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I believe that Westwood manufactured tractors date from a bit earlier than has been suggested as we were servicing quite well used ones in 1981. I use the word manufactured as it is my understanding that the very early ones were American Dynamarks badged Westwood. Maybe someone can enlarge on that.
Westwoods used to have specification labels – in various places – but they were of adhesive foil construction and many will have disappeared. If you machine has an original Briggs and Stratton engine it will have the words Model, Type and Code stamped into the engine cowling – possibly just above the spark plug. The code number will reveal the year, month and day of manufacture. If it starts with 82, that is 1982.

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Change the oil regularly, service the air filter regularly and keep the underside of the deck clean. Stay away from the hose pipe or pressure washer. Store the machine in the dry.
Deck rot is your worst enemy. Scrape out all the wet grass and gunge – particularly at the end of the season.

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We sold a few but they were not a success. Their weakness was that unless the conditions were just right the drive through the front roller used to slip and dig furrows in the lawn. I think that I still have a parts book somewhere.
They were manufactured in Italy by the same company that produced Harry rotary mowers.

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Did they make their own attachment or use someone else’s as a basis? For example, the cylinder mower attachment for a Merrytiller was, I believe, based on a Webb 24.

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Looks like it could be a customised Westwood Lawnbug but what was the date of The Prisoner ?

EDIT. On second thoughts, is it mower based at all. Looks a bit like an early mobility scooter called a Batricar.

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As you’ve found out, early Westwoods were powder coated direct onto bare steel and it not only faded but also peeled off, so may be your grey is faded black. Not that it helps you now, but Central Spares used to do Westwood Orange in both brush / spray tins and also aerosols. Unfortunately they dropped orange from the range a year or so ago. You may be lucky and find some in stock somewhere. An alternative will be to obtain a RAL or Pantone code and get some made up.

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What the failure analysis charts would class as a catastrophic failure !

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No mention of what model Villiers and can’t see enough of the carb to see exactly what you have!

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Info that is in the public arena is that when Ariens closed their UK operation the distribution was taken over by FGM Claymore, the UK arm of Irish Farm And Garden Machinery. More to follow, as and when……

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I can perhaps fill in a gap or two in the @Alan potted history but not in a public forum . If and when private messaging is restored ……..!

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Only ever worked on one. It had an Aspera engine running on a 25:1 mix.

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I’ve never seen a 141 with the condenser inside the flywheel, I wonder if, for reasons unknown, a previous owner made the modification. Back to your cutting out issue. I know it sounds a bit counter intuitive but try closing the points gap down to 15/16 thou from the recommended 20. Many years ago I was nearly being driven to distraction by a 141 doing the same thing when a nice man at Meetens suggested reducing the points gap. Instant cure. That was when Meetens were at Coombe Lane, Wimbledon – a long time ago.

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I’ll see what I have but for all the usual service settings, points gap, valve clearances and Fixings torques, you won’t be far out with using those of the equivalent Tecumseh or Aspera of the day.

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Looks like a Kirby which was a Tecumseh made in Australia. Mountfield used them on rotary mowers and cultivators and Flymo used their 2-stroke on the 19 and 22” Contractors.
A spark plug will be easy but anything else like hen’s teeth.
I believe that the UK OEMs used them as with OZ being a Commonwealth country there was a more favourable rate of duty than when buying from the US.

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The first Hayterette appeared in 1957 and had height adjustment that needed a spanner to move the wheels in slots cast into the deck. They could well have had Clinton engines as they were used by several OEMs such as Merrytiller and even Ransomes on the 16” Mercury . Clinton’s were imported and distributed by Trojan of Purley Way, Croydon who also supplied them to the early UK Karting scene.
As far as paint goes, it is possible that they were unpainted or perhaps just lost their paint early in life due to the then problems of getting the paint of the day to stick to aluminium. Something that, on a lesser scale, even now affects Hayter Harriers!

PS. Hayter finally stopped production of the Hayterette last year.

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