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Just brought a copy of November Tractor and Machinery and there's a good write up about Rural Past Times. Heres some photos.

Good Morning guys pictures of a new toy for me arrived yesterday about lunch time runs as sweet as a nut just needs some love and care hope you like

While I was at Kingsfold last weekend this turned up. Its a 37 inch Wheelhorse snowblower, it's had all the rusty bits welded up and looks all there even comes with new bearings, seals, cable pulleys and chain.

2 years too late but i just found the photos of the finished tractor. A pic while the wheels were removed for tyres and painting. A custom headlight panel The finished tractor, now sold unfortunately

Need a few pigs in the 4x4 and a couple of surfboards on the Woody

Made some progress on dismantling inspection of this engine. The nut came off the fan end ok. Looks promising so far. With a freed up crank 'n' piston, proceeded to carefully pull the cylinder. Quite surprised to find the internal condition pretty good before cleaning.........thought you may like to see what the size of the Piston rings used to be 96 years ago- To give you an idea, the bore diameter is 70mm. 2 of the 3 rings were stuck in their grooves initally, but just after I took this, they'd gently sprang out and all good so far. Quick look at the uncleaned bore is also promising which is dead smooth as far as can see-

Feeling a bit bored as I've no project as such now the plough depth wheel is done, I decided to mow the green. Put the deck onto the C-125, topped up the fuel, checked the engine oil and off I went. Got the green done and the verge on the opposite side of the lane, then proceeded with the area between the pond and our neighbours drive. Just about to move on to the other verge by the pond and a horrible rattling noise appeared. Knocked off the deck and it was still there. Not coming from the engine thank goodness. If it had been I reckon the engine would have disintegrated. I then noticed the clutch pedal was bouncing back and forth. Drive belt on it's was out? Gently drove back into the workshop and took footplate and side panel off. Started the engine and I then notice the clutch idler pulley had quite a wobble. Bearings gone? So take the pulley off and that was when I realised the part of the bracket the pulley fits on had been repaired by a PO. It must have snapped off at sometime and a piece of flat had been welded to the top half then bolted through the bottom half. On the bench with the pulley off I discovered the hole the pulley bolt goes through was elongated. Also the nut and bolt were a bit loose. The pulley bearings were not bad. Just a little play. So I tightened up the nut and bolt with thread locker on. Good and tight. All back together now and though there is still a bit of movement in the pedal, it will do till winter. Looks like the old girl will be getting an overhaul this winter. The engine does smoke a bit and uses a bit of oil. So that will be rebuilt as well. Sorry no photo's. I got too engrossed in what I was doing.

Spent 4 days at the Kingsfold Rally organising the horticultural section and would like to thank everyone for their support. heres a few photos of the exhibits.

I got a copy over the weekend. Great picture of Chris (The Showman) with his Toro. It is a popular magazine in this part of the country, so I have told Joseph he needs to be ready to sign autographs now that his picture is in print Iain

A close friend of mine sold me his 1953 Ford Jubilee tractor and brush cutter for the sum of 1 dollar and further consideration in keeping him in fresh vegetables. I didn't know it at the time, but next week he is also bringing me a Cub Cadet 1650, and 1250 with a rotovator and cutting decks, along with an old Allis garden tractor, all stuff stored in his shed for many years. The second garden planting is producing massive amounts of squash, zucchini, tomatoes, peppers, okra and melons. The sun room has a new door and all windows are sealed up ready to be a winter greenhouse and solar heat for part of the inside. I cut up a giant maple that fell in a storm and got most of the wood split. I have 10 feet of 48" diameter trunk left. My Friend Ralph came over and wanted a picture of him in front of the large piece of wood I had placed upon the wood splitter. He does this often, comes over and puts on work gloves then wants me to send pictures to him that show him working, notice he is on the wrong side of the splitter to work the hydraulics, strange fellow. I think he is an actor in life, he never really does anything, nice guy, but you cant count on him. My 1982 Homelite 410 with 68cc and a 24" Oregon bar cut through that tree like it was shrubbery. I will have to break out the 110cc Homelite Super 1050 with the 30" bar for the rest of the trunk

Thanks Norm, it's good to have it driving after all this time. Soooo, what does it drive like? Well, very good as it happens.. MadTrax feels very stable and planted with not even a hint of "it's going to topple over" Oh, and it's fast... In high ratio of course.. Trying to work out the gearing is impossible, so I'm going to guess it will top out about 80mph.. Not that I fancy doing that sort of speed on a quad of course Off road it's just as good, it feels almost unstoppable. Rob and I were testing it by driving across deep ruts back and forth.. Eventually it started spinning the rear wheels, flick the switch to 4x4 mode and it pulled it's self out straight away.. Amazingly despite the testing abuse nothing broke! Me happy with that A few minor little problems to sort.. During the off road testing MadTrax did get rather hot, in a "needle in the red" sort of way! Part of the problem was an airlock in the cooling system, of course the highest point is where the temp sender is! As the water level in the expansion tank is no longer dropping I guess all the air has gone out the system.. The other part of the problem is while riding MadTrax, the engine is at high RPM but the quad isn't moving that fast to push cold air through the rad.. So I have got an extra cooling fan to fix to the outside of the rad, it should help things out.. One thing the engine is doing that I wish it wouldn't is it's running very rich! The carbs have already been cleaned out, so a bit of carb tuning and balancing will be done when MadTrax goes back together.. I did try and get some off road video footage, but for some reason I was having a bad camera day and didn't notice the camera was already recording.. So when I hit the "start recording" button to film the action, I was actually stopping recording! The end result was I had mostly footage of "the bits inbetween" rather than the action! No photo's other than this screen grab of MadTrax ripping up the grass.. The smoke is from the over fueling! MadTrax is now back up on the bench ready to be pulled apart tomorrow or Friday. Lot's of bit's to be "fully welded up", and painted.

