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Collection, Preservation and Display of Old Lawn Mowers

Suffolk super colt

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My father used to have a suffolk super colt many years ago and I remember using it as a teenager. I have bought one off eBay. However it has been partially restored at some time and the drive chain for the cylinder is missing.
The strange thing is that the sprockets are not there for the chain instead the fittings are for a drive belt.
Question 1 Does this mean they are not original or did some super colts get manufactured with belts not chains to drive the cylinder?
Question 2 should I replace with new sprockets and chain
Question 3 if the belt system was original what size belt do i need?
Question 4 could the mower I have bought be something other than a super colt but have bern re-badged incorrectly.
Many thanks in advance.
Huw

Aled Thu, 27/10/2011

The Super Colts were belt drive indeed, it's not necessary to swap them to chain drive as one of the drives (though I think it's the one to the rear roller, chain uses a centrifugal clutch system) uses a friction system to tighten the belt once it needs to be engaged.

Your best bet of getting a proper sized belt would be to ask if you can buy one from a competent mower shop, most mower shops who do ATCO stuff should be able to provide you with the part, since A: It's a belt and B: they're common enough mowers to be taken to a mower shop often.

The ways to tell if it's a colt are to measure the width of the cylinder, they only made the colt in 12" cutting width so if it's 14 or 17 it's more than likely a Suffolk Punch, second if the engine is like the one in this picture it is probably either a Suffolk or an ATCO mower to say the least.

http://www.gardenmachineryservice.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/suff…

The mower in the picture above should be like what you have described, am I right?

Regards, Aled