Goodall Push Mower

[K D Redd]

Does anyone have any info. on a GOODALL Push mower built by GOODALL Company of Warrensburg, Missouri.
A friend of mine was given one on an equipment buying run up to Butler MO.He brought the mower to me to see if I could get it running. I had had some water in it and locked up but I was able to free it up and to get it running. I would Like to know if GOODALL built the engine as I have never seen one like it. The camshaft has ONLY one lobe which work both the intake and exzhaust valve through rocker arm type cam follower.
I thought Honda was on tthe ball when a few years ago the bragged about the one lobe cam in their 4 stroke weedeater engine. Looks like all they did was copy an older US design.

Kent

[John Newman, Jr.]

The engine I have seen used on these mowers was made by Lauson. It was a vertical shaft version of their RSC model engine. Some were renamed as RSV, some kept the original RSC designation. I don't know what, if any, difference there is between them. These engines all operated with the 'one lobe' cam design. To turn their normal horizontal shaft engine into a vertical shaft, they laid the engine down and added an oil sump on the PTO end, and a pump to squirt a pulse of oil at the crankshaft as it came around, slinging it throughout the engine. I have a few of these engines - one is on a Goodall and a couple on other makes (plus some with no mower attached) They were not exclusive to Goodall.
John Newman, Jr.
Saint Louis, MO

[K D Redd]

John,

Thanks for the info. When I first saw this engine I thought it might be a Clinton as I remember Clintons with the clear view oil bath air cleaner. I was not to far off the mark with it being a Lauson.

Tanks again for the info.

Kent

[John Newman, Jr.]

This is part of what I like about this site so much - it inspires me to get off my butt and do a little research. Your mention of Goodall mowers and vertical shaft Lausons led me to get out the vertical shaft Lausons I have as well as dust off the old dealer manuals of the time.
Turns out I have 7 of these engines in 3 basic model designations. The earliest ones are re-worked versions of the Model RSC. I have 3 of these and even they have variations. It seems Lauson supplied what is described in the manual as:
"Partial built motor for Goodall. Oil pump and regular base are manufactured and installed by Goodall"
The earliest ones used a Zenith (who's number escapes me at the moment) carburetor that attaches to the engine with a pipe nipple, not bolted on via a flange. You can still see most of the Goodall decal on the blower housing on this one. This engine also has a cast iron head with all the fins uniform in height, or what I refer to as a 'Flat Top' head. I have one other engine like this with the Zenith carb on a complete Goodall mower (in rough condition) but it has an aluminum head with the Flat Top fins.

The next one that I have is obviously a later RSC versions using a standard flange mounted Tillotson ML1B. This has an aluminum "Arch Top" head. The rear (formerly bottom...) crankcase cover is a flat cast iron plate with the standard Lauson RSC breather installed in it. There is no ID tag on any of these 3 engines that I have - nor is there any indication that there ever was.

As Lauson superseded the RSC with the RSH, they used the -775 to identify the ones altered by Goodall, who maintained their practice of supplying and installing the sump & pump and the crankcase cover. This cast iron cover was now curved and carried a standard Lauson ID tag, but no longer had the breather installed in it. The breather now moved to the tappet cover as it was on other RSH models. The oil pump was a centrifugal type with a pair of stamped steel 'wings' on the crankshaft in a diecast aluminum housing, all within the added sump. The output was directed at the counterweights on the crankshaft in the regular crankcase where it would get slung to keep everything lubricated.
I don't know exactly when Lauson came out with their own vertical shaft engine, but other mower manufacturers were probably looking at the Goodall design and wanted vertical engines without having to alter them 'in-house'. My 1956 manual shows the RSV-800 now as a standard item. It is entirely possible that Goodall continued using the RSH - supplying and installing their own parts, but at this time the Lauson RSV-800 was available as a complete unit with a vertical shaft. They used a slightly different oil pump in theirs. They added an eccentric bushing to the crankshaft and a plunger type pump that directed a timed squirt at the crankshaft. The carb is now a Tillotson MT2B.
Here is a FloMow mower using the RSV-800. Made with a cast aluminum deck
it would have been a sharp looking machine in its day.

