1951 Eclipse Rocket Mower
This mower was popular in the 50's and this one is still a runner. The seller stated that his son had dragged it home about 9 years ago, and he thought that he'd had it running at one time. Other than that it's been stored in a shed for 9 years. It's in great condition having been out of the weather.
The oil bath air filter was missing but I had a one in my spares box. The air filter stud was broken off in the carb and had to be drilled out. It came out without any damage to the threads.
It took a few hours of work to free a sticking valve, clean and set the points, rebuild the carb and replace the ignition wire, but guess what...
IT RUNS!!!!
Click Film For Video
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As with all of my restorations I'll start with the engine
This lever start Briggs 5S was manufactured in March of 1951
The head has several broken fins and the blower housing is badly dented up. A search through the spares box turned up a replacement for both.
At this point the engine has been completely disassembled. Lots of cleaning up to do.
All the parts to be painted are sanded down are ready to mask. The internal parts have been cleaned and inspected. The valves have been lapped in to the seats, and the cylinder has been honed lightly. The carb, flywheel and screen will not be painted. They have been cleaned.
The next step was to disassemble and clean the Magneto Plate. Here all the components have been mounted back on the plate. The points and coil to flywheel adjustments will be made at assembly time. The second picture shows the date cast into the plate. Another way of dating a Briggs engine of this era. This plate was made in 1950
Then the gaskets were cut. I buy the head gasket. It's part number 27463 and is still available from any Briggs dealer. The rest of the gaskets I cut myself, using .015 gasket material for the mag plate gasket. It sets the crankshaft end play. All the rest are made from .030 material. I use hollow punches to cut the bolt and dowel holes.
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Assembly Time
With the paint work done it's ready to assemble.
Internal parts are first. The connecting rod cap bolts are torqued to 110 inch pounds, and locked in place by bending the keeper up to the flats of the bolt. From the top this engine looks like new.
Here is the view of the valve stems and internal breather before putting the breather cover on. Both valves checked tight. The stem of the exhaust valve was ground to give it the .015 clearance specified, and the intake stem was ground to achieve an .008 clearance. The second picture shows the splash guard in place. Then the cover it's self was bolted on.
The mag plate was bolted on next. Points gap was set to .020" Before putting the cover over the points, I temporarily put the flywheel on and checked for spark. It's better to check it now than to have to tear it all back apart later. Spark was good so I bolted the cover on.
The flywheel is then torqued to 55 Ft Pounds. The head is bolted on with the bolts torqued to 140 Inch Pounds.
Decals are printed out on vinyl sticker paper and sprayed with several coats of Krylon Glaze to seal them.
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The Engine is Done
This engine ran before being worked over. Now it has much better compression due to the valve clearances being adjusted. With all the old sludge cleaned out it should be a strong runner.
Next I'll be on to the Mower end of this project.
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The Mower Work
For the most part everything works. I'll just disassemble, clean and repaint. Sounds too simple. I'm sure it will have some surprises.
The first problem spot is this axle bolt on the right side. It's a left hand thread. Someone back the line didn't know that. It's stuck tight and all mangled up. I sprayed it with SeaFoam and will try to get it out later.
With the stuck axle bolt out the rest of the mower is disassembled.
Problem #2
A hair line crack in the right side frame casting has become a break. It shouldn't be too hard to repair because cast iron break like ceramic. It has jagged edges that fit back together well and also takes adhesive well.
After cleaning the edges with brake parts cleaner to remove any oil or grease that might cause a bad bond, one edge was buttered up with JB Weld. Put back together and we'll see tomorrow how well it will hold. It should be fine.
I had pulled the tapered roller bearings off the reel shaft to keep them from getting dirty or damaged in the cleaning process. The first picture shows them repacked with fresh grease. After the cleaning and sanding they were pressed back onto the shaft.
Originally everything was painted in the reel head after assembly. Here I've reassembled it leaving the sheet metal off for painting. The sheet metal will be painted separately.
The roller sure cleaned up nicely! Looks too good to take out and roll around in the grass.
This decal was another sticking point. I can't find one or a reproduction, so I made my own.
I started with a pencil drawing that was scanned in to a photo program for coloring. That image was printed out for a little freehand touchup, then scanned in again for some sharpening and cleaning up. The last picture is the final product.
This page is getting a little long winded, so I'll skip the assembly and painting pictures.
The Finished Mower
It turned out pretty nice for a 2 week restoration. A special thanks to my wife Sheryl for the freehand painting of the hub cap lettering. I still need to fine new tires. Have a few e-mails out to different vendors, but no replies yet. And of course I have a video to prove it runs and will cut grass. Click the film icon below for the video.
