Sunbeam Lawn Champ

[Vervepipes]

I'm picking this oddball up tomorrow, the owner is giving it away for free. I normally acquire mowers with the intent of fixing and selling, but this one just has to stay in my personal collection. It's a twin blade with an aluminum deck, looks like it pre-dates the dead man switch. Looks like the engine cover is cracked, but I can keep an eye out on Ebay for one, or just stop drill the crack and epoxy the back of it.

 

[Vervepipes]

Well, unfortunately for the poor little Lawn Champ, I think it's best suited to get parted out. The deck is missing a large chunk out of the side that wasn't pictured in the add, and a large chunk underneath. Right now on the broken side it has a bad patch job with rivets and a length of steel sheet, but pretty much the entire lower side of the deck is missing. Bummer, but maybe somebody will need blade drive parts, and the cast aluminum deck must be worth a few bucks at scrap value.

 

[Vervepipes]

So I was picking up my wife from work last night and I couldn't have imagined what I saw on the side of the road: almost the exact same mower deck but in perfect condition! The bottom even looks like it was recently painted black. It has no handle, power cord, blades or engine shroud, but it has the motor and blade drive system. The deck is a little different, more square and less oddly shaped, I'd say it's slightly newer but the mounting for the shroud looks like it is the same. That made my day as I now will have a great condition mower (minus the cracked shroud) with a few spare parts and a cast deck worth a few bucks at the scrapper. I need to get more mowers ready to sell, but this one is on my short list of ones to repair for my personal use. If I can find a good shroud it could also be for sale in a few years, but who knows, I find these neat, especially the old style flip over handle.

 

[Vervepipes]

Before doing any work to these I started them both and they both let out a huge squeal. I proceeded to remove the guts from both and transfer the stuff from the borken deck to the good deck since the motor's wiring was hacked on the new deck. The spindles for the blade gears were rusted so I used a purple brillo pad to clean them up, applied a little oil, cleaned the brass suchings and re-installed in the good deck. I picked the best of the belts, put the motor back in and placed the engine cover on. The mower started right up and sounds like either 2 blenders in concert, or a space ship. I still need to re-paint the deck, but it's usable now. I also need to clean up the chrome handle, but this will be put into regular rotation of my personal machines.