Hopefully most of the above information is accurate and I haven't made a complete idiot of myself. If anyone knows anything more / different / better I'd be glad to hear what you've got.
John Newman, Jr.
Saint Louis, MO

[K D Redd]

Thanks John!

The one I have is a later version with the breather on the tappet cover. Would you have any idea of when the engine were made. The mower I have is in pretty good shape. It is an 18 inch model with what I think is a model number of 18L followed by the serial number.

Kent

[John Newman, Jr.]

Does your mowr (engine) have an ID tag? If so, what is the Model & Serial #? I am finding that the 4 vert shaft Lausons I have with tags all have a 7 digit S/N, where comparable engines from the same period only have 6 digits. I am still trying to figure the S/N relationship (if any...) with their horizontal shaft engines.
John Newman, Jr.
Saint Louis, MO

[Dan Baalman]

I used to have a Goodall mower that came from an old uncle. It had a two stroke engine, a early McCulloch I believe. Traded it off years ago.

[K D Redd]

John,

All the tags are gone from the engine. The ones on the mower deck are still in place.

Kent

[scottde57]

I have a Goodall mower that I bought at a garage sale about 10 years ago for $10. I have the original owner's manual (if I can find the box I stuck it in) which the original owner wrote April 1957 on the front page when he bought it. The plate on the front of the deck in front of the engine says Goodall Rotary Cutter-Goodall Mfg. Warrensburg, Missouri. (My wife was raised within 5 miles of the plant but I bought the mower in east central Illinois) The model number on the deck is 20GS4148. It has a Lauson engine. Tag shows Model RSH 775WT. Serial number 7262441. It has a Tillotson carb #MT47A. I haven't started it in years. Carb is varnished up and I would like to find some gaskets before I tear it down. Overall the entire thing is in great shape. I wondered if anyone has rings or can tell me where to find some. I'm a newbie here. I'm an old auto parts guy that just likes to tinker. Thanks.

[John Newman, Jr.]

scottde57,
Hello & welcome. You have just provided me with another bit of information in verifying my un-official theory on dating these Lauson engines. This theory holds that the first digit of the serial number corresponds to the year. With a dash after this number it is from the '40s and without the dash it is from the '50s. Your serial number of 7262441 and the hand written notes on the owners manual stating 1957 reinforces my belief.
I would have to say that eBay is probably one of the best places to find parts & gaskets for these engines. While you may not find everything you are looking for right away, they do pop up with some regularity. Keep watching! Other than the head gasket, you can make your own from material available at most better auto parts stores. Watch the thickness of the magneto plate / cover gasket - this sets up the end play in the crankshaft.
Post a picture of your mower if you can. Always like to see something different!
Good luck,

[Denny B]

I have A little Goodall with kind of an interesting history. At least to me it is. The mower was in a shed here for years and one day when my dad and myself were out there looking for some other old relic I asked him about the Goodall. He simply said that it was the first new mower he sold when he opened his own business. So that dates this one to about 1952. It has a Power Products on it with a Tillotson carb. It's only about an 18 inch mower. The mower is now in storage at another location but it should be coming back 'home' within a month or so. I looked at it a few months ago when another old small engine dealer and my self were looking around and I sold off a lot of stuff from the big shop. We paid particular attention to the little Goodall. It has all of the model tags on the mower deck as well as the engine. Now I can't wait to go get it and fire it up again!!!!! Denny

[Scott Wenrich]

Hi John.I thought i was the only one in the world that has a flomow lawn mower.I restored mine several years ago(cosmetically anyway).Painted it the colors that were faintly still there when i got it(found in trash!).It has the same lauson enigne on it too.It ran last time i tried to start it but the ball bearings in the enigne growl real bad so i don't run it very much.Hope to get to correcting the sit yee ation someday but have WAY too many projects right now.Wonder what OSHA would have to say about that mower!
Will post a picture if i get my digital camera this weekend.,....Scott

[Mnuncio]

Hello, I came across a post made a while back asking if anyone had any information on a Goodall Push mower. Since the thread is so old I may be wasting my time writing, but thought I would anyway. I have a "Manual of Instructions and Repair Parts List". I am not sure how old it is. I can't find a date on it anywhere, but it does have a # of 1-51-5M on the front cover. I found this and a "Popular Home" with a date of Autumn 1951. I will assume that the mower book is from 1951 also. At any rate you were looking for a book of this nature I believe. Do you still need information from it?

