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Collection, Preservation and Display of Old Lawn Mowers

Atco Commodore B17 front roller data and roller bearings

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Dear reader (s),

Iam new to this forum, from the Netherlands. Iam busy with my neighbour restoring 4 mowers, 2 Atco Balmoral 14S's (well advanced into the job) and 2 Atco Commodore's, a B14 and a B17a as a pleasant pass time and hobby.

We are not allowed to buy more. :)

Regarding the B17 I have two questions: the mower comes without original spindle and wooden rollers, just the two plastic side wheels, intended for transport I believe. However I would like to reinstate the wooden rollers, for that I need the spindle an some washers and the rollers itself. The washers are easy and rollers can be made by ourselves, the neighbour at the opposite side of the street has a lathe for woodwork.

The spindle is harder... I have some standard searches on ebay for some months but no spindle for a B17. So Iam looking in machining on myself, the neighbour who has the lathe for woodwork has als a big one for metal and plastic.

What is missing are the exact measurements of the spindle... Is there someone who has a commodore or a separate roller and would be so kind to measure it for me and post the data??

 

2nd question: I would like to replace the roller bearings of the B17 by sealed ones, does anyone know the brand / model for bearings that can be used??

Regards, Henno

Forums

wristpin Tue, 19/02/2019

Welcome to the forum.

This may be of interest 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/o97xumtyim9oln2/Atco%20Commodore%20manual%201…

Strictly speaking the two plastic wheels are not for transport but are for when cutting long grass. So that the rollers don't push it flat in front of the blades, they are removed and the wheels fitted. I don't have a shaft to measure but the hole through a new roller is 17mm and the diameter of a new  roller is 57.5mm. (SEE MY EDIT)

Unfortunately the parts book only refers to the rear roller shaft bearings by part number and not by size . Hopefully someone else on this forum will be able to post the size but failing that just measure the un-shielded bearing and add the code for seals.  2Z or ZZ for steel seals and 2RS or LU for rubber seals.

A point to note is that only the 14" sized Commodore has a small steel spacer on the non drive end  of the cutting cylinder. The spacer, which is not used on the 17 or 20" machines, pushes inside the plastic seal and often falls out and its absence goes unnoticed at reassembly.   

EDIT:  Been thinking about your shaft issue. If those high cut wheels are fitted, they are screwed onto the end of the roller shaft instead of the nuts that hold the shaft in place when the rollers are fitted.  - so you should have a shaft in place . See page 17 of the Operating Instructions. 

Henno Thu, 21/02/2019

Hi Wristpin,

 

Thanks for the data so far. I had the pdf already from some older post while plowing through the forum on everything regarding the commodore line.

So the spindle diameter is about 15 to 16 mm.

Regarding your edit: the high cut wheels are not on the spindle but on some short axels, see the picture, mower in unrestored state and still assembled.

wristpin Thu, 21/02/2019

I think that you will find the ones in your image are incorrectly fitted. Look at the illustrations  at the top of page 4 of the Operator’s Instructions you will see that they are mounted out side the chassis side frames, screwed to the ends of the roller shaft. Page 17 shows the wheels and their short stub axles.