying the journey!!!

wristpin Mon, 08/06/2015

Sounds like progress, but have you refitted the cylinder head and checked for good compression ?  The reason for asking is that if your diagnosis of a heat seizure is correct the alloy piston may have been " wiped" resulting in the rings being partially seized in their grooves and not pressing outwards onto the cylinder walls . 

Hope not but it is a possibility.

Glenfish Mon, 08/06/2015

No I  have not started the rebuild just yet, that could be a while due to iminent  house move, but if that is the case then at least I will have learnt a bit more!