atco cylinder mower

[vuego100]

Ok So I do know this is a welding forum but there are some wise and clever people on here so I thought I post this.

Just picked up an atco cylinder mower. Got it home and it seemed fine for the first 10m them the blades stopped rotating but the drive still worked, then by the time I'd got back up the garden the drive stopped as well. When I opened it up and cleared out the humungous amount of grass inside I saw this.

Seems like the couplings from the motor and drive shaft don't meet? I can't decide if the coupling on the left side has either broken its fingers off or slipped up the shaft towards the engine (seems tight even with the grub screw loosened) or the drive shaft on the right is not set right.

All works if you wedge the black rubber piece between the two but got a feeling that's not really fixing the problem.

Anybody come across this before?

 

[madkayaker]

the fingers should definatly interlock. are the bolts the hold the engine in place in slots to allow the egine to push into the coupling?

 

[brightspark]

take the right hand side cover off and check alignment of the chain to the drum if alls ok it looks as though the drive plate has moved along the shaft and disengaged the drive. the shaft where the rubber is looks clean and the rest is rusty so it might have moved

 

[piman]

Hello Vuego100,

as Brightspark says, look at the aluminium coupling, it's likely the grub screw is loose and the coupling has slid on the shaft.

Alec

 

[Ducati]

Ok So I do know this is a welding forum but there are some wise and clever people on here so I thought I post this.

Just picked up an atco cylinder mower. Got it home and it seemed fine for the first 10m them the blades stopped rotating but the drive still worked, then by the time I'd got back up the garden the drive stopped as well. When I opened it up and cleared out the humungous amount of grass inside I saw this.

Seems like the couplings from the motor and drive shaft don't meet? I can't decide if the coupling on the left side has either broken its fingers off or slipped up the shaft towards the engine (seems tight even with the grub screw loosened) or the drive shaft on the right is not set right.

All works if you wedge the black rubber piece between the two but got a feeling that's not really fixing the problem.

Anybody come across this before?

Check as Brightspark said ^.

If you slide the rubber coupling off the shaft spider is there a grub screw on the shaft boss ?

Should the shiny section of the shaft in the picture fit in the center of the engine spider ?

It could only be one of 3 things

1) Excess crankshaft end float, the thing wouldn't run with that much though.

2) Crankshaft or drive shaft spider loose.

3) The drive shaft moving to the right, I presume it would be fixed in a bearing / bearing housing inside the cover with the possibility of an outrigger bearing to reduce end float.

You said " the blades stopped rotating but the drive still worked, then by the time I'd got back up the garden the drive stopped as well."


Were you cutting long wet grass ?

Just wondering if there was a problem with the drive to the blades which caused the drive shaft problem, all may be revealed under the right hand cover.

If you still have problems, post the model number, I have a relative who is the groundsman at a golf club with access to a vast array of workshop manuals.

Just a thought, Lawnmowerboy may have some ideas.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Depending on which model you have, this http://www.atco.co.uk/ins-manuals.html might be of some use.

 

[vuego100]

Thanks to everyone for the sound advice. After checking if the belts were aligned properly and finding that there were no slots to move the engine across I ended up using a make shift drift and with a fair bit of tapping and turning managed to free the coupling off the engine side. There was a little raised key in the shaft which presumably is to stop this happening?

So mark this thread as sorted!

Thanks to everyone again.

 

[66-V8]

Prolly would've been easier to undo the grubscrew.

 

[vuego100]

Prolly would've been easier to undo the grubscrew.

Ha yeah, before I posted I did a fair bit of messing before realising that there were in fact two grub screws! but even with them both removed it was stuck fast.