You may contact me at azeo@aol.com if you wish. Sometimes it will be a day or so before I respond back, but I will reply.

M. Nuncio

[Mark W.]

I'm looking for a retraction spring for a left front wheel on a Levelawn 22 Goodall mower. Doesn't have to be new - just so it works. (The thing that holds the wheel height adjustor in place.)

If you have one, please e-mail me at MECHKAR@sbcglobal.net

Thanks.
Mark

[Mark W.]

P.S. I bought this machine new in 1966.

Mark

[Craig DeShong]

This thread has been one of my favorites for a while, and is chiefly responsible for sparking my interested in these above mentioned Lauson/Goodall horizontal shaft to vertical shaft engine conversions. I’ve managed to find two of these Goodall engines and after I get both restored and running, I will probably post some additional information to this thread that will support many of the claims that John Newman, Jr. makes in his above excellent post in this thread.
While I am restoring the second of these Goodall engines, I though it might be instructive to include some information in this thread on the centrifugal oil pump that Goodall built into the oil sump that allows the engine to run in a vertical configuration and still be lubricated. With the engine turned on it’s side in this vertical configuration, all the oil drains out of the crankcase and into the oil sump that has been attached to the PTO side of the engine. The crankcase is dry when the engine is at rest. The centrifugal pump that Goodall built into the oil sump injects oil into the crankcase through a hole drilled into the PTO side of the engine crankcase. This jet of oil is interrupted by the counter weights on the crankshaft and is then slung around the crankcase in order to lubricate the engine. Several additional holes are drilled into the PTO side of the crankcase which allows the oil that collects in the crankcase to drain back into the oil sump.



This picture has the engine partially assembled and it sits inverted with the PTO side facing up. The base of the engine (bottom were it still a horizontal shaft engine) has been left open with the cover yet to be installed and is facing the camera. The top casting of the oil sump has been installed and the centrifugal oil pump impellor has been installed on the crankshaft. The hole in the sump base next to the impellor and facing the camera is the output port for the pump and is where the oil exits the pump. This hole extends down and through the PTO side of the crankcase in order to emit oil into the engine crankcase.



This picture shows the die-cast aluminum pump body installed over the pump impellor. You can see that ample room is left between the bottom of the pump body and the crankshaft for oil to enter the pump alongside the crankshaft.



This picture shows the final assembly of the oil pump with screen and coil spring. When the oil sump base is attached to the top casting of the oil sump, the spring is compressed and holds the die-cast aluminum pump body in place against the top of the oil sump. With the oil pump immersed in oil, and the engine attaining sufficient RPM, the centrifugal pump injects oil into the crankcase to lubricate the engine.

For those interested, I hope this post sheds some additional light on the ingenious way that these horizontal shaft engines were converted to vertical operation.

[Craig DeShong]

Folks
As I already stated up thread; John Newman, Jr.’s excellent earlier post got me interested in these Lauson / Goodall engines and inspired me to hunt down and add a few of these engines to my Lauson collection. At first I though it would be tough to find these engines, but they appear to be fairly prevalent; I’ve seen four sell on eBay over the past few months. If some of you get the “bug” to collect these engines, this post and John’s previous information should help you identify them and hopefully additional examples will become available for you to acquire. Now that I have added two Lauson / Goodall engines to my collection and have restored both to running condition, I thought I would add what information I can to this thread. I can provide only a little extra information above and beyond that which John has already stated, but I can help substantiate many of his claims.



The above picture shows my two Lauson / Goodall engines. The lighter blue engine in the photo is a Goodall conversion of a Lauson model RSC. The darker blue engine is a Goodall conversion of a Lauson Model RSH. There are a few other photos from different angles of these two engines in my picture collection under subscriber’s photos. This link will take you directly there: http://www.smokstak.com/gallery/browseimages.php?c=108

As stated just above, the lighter blue engine above is an example of a Goodall conversion of the RSC model Lauson. It is similar to the engine John Newman, Jr. shows in his second example up thread. This engine has the standard Tillotson ML1B carburetor you find on many RSC Lausons. As in John’s example, the engine has a cover installed over the opening in the block where the crank-case breather would normally be for horizontal operation (shown in this picture: http://www.smokstak.com/gallery/show...p?i=5759&c=108) and the blower housing has two holes drilled for an identification tag at the standard location you would expect to see a tag, but this engine is also devoid of a tag. A close inspection of these holes reveals that a sheet metal screw has never been threaded into the holes. This supports John’s supposition where he suggests that Lauson did not issue an identification tag for these RSC conversion engines. This engine also, like John’s above, has a flat cast iron cover over the base of the engine to seal the crankcase. This cover has a boss cast into it that has been machined to attach a standard Lauson RSC crankcase breather as in John’s two examples above of an RSC conversion. All of the model RSC conversion engines like this one should have been built between 1948 and 1951. I suspect this particular engine was built more toward the end of this period but certainly not after 1951 or it would be based on an RSH block.

The dark blue engine in the above picture is a later Lauson / Goodall conversion. The fact that this particular engine even exists, I find to be very interesting. This engine is what I would describe as very late RSH Lauson / Goodall conversion. It has a tag like the one John describes in his above post indicating a model number RSH775WT and the tag also has a seven digit serial number with a leading ‘7’ and no dash. Using John’s Lauson dating method, this would indicate that the engine was built in 1957. This supposition is supported by additional information on the tag which reads, “Lauson Engine, Division of Tecumseh Products Co. ”; indicating that the engine must have been built after the Tecumseh purchase of Lauson in 1956. If you read up thread you will see that other examples remain extant with this same build date. This shows that Goodall was still actively manufacturing this horizontal shaft to vertical shaft engine conversion at least into 1957 and this infers that Goodall was converting Lauson horizontal shaft engines to vertical shaft operation for at least nine years (the first Lauson / Goodall conversion mower was built in 1948).

If this engine and the other examples provided up thread were indeed built in 1957, they were built several years after Lauson began building the RSV-800 model, which was their own in-house vertical shaft version of the RSH horizontal shaft model and several years after Lauson started building the SLV that came out in 1954 and was a true vertical shaft engine designed as such from the ground up.

We could speculate to no end as to why Goodall was continuing the practice of converting horizontal shaft engines to vertical shaft operation for years after Lauson had been manufacturing complete vertical shaft engines that could have just been bolted onto their mowers; however since “money talks”, I would assume there were cost incentives for Goodall to continue this practice. (Wouldn’t you just love to read that contract!? It must have been quite a contract since, obviously, Tecumseh felt compelled to honor it also). The water is even more “muddied” when you realize that examples of Goodall mowers exist today with vertical shaft Lauson engine models R and SLV that were also being manufactured by Lauson and obviously sold to Goodall during the same time Goodall was continuing the practice of converting horizontal shaft Lauson engines to vertical shaft operation.

In conclusion of this thought; as I look at this engine I continue to wonder why these 1957 Goodall conversion of a Lauson RSH horizontal shaft engine to vertical operation were ever built in the first place. Simple reasoning would lead one to believe that Goodall would have abandoned the practice of re-manufacturing engines once a dependable supply of vertical shaft engines became available. Their existence to me remains an enigma. At any rate, the existance of this engine proves that Goodall was continuing their practice of re-manufacturing Lauson horizontal shaft engines for vertical operation well into the second half of the 1950's.

Hopefully this post will add some additional information to this subject and help you identify one of these engines if you happen to see one.

[Craig DeShong]

Since John included this engine in his post, and since a discussion of this topic is probably not complete without a discussion of the Lauson RSV engine, I submit the following photo.



The last engine I provide in this Lauson / Goodall thread is not a Goodall engine at all; it is a Lauson RSV-800. As John states up thread, this is a vertical shaft engine that is based upon the standard horizontal shaft RSH design; but built entirely by the Lauson Company. Research (and reasoning) indicates that Lauson would have been able to commence production of the RSV as early as 1950. I have read that the contract that Lauson signed with Goodall in 1948 granted the Goodall Mfg. Co. with the exclusive rights to build vertical shaft engines from Lauson engines for a period of two years; thus this contract would have expired in 1950 and Lauson would have been free to commence construction of vertical shaft engines at that time. I would think that there would have been marketing incentives to do so. My collection contains a Clinton VS701 pictured here that was built in 1948 or 1949 for a Motomower rotary mower. This alone proves that engine manufactures, other than Goodall / Lauson, were already bringing vertical shaft engines to market and thus, a market must have existed by 1950 for these type of engines. You would think that Lauson, which had already had a presence in this market through the Goodall engines, would have been keen to exploit this.

The tag on my RSV-800 sets its build date in 1955. John Newman, Jr. also shows one of these as the last engine in his above post. I wish I had taken some photos of the oil pump in this engine when I had it apart to include in my up thread post concerning oil pumps; it is truly an exquisite piece of design and engineering. (Especially when compared to the Goodall functional equivalent) The RSV pump has double ball valves and a plunger that rides on an eccentric ground onto the crankshaft. When I re-assembled this engine I wanted to check the operation of the pump (because the crank-case of all these engines is dry when the engine is at rest). I left the base plate off and turned the engine over slowly by hand. I observed that even at the very low RPM induced by hand cranking; the pump would inject oil into the crankcase.

I’ll add that if you plan on collecting any of these engines, you can differentiate the Lauson engine (RSV) from the Goodall conversions (no tag for RSC or RSH-775 for later version) by the profile of the top of the oil-sump base. The Lauson base has a continuous slope, while the Goodall base has a step as can be seen in my photos and also the ones supplied by John.

Another difference (this time internal and other than the oil pump) between the Lauson engine and the Goodall conversion is that the RSV-800 retains the ball bearing on the magneto side of the engine block, but has a sleeve bearing on the PTO side of the engine block and a ball bearing on the bottom of the oil sump. This may make the RSV-800 block unique to this engine, unless possibly the RSV-800 block is the same engine block as the Lauson 55 block which has a sleeve bearing on the PTO side also. (Further investigation is needed here). The Goodall engines have three ball bearings on the crankshaft, the standard two on the engine block that all RSC/RSH engines have and one additional ball bearing at the base of the oil sump like on the RSV-800 engine.

The Goodall conversions appear to me to have the same engine block that is identical in every way to any “normal” horizontal shaft RSC/RSH Lauson. I do not believe Lauson made any changes to the engine blocks they sold to Goodall. The block does have a few extra holes drilled in the PTO side to facilitate oil movement from the oil sump into and out of the engine block; holes that I assume are a result of Goodall fabrication. I am confident that if you were to acquire a Goodall / Lauson engine and needed a replacement block, you could safely substitute any standard RSC block for the RSC variant or an RSH block for the RSH775 variant after drilling these extra holes which could be machined with a drill press.

Another subtle difference between the Lauson version (RSV-800) and the Goodall RSC conversion, also noted by John in his above post, is that while the RSH-775 Goodall engine shares the same crankcase bottom cover that the RSV-800 engine does, the earlier RSC Goodall engine has a unique cover with a boss cast into it to attach a standard Lauson RSC crankcase breather. I’ll assume that Lauson manufactured this cover for Goodall (it as a Lauson type casting number RS15-16) for their RSC conversions, but abandoned making this cover and started supplying Goodall the RSV cover when Lauson started making them for their own engines.

To me, these Lauson / Goodall engines, and ( this Lauson RSV engine ) provide another interesting facet in the historical development of the small engine and this is why I sought out a few of these engines to add to my collection. To my knowledge the Goodall engines represent the first example of a commercially constructed and marketed vertical shaft small engine (other than outboards) and for that reason alone, I would think that they deserve a place in a small engine collectors’ collection.

[catdog]

Here Good-all Push Mower any information would help

[Craig DeShong]

Catdog
Other than what I already wrote above, I can't add any more. Looks like you have found a well preserved mower. I would be interested in a close up picture of the tag on the mower deck and what it might say.
Thanks for your followup on this.