Hi all! Firstly I wanted to say thanks to Wristpin for the engine advice he gave! Managed to fire up the Briggs 11hp engine, only to have a extremely loud almost unearthly squealing noise! However, my friend who knows a lot more about engines than I do came up yesterday and had a look, turns out it was nothing major, just the bearings for the pull-start had run out of grease, so a quick fire up and the squealing noise had gone! We also added a manual choke so it's easier to start up. Now it fires straight up and runs almost as smoothly as Dad's newish Husquavana Bio-Clip. So I took it out for a spin today.

Overall I'm pretty happy with the Gazelle. There are still some things I need to do such as paint the insides of wheels, other paint touch ups and a new seat. I also have a little galvanised saxon trailer and I need to make up an attatchment on the back of the Gazelle so it can tow it. But to all intents and purposes, the Gazelle is pretty much finished.

It's come a long way since I bought it, I'll try and find some pictures, it was a rusted-out wreak that I think had been flipped at some point, and repaired with Laser (Japanese version of Westwood) parts. I've fully stripped the chassis and bodywork and killed the rust, and tried to as much as possible use origonal parts. I've not thrown anything that's salvagable out, so my shed's full of Westwood/Laser bits.
I also welded the chassis where it had rusted pretty badly, possibly overkill considering it was probably strong enough as is, but there's no kill like overkill, right?

The age of the Gazelle is unknown since the chassis number sticker was really badly damaged when I got it but I've decided to restore it as one of the earlier Gazelles with the white plastic front, since they're my favourite, and the sales brochure that the Gazelle came with featured this type of Gazelle.

Thanks a lot to Mark for the decals, and Chris for the engine! I have the dashboard decal ordered so I'll post some more pics when I get that.

Glad that engine is still going strong

Thanks all!

Hmm that's some pretty fascinating info. On a closer inspection of the Lawnmaster it looks like it has pretty much the exact same base chassis as the Gazelle! I see what you mean about dealers selling different versions of the same thing.

Does anyone know when the first Gazelles came out? I'm guessing late 70's, there is a rare model out there (I've seen them on ebay a few times) with a gear lever between the seat and gearbox between the seat and dashboard (like on most Wheelhorses) as opposed to the column shift, I believe these are the oldest ones. 

Thats the front cover from a brochure I have in the collection, Lawnmaster rang a bell !!

from the ones I've dated via serial number and engine number I'd say they were early 80's - 1982 is the earliest I've seen. Yours is the earlier rear end so should be similar, whats the engine serial number? model will be 252707-followed by a date and type code.

I've never seen one with a gear shift other than on the steering column apart from the one I modified...

p.s. dash decal is in the post!

hey, they were all british and built like a tank! gotta give them some credit... even the B+S engines and peerless trannys were bombproof. We've had 5 of them and they were all pretty flawless

Can't wait to see the decal Mark!  Well I kept the old engine and it seems that my Gazelle is from early 1984. I know from looking through the reciepts that came with it that the original owner took a lot of care of the mower and got it serviced regually, sadly whoever owned it after must have left it outside as it was farily badly rusted with bad pitting and holes in some areas, and had a Laser bonnet and a few other bits. Here's it when I got it in 2010:

And here's a pic of a Gazelle with the centre gear box:

Also thanks for the information Wristpin. I did always think that the Dynamarks looked a lot like the Gazelle, but I didn't know there was a connection. They do look very similar though.

I've always wanted a Lawnbug too, just to try and preserve one of them in original condition since almost all of them are used for racing now.

I didn't take it that way though we did have an anti westwood movement on here about a year ago which was unnecessary. Agree with shift on the move - it works great until the selector key wears away or snaps!

looking the dogs now !

just noticed the warning lights on the dash, the last we we had didn't have those, they must have cut in around 83-84.

What a nice job you have made of this little tractor . I'm still playing with mine Someone broke the original exhaust  mounting bolts in the block on mine,  and converted it to a screw in type  exhaust , trouble was it never really screwed in. It was a one piece affair  and with the engine in place, you couldn't  tighten it up properly . I bought the proper ring nut to fit, but realised i'd have to take the engine off to fit it, the exhaust  fouled on the sidestep if you tried to tighten it or loosen it so I bodged it !! This moring Cut the exhauast and fitted it and the ring nut properly to bock Now have to weld pipe  back together , or may make a proper joint  in the pipe so I can undo it it all in future if I need to I bought mine to work on the allotment , and  have fitted  a replacement  gearbox, sorry post writers, th Peerless box is not that good, but most problems seem to be with abuse to the boxes, which they do not take kindly to. I've  got the headlights working, sorted some of the wiring fitter rear lights, I have a tatty transport box for mine, which I need to make fit, mine is also an early one , so rear attacthments were not ever fitted  I have new turf tyres on the front and Chevron treads on the back . Current gearbox is showing the lurch in thhe lower gears which is a sign of the selectors wearing,  but apart from that, it runs well and drives Ok

I used to look after a Lawn Bug for a local church group, I always thought that they were made by MTD?
Perhaps not, my 62nd birthday the other week and I just keep forgetting things that I thought I'd never err, forget!
Was the steering via a steel cable wrapped around a shaft above the rear wheels?
Sorry no, that must have been their second mower I remember a "Bio Clip" American make I think, rear steer with one wheel onlySome of it's coming back!