Wow. A Rotary Power Mower Lawn-Boy. Probably sold by Sears before Ole Evinrude of OMC bought RPM. One of the first rotaries and should be in the Power Mower Museum - if it existed.

1953 or 1954 I have the same model. Mine runs great. Does yours run?

It hadn't run since 1982, when I put it in storage. Then I got it out last week and tried to start it up. No luck - needed a new coil. I took it to our local threshing show this weekend anyway, just for display. Someone looked at it, then came back later to say there was an un-used, original block for it for sale at the flea market; crank shaft, piston, rod, points, condensor and coil - all for $4.00. It turned out to be an old display model to show how that kind of engine worked. So for $4.00, I got an original un-used coil. Within five minutes, I had it running. Sounds great. Been doing the lawn with it the past few days ! :-)

bbhoward,what you have there is a beautiful piece of history. Sure like to see it restored to original condition as it would bring a sweet sum of $$. If you want some history on that mower, browze the LB sites ( there's a bunch on the web) and what you'll find is like reading a very interesting book that you can't put down. The history of OMC& Lawnboys goes back to the early 50's. Plenty of memories with each mower made.

Your mower, model 8FH11, is a 1952 Model, which uses the A-10 Iron Horse Engine. From your pictures, it appears to be in very good condition. All it needs to be complete is an engine shroud. I could never bring myself to mow with any of my old LawnBoys. I keep hearing that inevitable sound of hitting a rock and seeing a large hole in an otherwise perfect deck. Great Find........Keep it safe.
Bill

I don't think it had a shroud. It's just a rope pulley, no recoil start, and the big fan has the blade ends covered for safety. Not very efficient cooling, but adequate.

Very nice Very nice!!!!!

It looks similar to this one.

Here is a link that might be useful: OMC patent

Thanks for all the information!
Mike72, it sure looks like page 3 of the patent diagrams is for this exact model. Sure is neat, what you can find on the web these days. It would be fun to restore this if I could get the original paint colors. It almost looks like old Johnson outboard green. I'll have to do some poking around the LB sites to see if I can find pictures of a restored one. If anyone has a good like, please post! Again, many thanks!!

Here, I cleaned it up for you... :)

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Actually this mower and these pics belong to another member, UHF1483. His is an original in very sweet condition.

That green definitely reminds me of an old outboard motor. The red-orange looks to be the same as Chevy engine 'red', just as it is today.

That mower really cleaned up nice. Hope you don't decide to paint it.
The two 8FH11s I have, both have shrouds. Wonder which is really correct, with or without? The books I have do not show pictures. I also have a Model 8TH10, which should be a year older than the 11s, that also has a shroud.

Bill

Yo tinkerer!

Have any pictures of your 8FH11's? Love to see those shrouds - where do they bolt to?

As soon as time permits, I will take a picture and if I can figure out how to post them, I will do so.

Bill

Wow...that's a classic and worthy of restoration if you collect mowers. Love that name Iron Horse.

Acording to some early small engine shop manuals I have, the shroud was not on the "Standard" models. Some other info also stated that the shroud is cast aluminium. From the exploded views I have, the shroud attaches on the two studs on the cylinder jug(one has the shutoff tang on it). The other holes are in the fuel tank bracket. They can be seen in Fordtech's photos of UHF1483's fine machine.
Tinkerer has the real deal so he can verify my info.

Thanks for the scoop, bogman. It's good to have this question settled, because it has come up several times before. Now we know they can be correct with or without the air shroud, depending on the exact model.

Interesting difference between UHF1483's 8FH11 and mine - the handle bars are of different configuration and the gas tank is reversed. Perhaps these represent replacement parts - or could there be model differences?? Bye the way - mine's running in thie pic on the right :-)
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Yes, his is an 8FH13 which may be a couple years newer. He posted some movies of his running too.

Edit: great to see yours running as well! :)

Here is an Ebay auction recently selling the optional shroud

Here is a link that might be useful: shroud

My shop manual shows the A12 and A13 with the gas tank cap on the same side as Edit's machine. The OMC LB's tanks on the 3000 series machines have the cap on the other side. Since (and I'm guessing here) UHF's is an A13, that being the last of the A series, some newer style OMC LB parts started to find their way into the older style models.The handle on Edit's machine looke like ones on RPM and Craftsman 2-cycle mowers that either RPM or Power Products supplied. The last use(I think) of the A13 motor was on the LB 3000 mower in '56. The LB parts viewer won't show a view of the mower but lists the engine type.

The engine labeled "Iron Horse" sure looks a lot like Power Products 2 cycles that were on Craftsman mower's about the same time. Did Power Products (now Tecumseh) make these for LawnBoy?

