Walken-Behind
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- Joined
- Jun 7, 2016
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A couple of months ago, there was a Craftsman mower sitting out for the trash just up in the next block from my house. Property had been sold and cleaned out and that was one of the discarded items. The shroud was off and upside down, the gas tank and dipstick tube were tossed in two different directions, etc. I gathered up what was there, because from the look of the deck design I knew it went back into the 70s. The intake, carb, and air cleaner were all missing. But I have quite a lot of vintage parts on hand and I figured that I could do something with it.
The serial tag on the deck showed 131 90300 and put it as a 1973 model. The engine turned out to be somewhat newer....about 1979 or so. I rummaged through my parts and came up with an intake pipe, new carb, throttle plate, air filter, links and other small hardware. The spark plug and oil were actually already new. I wondered about the coil, but decided to see what it might do. I put it all together and it started right up! Ran like new, no burning of oil or issues whatsoever. Someone had mounted the engine on a wooden collar to allow for the longer shaft. The old pass-through-the-deck muffler had rusted at the bottom and the high heat had burned away a small amount of the wood. I filled that in with some high-temp 'red silicone' and changed to a new side-exit muffler. Three of the wheels were original 'chrome' versions, while one was a replacement in plain white. Only two hubcaps remained. I suspected those would be tough to find.
Well, last week I was browsing through Craigslist and there was a curb alert for a vintage rear bagger just 2.5 miles away. I hopped in the car and zipped on over there and managed to grab it.
That one seemed to be from about 1978. The serial plate was unreadable, but the OPEI badge showed 1977 and they are often about a year ahead. The steel deck was in decent shape and just had one broken wheel. The engine seems to have a broken piston rod, so I will get more deeply into that at a later date. Might even put a different engine on the deck. The three good white wheels were slightly smaller diameter than on the first mower. But it also had two remaining hubcaps and they were a match! Now I had a full set. And the engine had an original intake pipe, throttle plate, throttle plate cover, and knob. Hmmm....this second engine was the same design, but with everything in gray instead of red. Might look even nicer as a contrast. I did a test-swap of the parts and liked the results so well that I decided to keep it that way. Along the way, I made some subtle but needed modifications to get a more normal, full-range throttle response rather than just high and low as it came from the factory. I will get a replacement recoil soon, because the first one broke and the second one is not in the best of condition either....although, with the new carb, this is a one-pull-to-start mower so the recoil isn't seeing a ton of use. I will be on the lookout for a handle nameplate and may end up making one, as well as some handle braces. I will likely paint the one white wheel silver as a compromise unless another one turns up.
This was a fun new project for me. My regular thing has been collecting and restoring Toro Whirlwinds.
Enjoy the photos. The one shows how it looked with the red top components before I made the change to the gray. One benefit is that the gray has two mounting screws to hold the dipstick tube to the metal shroud. The red was slightly newer and the factory changed to only one mounting screw.
I found a site that has most of the old Sears catalogs archived, so I have been saving all of the available rotary mower pages from the 50s through the 80s. The included page here is from 1973 and the mower on the left is what mine would have looked like when new, with its original engine.
Those old catalog pages show that from 1971 through 1981 or so, Sears had a lot of nice-looking mowers. But how many have survived? On youtube there are two side discharge from the early 70s and that seems to be all. I have searched extensively through google images and Craigslist and ebay and everywhere I can think of, but have only turned up a couple of more rear baggers from the late 70s. Added to my two, that makes only half a dozen for the entire run of the 1970s. If there are more out there, they must be well hidden. I want more! :thumbsup:
The serial tag on the deck showed 131 90300 and put it as a 1973 model. The engine turned out to be somewhat newer....about 1979 or so. I rummaged through my parts and came up with an intake pipe, new carb, throttle plate, air filter, links and other small hardware. The spark plug and oil were actually already new. I wondered about the coil, but decided to see what it might do. I put it all together and it started right up! Ran like new, no burning of oil or issues whatsoever. Someone had mounted the engine on a wooden collar to allow for the longer shaft. The old pass-through-the-deck muffler had rusted at the bottom and the high heat had burned away a small amount of the wood. I filled that in with some high-temp 'red silicone' and changed to a new side-exit muffler. Three of the wheels were original 'chrome' versions, while one was a replacement in plain white. Only two hubcaps remained. I suspected those would be tough to find.
Well, last week I was browsing through Craigslist and there was a curb alert for a vintage rear bagger just 2.5 miles away. I hopped in the car and zipped on over there and managed to grab it.
That one seemed to be from about 1978. The serial plate was unreadable, but the OPEI badge showed 1977 and they are often about a year ahead. The steel deck was in decent shape and just had one broken wheel. The engine seems to have a broken piston rod, so I will get more deeply into that at a later date. Might even put a different engine on the deck. The three good white wheels were slightly smaller diameter than on the first mower. But it also had two remaining hubcaps and they were a match! Now I had a full set. And the engine had an original intake pipe, throttle plate, throttle plate cover, and knob. Hmmm....this second engine was the same design, but with everything in gray instead of red. Might look even nicer as a contrast. I did a test-swap of the parts and liked the results so well that I decided to keep it that way. Along the way, I made some subtle but needed modifications to get a more normal, full-range throttle response rather than just high and low as it came from the factory. I will get a replacement recoil soon, because the first one broke and the second one is not in the best of condition either....although, with the new carb, this is a one-pull-to-start mower so the recoil isn't seeing a ton of use. I will be on the lookout for a handle nameplate and may end up making one, as well as some handle braces. I will likely paint the one white wheel silver as a compromise unless another one turns up.
This was a fun new project for me. My regular thing has been collecting and restoring Toro Whirlwinds.
Enjoy the photos. The one shows how it looked with the red top components before I made the change to the gray. One benefit is that the gray has two mounting screws to hold the dipstick tube to the metal shroud. The red was slightly newer and the factory changed to only one mounting screw.
I found a site that has most of the old Sears catalogs archived, so I have been saving all of the available rotary mower pages from the 50s through the 80s. The included page here is from 1973 and the mower on the left is what mine would have looked like when new, with its original engine.
Those old catalog pages show that from 1971 through 1981 or so, Sears had a lot of nice-looking mowers. But how many have survived? On youtube there are two side discharge from the early 70s and that seems to be all. I have searched extensively through google images and Craigslist and ebay and everywhere I can think of, but have only turned up a couple of more rear baggers from the late 70s. Added to my two, that makes only half a dozen for the entire run of the 1970s. If there are more out there, they must be well hidden. I want more! :thumbsup:
