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Collection, Preservation and Display of Old Lawn Mowers

Anzani Lawnrider

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Hi Mowers.  Am about to go and collect the above Mower, couldnt resist its strange eccentricity.  Its a 16" with villiers lump and has been in the same family for 50 years.  Looks to be complete and unbodged.  On your home page there is an old mower gunning one down the greensward.  Ive seen vids of them chugging around. They look a bit unstable on anything other than level ground - still thats what old bikers do.

What was the original colour?  Seen a few in silver blue?.  Will fit it with a large Lucas bulb horn what a hoot.  Will rent out the ad space on the swan neck

Its small enough to fit on the kitchen table for a winter project

Any contacts gratefully received

 

Robin

 

Forums

robint Thu, 09/08/2018

Swanny the mower was dissembled into 3 manageable parts in 10 mins and they were all shuffled into the back of my Tardis (what I call my toyota aygo cos its so much bigger inside than you think.  As said it has been in the owners family since he was a small child and 50 years later its still a sprightly old girl with its engine having been overhauled 2 years ago and not used. Nice aluminium grass box and white biker saddle seat, no tassles. A fascinating head turner with art nouveau pretensions.  I want to rent out the Swan neck advertising space - my neighbour is a city ad exec visualiser.  He loves the idea and wants to hire it out for corporate events.  what a hoot.  Who said mowers dont sell.  If only my arthritis.................

robint Thu, 09/08/2018

I think I have the lawnrider, double roller, aluminum swan neck

 

I think the engine may be a villiers mk 150.  Its amazingly light

It has a villiers carb with an enormous paper air filter bowl underneath.  The fan cowl is off just now

wristpin Thu, 09/08/2018

That "enormous fuel filter" is actually the air cleaner! 

There was never a Mk150 but there was a Mk15 which was a cast iron block OHV lump. I think that yours is a Lightweight 150cc

robint Thu, 09/08/2018

sorry that was a typo.  Mine is all aluminium very light weight.  Are there any manuals on it?

 

perhaps its not the original engine (was a JAP early on). but its been in the owners family over 50 years

robint Thu, 09/08/2018

Thanx 10^6 WP. Thats an extensive manual all 50 pages, will need to digest with care. It also has a speed governor The 515 seems quite complicated compared with the F12.  How do the two compare on the rating scale?

I will be making efforts to contribute to the board with my finding and fixes.  Working on the bsp flange just now, looks like a good solution

Will need some green wellie boots and I found a white bike seat and a source of tassels and I have a white stetson, no Raybans yet  I like the way you can lift up the whole cylinder assy with a lever to avoid damage when crossing lawn edging. Some of them had a pto attachment for a hedge trimmer. So ahead of its time and its all done with belts and pulley wheels, more flexible than chains.  I think there will be an easy way of crossing a belt so it drives the cylinder backwards for back honing.  I must check its nipples. The rubber rollers are in vg condition, not much wear, must check to be sure no oil can drip on them

The swan neck has lost all its paint so I have to find a way to paint aluminium casting, grass box as well

This is the target

 

and this is the condition more or less

This also features a foot brake on the trailer rollers

does it need a tow hitch on the back?

I think you could also extend the cutting width up to 24" (presently 16")

Endless excuse to pimp my mow

hillsider Thu, 09/08/2018

I think you will find that the Villiers Lightweight is correct for your Anzani here is one I prepared earlier for a mower that I helped a friend rebuild. Re your comment about stability  I vouch for the fact that you do have to be very careful when turning near Rose beds etc.

wristpin Thu, 09/08/2018

F15 seems quite complicated compared with the F12

IT'S NOT AN F15 - that's a different lump altogether!!

robint Thu, 09/08/2018

OK that looks like it.  So what is its model no?  Just villiers lightweight?  it looks like and expensive motor, why not use a crude lump? like the jap

 

I also notice an inherent weakness in the seat post assy.  the casting is weak around the neck, will address that

ps any tips on painting the ally swan neck?

wristpin Thu, 09/08/2018

If it is a 150cc, it will be a 515H, but most people would simply refer to it as a 150cc Lightweight, with the context defining whether horizontal or vertical shaft. I'm guessing that they went for an alloy block to keep the weight/centre of gravity down. 

Chris G Thu, 09/08/2018

Reminds me of Vespa cladding :-)

Just my humble.., get everything working and serviced right before bothering with finish.

Paint & prep - are you looking to do it yourself?

Depending on budget, I would have the aluminum sand blasted and hard powder coated colours of choice. Would leave a nice smooth finish on what is probably fairly porous ally. Could also go that way for the steel panels & bits. The issue with powder coat is you have to get rid of all underlying rust or it will bubble up eventually, the other small issue with powder coat is that its hard to touch up / blend in if you have a knock.

All depends on budget and what you want as the outcome

 

hillsider Thu, 09/08/2018

Re the seat post support I would not think you need to be too concerned over strengthening it, I have not seen or heard of a problem with them breaking unless you are very unfortunate.

Ideally an etching primer (such as Hammerite special metals primer) will be needed to provide a good base for the colour coats, you may have met with this problem in your design engineer days if you were involved with surface coatings.

 

 

robint Fri, 10/08/2018

Hi H

 

I noticed a hair crack there on mine

never been involved in painting Al only anodising

Cant get into powder coating - way out of budget

My instinct is to use a weak wash of caustic soda which quickly gives a matt surface. The enemy is surface grease and must use surgical gloves as fingers are greasy things

 

Hammerite special have seen , not avalable as spray can but its water soluble I heard so maybe a small garden spray

All good stuff

 

Robin

 

 

 

robint Sun, 12/08/2018

I finally managed to reassemble the recoil starter + spring.  Fiddly job - IMHO DO NOT DISSEMBLE. but a dunk in oil to stop the spring going rusty may help.

I noticed a nasty bodge on the 515 eng.  the ex and in ports are so close together they had to bodge the flanges by nipping off the flange bolt holes on each and clamping them together with one bolt - nasty.  If the des eng had tilted the flanges 45 deg they could have remained wholesome.  In my day the chief draftsman (a holy terror) would have shat on him from a dizzy height

I still find it remarkable the skill the illustrative draffies who did their work on exploded diagrams.  I never did get to that end of scale.  Having said that one of the worst paid and least respected engineering positions was to be a technical author.  You were expected to have great graphics skills, exceptional engineering understanding and your work commissions came in at the end of a development project and you were expected to turn out 6 months work in 2 and after that sweat you were paid peanuts.

My impressions are that the eng seems quite flimsy , these crank case mazac castings . It may be that mazac was in fact stronger than a bulkier ally casting.

Anyone any views on the robustness of these engines?

wristpin Sun, 12/08/2018

I would venture to say that more small engines died of neglect - lack of  quality or quantity of oil and poor air cleaner maintenance, than ever died of poor design. I know that mazac (a mixture of magnesium, lead and copper, aka pot metal)  was used for car bright work and even pre-war Dinky Toys but according to various Villiers manuals the Lightweight crankcase etc was made from "an aluminium alloy"  - certainly not what I recognise as mazac. 

As for the nearly Siamesed  manifolds, it works and Villiers were not alone in adopting the shared stud solution. I've worked on a few "full size" engines , 13-27 litres, where  individual manifold pipes have shared a stud and a clamp plate. 

robint Mon, 13/08/2018

Yes of course it wouldnt be mazac, it was just a word that popped up because I was surprised at the smoothness of the crank case surface.  But then think of alloy wheels? and what aircraft are made of.  I am used to crude chunky ally casting from my biker days.  Of course they had some smooth aly covers (eg chain case) but were obvious a different alloy and not subject to any significant stress - like a crank case.  Ive never worked on Japanese engines but I daresay they use the latest alloys

as for the siamesed manifolds, as you say it works -  splutter

 

OBTW

Something that surprised me on the mower itself is that the large folded roof over the engine, forms the chassis to take the load of the trailer seat and its not a piece of sheet steel as you might suppose, but its made of a solid, heavy 1/8" thick folded sheet steel. Now was this originally armour plated? OMG.  Now if I can make a PTO as well?

I have a spare telescopic seat post  hmm

robint Tue, 14/08/2018

Managed to extract the cumbersome mower bit (less engine) out of the back of my Aygo with a pals help.  Not too bad sliding it down a scaffold board. What an amazing contraption.  The Swan neck has now received its replacement white bike saddle (with fringe). Will unscrew the various sheet steel guards and get them into de-rust asap, otherwise its all solid. Did I read somewhere it has a reverse motion - surely not?

I am tempted to leave the swan neck in silver ally colour cos the grass box is ally and most of the paint has lifted off.  If I just polish it up and oil it with linseed oil? There no paint to fall off.  I will have some polycarb side plates made for the ad space on the Swan Neck, some white bike tape for the butterfly handle bars and a space for my Luca honker

I am tempted to construct a replacement cylinder to perform a rotary scarifying function.  The fact that I can lift the cylinder on the fly is an attractive notion.  Ive never used a powered scarifier but I know its a gutty job with a rake.  Anyone any experience here