presenting the lawn mower that made karting possible

[david a luciani]

hi guys,
i've read about the mcculloch lawn mower whose failure to work well provided the surplus engines that allowed karting first builders to have a cheap supply of two strokes.
i always wondered why the mower didn't work out.
recently i saw one in person and got some pix.
now with these pix you get an idea of the mower and why it wasn't a good design .
cheers
Dave

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bottom view

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front

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side

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[david a luciani]

two more pix
D

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top.jpg

top

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it's not for sale i asked.
D

[Scott Kneisel]

Interesting there Dave, looks like a Bender or a PP on that baby. I wonder why they didn't use a saw engine.

I really can't figure out how it works either unless the edges of the spinning "dumbells" cut the grass???

What do you figure?

I guess I can see why it didn't work out,
Scott

[Scott Kneisel]

Now I see the little cutting blades on those rings, I didn't see them before.

[david a luciani]

the drums spin and cut the grass.
mcculloch contracted the motors for this mower and when the mower was recalled cancelled the motor order.
that in turn lead to a big surplus of little two strokes for cheap.
leaving a nice surplus market that the early kart builders explioted.
only later on did mcculloch chain saw engines appear and the company wasn't really on board as a kart motor seller for a couple of years sincew their business was chainsaws and kart motors were considered a sideline market at best.
here's a direct quote and pix from this site in case some of you have missed it


"This is Art Ingels' first kart built in 1956. The motor in the photos at the bottom of the page is the same or similar to the surplus McCulloch lawnmower motor that was used on Art's kart (McCulloch used this West Bend motor on a failed venture into the lawnmower market). Note that Art used as many of the mower engine parts as possible, putting the gas tank on the back of the kart seat, and reworking the mower clutch to use for chain drive."

Art first kart.jpg

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cheers dave

[Jeff Campbell]

Dave,
Great photos.

It looks like the clipping chute was in the back? If so, I don't think I would want to be pushing that mower when it hit a rock, no wonder it was recalled!

Jeff

FYI - remember there is a page on this website with some basic info:

[Dean Seavers]

Cool pics! I had always understood that it was a patent infringement that took the mowers off the market and sent them to surplus. I always did find it interesting that a West Bend was mounted on a McCulloch product. It feels almost like buying a Camaro and finding a 302 in there.

[Brian Thomas]

Dean ,,,, I am sure that you know that some Camaro's had 302's in them

[david a luciani]

Dean,
that's very possible i was never clear on that.
but in looking at the mower i'd say using it would be pretty dicey anyway!!!
D

[Jeff Campbell]

Dean,
OK, you got my curiosity up, I poked through several books in my library .... the best detail of what happened, I found in Going Karting by Alan Burgess on p20. It said McCulloch was looking to diversify, so they entered the rotary lawnmower market. They purchased 10,000 West Bend engines to power them. After 2000 of the mowers had been sold, complaints started rolling in about a fault in the mower, McCulloch dealers were not happy. McCulloch acted quickly to protect their good name, and bought back ALL the mowers. Mowers, engines, and parts were all put in storage, they sat for a while, the priced dropped until a buyer came along by the name of Flexo Products of Los Angeles.

... I'll keep digging to see if I can find out what the Fault was?

Jeff