Craftsman Reel Mower

[Sriskie]

Stumbled apon this on my local Kijiji this morning. This one is quite the beast compared to the first one I found. It seems to be a 24" and it weighs a ton! I haven't tried to start it yet but it pulls over good so it'll probably be running before spring. I bought it and a 5S Briggs-on-a-board from two old gals who inherited them with the house. They only asked $35 for both and then threw in an old push mower with a bad deck to boot.

Anyways, here's some pics. Any guesses as to the age of these things?

[FullBack X585]

Wow, what a beast Nice find I would guess early-late 50s. Probably off on that though.

[bwdbrn1]

Nice old mower! Looks pretty darn clean. Even good tread on the tires!
According to this, the first engine is a 1950, and the second is a 1952.
http://www.oldengine.org/members/murphy/model_5S.htm
And from what I was able to find, the 536 indicates it was manufactured by A.M.F. (Murray).

[Austen]

Neat machine! Cool find there.

Yeah, by dating the year of the engine like Bruce did, it should give you a good idea of the year of the mower. I would even try giving the serial numbers off of the mower itself to Sears just to see what they might be able to come up with for you.

I'm guessing the mower is either a 21" or 22" cut.

[PaulsSmallEngineRepair]

Looks like you got a truck load of stuff!!!!!

[Sriskie]

Could the Craftsman really be that old? It's hard to see in the first pic but the model # is just a 6. Does that mean it's 6 cubic inches? I'm brand new to the whole old Briggs thing as until I found these reels, I've only messed with 2 stroke LB's.

What vintage would the push mower be?

[bwdbrn1]

Sorry, I thought they were both model 5S. The 6 falls onto this page, and looks to be a 1953. Not quite as old.
http://www.oldengine.org/members/murphy/model_6.htm

I pulled those pages off of this site. Lots of old engine stuff here.
http://www.oldengine.org/members/murphy/index.htm

This was all I found using the Craftsman number. Shows a drive belt for a 22" reel.
http://www.showmetheparts.com/html2/...P_1568522.html

You can get manuals for all of those engines here. Scroll down the page a bit and choose from the appropriate engine series tabs.
http://www.briggsandstratton.com/sup...tor%20Manuals/

And read what the code on the rotary means here. If I'm reading it right, it was made on Feb. 18, 1960. Sound right to everybody else? Actually, the rotary looks to be in pretty good shape too from that one picture.
http://www.briggsandstratton.com/sup...AE421ED64.ashx

[Sriskie]

Wow bwdbrn1, that's a lot of good info. Thanks! What's that reel in your avatar? I'm having a hard time believing that Craftsman is 59 years old. Did they really look like that is 1953? It doesn't look like its ever been repainted. I measured the reel part and it was 24". Unfortunately I had to put everything away in storage until I move March 30th.

Here's a few more pics.

[bwdbrn1]

Wow, 24" is a pretty hefty mower! Comparing your photos to that of the one of mine, I can see where it is quite a bit wider. It's always interesting to look at the different little features in these pictures. Like the horizontal ribs on your engine shroud, the "door lock" looking thing that probably limited the swing of the handle, and it looks like somebody brazed a washer on the petcock to make it easier to turn it open and shut.

Mine in the avatar is a 1959 Eclipse Parkhound 21". My first reel mower, and the one that started me on my reel mower madness. It has the same oval muffler yours does, which seems to work pretty darn good at quieting things down. Sort of a more throaty sound.

There's something to be said about the layer of grease and oil these old mowers usually have on them. It does a good job of preserving things underneath. Here's a couple before clean up and after clean up of the Eclipse.

[LilysDad]

Originally Posted by Sriskie

Stumbled apon this on my local Kijiji this morning. This one is quite the beast compared to the first one I found. It seems to be a 24" and it weighs a ton! Anyways, here's some pics. Any guesses as to the age of these things?

bwdbrn, I believe this cooberates your June-July 1953 date,right?
http://www.asecc.com/data/briggs/data4.html#6

I'm surprised at the difference between a 6 and a 6S. Different shroud, different carb.

[bwdbrn1]

Yep, that's even a better chart, it narrows it down to the month.

[Mad-Mike]

Originally Posted by Sriskie

Could the Craftsman really be that old? It's hard to see in the first pic but the model # is just a 6. Does that mean it's 6 cubic inches? I'm brand new to the whole old Briggs thing as until I found these reels, I've only messed with 2 stroke LB's.

What vintage would the push mower be?

In the case of the push mower, Looks like a late 50's early 60's Wizard or MTD as they both had Briggs Powered staggered wheel machines at the time with that configuration. The engine seems to match machines from that time too.

[Sriskie]

Well with the new house keeping me preocupied for the last month I finally made some time to take a look at these things. They both run! They also both have governor issues. The reel doesn't want to rev up regardless where the throttle is set and the rotary will scream if you open the throttle past a quarter. I'll pull the shroud off the model 6 and see if there is something I can tweak there before looking to see if the previous owner has put some wrong parts on it. Does anyone have a link for adjusting the goveror on a model 6? Is it the same as a 5S?

I'm just going to yank the motor off the rotary and put it away for future use in case I can find a decent donor for it. The rest of it is scrap.

[eric67m]

Your model 6 looks similar to the 6B R6 that I recently picked up. Mine is from 1951. The carb is a small flo jet. No rebuild is available but I recently got mine working by cutting my own gaskets.

http://outdoorpowerinfo.com/repairs/...ce_flo-jet.asp