"Did Power Products (now Tecumseh) make these for LawnBoy?"
The answer is yes and no. The A engines were the same as the Power Products design but were cast and assembled in Lamar, Missouri, while the Power Products engines were made in Grafton, Wisconsin. All RPM/Lawn Boy parts have the Lawn Boy part numbers cast into them . Bbhoward's photo of his machine's starting pully shows the LB number.

fordtech; Great to see the shroud! Thanks for the link. That picture makes my spray can button finger itch to paint that shroud Chevy Red. If I had one of those mowers, I'd put the shroud on it if I could find one.

UHF won that auction so I would expect to see it again soon.. :)

Here is a unit that has a shroud. Hope this helps.
Bill

Here is a link that might be useful:

Sorry about the size of the picture. This is the best I could do. If someone could explain to me how to get nice big pictures like those above, by fordtech, I will try to submit some more.
Bill

Bill, I use photobucket.com. They allow larger format and nice heafty total account size for free.

Fordtech,
Thanks for the heads up, will have to try.
Bill

I wish I had seen this site earlier, My A12 is on ebay at;
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=007&item=170023169582&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&rd=1
ending Sat the 2nd at about 12:30 PDT. Anyway You can see some good shots of an A12 with a shroud complete.

Thanks for the history on this little machine.
Bill

Hi,
I have an Outboard Marine "Marauder" 89MH 18" lawn mower with a newer "C-20" Iron Horse engine with a flywheel that looks similar to the ones pictured above (but it's painted all red like the rest of the mower). It looks like an economy model and unlike the Lawn Boy, it has smaller (plastic) wheels at the rear just like those at the front and the discharge chute is located behind the front wheel. The motor doesn't have a shroud either. Does somebody know when these mowers were manufactured? I'm guessing late fifties but I haven't found the information anywhere.

The handle bar is the same as UHF1483's but it's painted red. Unlike the two Lawn Boy mowers pictured, the fuel cap is located in the middle of the tank.
It works well but the condenser is cracked and should be replaced. I also need a choke pull rod as it was replaced by a piece of wire.

Thanks

Phil

Here's a few pics of my Marauder lawn mower. Maybe they'll help in it's identification. The cylinder comes from another 58-59 Lawn Boy mower which I had for parts. It works well now and most of the original paint is still holding on it.
Not bad for a mower that I got yesterday for 15$!

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I'd like to post a pic of my 1954 LB. Can anyone tell a computer illiterate an easy way to do that?

Karbo, do you use a photo hosting website like photobucket?

If not then you need to and then you can post pics of your stuff.
Its really easy once you figure it out.

So you have one of these old lawnboys huh? Can't wait to see it.

Neal

Can any one help me with any info on this mower I just won?Thanks.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?viewItem&rd=1&item=190172968296&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT&ih=009

Here is a link that might be useful: Ebay link

Photo bucket "krr2008" contains pics of my 1954 LB. Here is link http://s252.photobucket.com/albums/hh33/krr2008/1954%20Lawnboy/

Great job Karbo. Awsome!!!

Karbo, you do great work. You should be proud of yourself.

How long have you worked on it?

Neal

Thanks for the kind comments guys...

Neal I worked on it about 40 hrs over the course of 2 mos.
The main work being the welding and refurbishing of motor mounts and deck. I'll have to admit I was worried about welding those castings.

If you check out my photobucket page krr2008 I also have a International (Lawn Boy) Mower I'm going to restore next. It has the same colors as my Cub Cadet. Anyone with any information please contact me. Thanks

[IMG]http://i956.photobucket.com/albums/ae49/8fh11lb/IronHorsepiston2.jpg[/IMG]

http://i956.photobucket.com/albums/ae49/8fh11lb/IronHorsepiston2.jpg

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Anyone know of a source for a piston and rings for an A10 Lawn Boy Iron Horse?

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:137442}}

Hello I am wondering if youever found a piston and rings for yor A engine. Ad if not if you would be nteresed in selling th piston pictured in this thread?

I did find a brand new piston. email me at obscureoldies@yahoo.com

I have subject mower and I am trying to find a parts list, source for parts and an engine diagram. The mower was made by OMC, I think, and the Model number is C-10. The serial number is 145970.
Thank You,
Larry

The C-10 number is the engine model. It was the first of the C engines that came in three sizes , 1 15/16", 2 1/8", and 2 1/4" inch bore.yours is the smallest one. Lawn Boy was still using the RPM manufacturing style deck(OMC had bought them out). The ID for the mower should be on the back of the deck. Lawn Boy ,in '55 had introduced the staggered wheel deck style that stayed in the line, on the 18" utility mowers until the late '60's. I'm guessing that your mower is a rope start model, much like some of the models in ths VERY old post. There should be a number plate on the back of the deck. Maybe it's 8F20??.

I've also got an old lawn boy push mower.i need to. find the age.

The model number is 3002 the serial is 5456637