"New" Jacobsen Turbo Cut 18"

I spotted a listing on Craigs list for a Jacobsen antique 2 stroke push mower the other day. After a couple of days of hemming and hawing about it, I decided to call the guy and go take a look at it. It turned out to be an 18" Turbo Cut with a cast deck.

It has a fair amount of rust, and hardly any paint left on the deck, but he engine was free, and there weren't any cracks or breaks on the deck anywhere I could see. Heck, the tires still have tread on them and the original coke bottle grips are in tact with no splits, and the serial number plate was still on it. So, for 10 bucks, I brought it home yesterday afternoon.

I checked the serial number, 34C1-144038 on the Hit and Miss site and found out it's a 1961.


I sent an email off to Jacobsen/Textron this morning and asked if they had a manual or parts list in their archives for it. Much to my surprise, they sent me a pdf of the parts list within a couple of hours! They included the caveat that they don't support this product any longer.:laughing:

Congratulations -- you have found a treasure. :thumbsup:

I'm always on the lookout for something like that.

When I first started at my job years ago we used 2cyl Jacobsen push mowers. Bright orange and ugly as sin but they were tanks. I currently use two Jacobsen turf cat front mount mowers that I love. One of the best manufacturers in my opinion.

It's too bad they got out of the consumer end of the business, but it's the same sort of thing Toro did, except they still have a consumer line.

bwdbrn1 said:

It's too bad they got out of the consumer end of the business, but it's the same sort of thing Toro did, except they still have a consumer line.

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I agree with you and I'd say it's also too bad that you can no longer buy a simple, light-weight push mower. Everything on the market now is heavy and complex. But then people like me wouldn't be fascinated by 1970s Lawn-Boys, etc -- if you could buy something like that now.

Good luck with your lucky find -- and please post some more photos, particularly of the engine.

As an update, I've begun disassembly and clean up to the extent of being able to try to start it up. The tank is going to have to be flushed out at the very least. The carb had heavy gook in the bottom of the bowl, but leaving it sit in parts cleaner for a day took care of that.

Compression is good. The exhaust ports are surprisingly clean.

I had a devil of a time trying to get the flywheel off, until I realized I was making it harder than it needed to be. Picked up a manual for 1959-1960 Jacobsen engines. The only difference I can see between the 1960 version of my 1961 engine is the carb. '60s had a Tollitson, '61 a Walbro. Anyway, instructions in hand, the flywheel popped off with little fan fare.

The points were corroded, but all was pretty darn clean under the flywheel. Sadly, no spark after cleaning the points and checking the gap. I have a Nova II electronic ignition on the way to install. I used one of those once before on a 1949 Lawn King, and it was amazingly simple to install and took care of the spark on that mower.

If, and when I get it running, then I'll commit to a complete tear down for restoration.

Got the Nova II ignition in the mail today. :thumbsup: Hard to believe that's all there is to it. Now to fire up the heater in the garage and get it put in.

bwdbrn1 said:

Got the Nova II ignition in the mail today. :thumbsup: Hard to believe that's all there is to it. Now to fire up the heater in the garage and get it put in.

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Please post your comments about this conversion kit after you've finished installing it.

That a great old mower. :thumbsup:

I can't wait to hear if it ran! :smile:

I learned about the Nova II from another vintage mower collector. He had installed it a Jacobsen Lawn Queen. If I remember right, it was a 1947, or so. I put one in this 1949 Jacobsen Lawn King after I found it didn't have spark. The installation is really easy, and because the unit is so small, it installs under the flywheel with no trouble, so you never know it's there. What I'll try to do is take pictures of the installation, and let you know how it goes.

The little Turbo-Cut calls for a Champion J-11J spark plug, which has been superseded by the J-11C, although I've read of others using the J-19LM spark plug without any problems. I've just got to look around for a store that has the J-11C in stock around here.