Well done guy's, as Head Exam say's, "Very Deserving"

All wheels/tyres swapped. Several test drives and all seals doing what they should do- Had a bit of wear slack in the Clutch shaft where it passes through the Frame (frame is the bearing). Not a good design as it is often neglected and deprived of grease throughout it's life. Could not pull the spirol pin from the spring side of the shaft bracket, so made up an extra bearing that would bolt on using the last hole in the frame nearest the Transmission- It's pulled the shaft back to where is should be and applies restraint from forward, upward and downward belt/spring forces. Well greased, it is now smooth in operation and no rattles. Tractor is now ready for collection

Nothing special Norm. Fan fixed to Sprocket on the Crank. Fan for additional cooling due partially enclosed compared to the exposed situation it would normally be in when fixed to a motor bicycle. Had to check the 172cc engine out in the Books. That was an up-rated engine first produced in 1924. The first prototype engine went to a French Racing team (Monet Goyon) and it powered them to winning the French GP of that year. Known as the 'Sports' initially, then 'Sports' with the Auto Lubrication system, then Super Sports T.T and lastly the 'Brooklands'. However, I digress. This engine is the first 2 stroke 269cc engine designed and built by Villiers (in 1913). Fitted to a multitude of Motor cycle makes, direct belt or chain drive initially. Known as the Mk I (should be roman numerals) up to 1916, then Mk II, Mk III. Mk IV is claimed to be the first introduction of their Flywheel Magneto, as prior to this, they used an external chain driven Bosch Mag, but the war got in the way of supply. This engine, the MkV was discontinued from Sept 1922. They built 3 other engine designs (from 1923) - 150, 250 and 350cc as the Mk VI. So everything hangs on this being in working order. It is complete and has the original Carb with it. Also has the Villiers patent Free Engine Clutch. All these bits will need to work ok when fixed. Good news is that my concoction of fluid for loosening bit up worked on the siezed piston/crank after just 1 hour ! and found it was 'freed up' by accident !. So need to remove that nut on the end by the Fan first without any stress on the crank, then pull the cylinder to check the bore/rings and piston. Might have a source of used spare parts too. Also may have a replacement option for the HT Coil (same style).

Haven't got any pics of the whole unit, it's in bits. I'm head down dealing with the engine assessment (when I'm not prepping the C-120 for sale). If it can't be bought back to life, then it will just be large boat anchor, or garden sculpture potential. The latter was the case for many years, hence the corrosion. The Magneto is clean as it was covered from the elements. Highly unlikely to get a spark out of it. Confirmed the engine date is 1922 with the serial letter/numbers and only have a couple of reference shots of the engine for what they are worth-

Had 3 driving sessions to check the Trans out and all is well/smooth for gear changes with positive selection. Found a tiny weep in the Brake Shaft seal, so I'm replacing them all with spring lipped type seals- Don't recall any leaks amongst the dirt from when I obtained it, but it has been stored drained for 6 years. Used white lithium grease to run them onto the shafts. Other side to do yet to and swapping over to Turf Maxxis Kevlars on the rear and wide turfs on the front. Put the Gear selector cover panel back on- Also pressed the original steering wheel off the old upper shaft so the new owner has the option to swap them over. So I have been active.....honest!.

A bit more work on the fuel tank was done, mostly welding up the odd hole I had missed. There's one! One or two on the underside as well. Not all the holes were that obvious, but putting a little compressed air into the tank made them easier to find.. Some bit's were just welded up to tidy them up. The exhaust system got the same treatment.. Find the holes and weld them up.. Finally the build had got to the "see if the drive system worked" point of things... Sooooo...... Which left only two things to do.. No 1.. Quickly give Madtrax some brakes.. Quickly as in back brakes only.. No 2... Get MadTrax off the bench and go for a test drive..

Happy Birthday Yes its mine too. I am 20 years older than Harry☹️

Thanks! It seems alot of work has payed off in the end but being a 40 year old machine there are times where there's an endless list of things to do on it. Lol

Hi, thankyou, would love to see some pics and videos of your Westwood, great to have you back on here.

I took my mate a 16 foot trailer full of split wood (2 ricks)to his house besides what I've kept, looks like about 5-6 ricks off this tree when all said and done.

Very deserving.

I was there that weekend Richard, as I remember Johns crew chef was driving a shadow with all his tools and kit thrown in the back

The "gold" is faded red and the grey is Ford Grey. Ford didn't start using blue on American tractors to the early 60's. I think the Fordsons got blue early on.

You have to be very careful these days with pictures taken from a mobile phone. In addition to the picture, digital cameras record something called EXIF data which can include GPS location data (depending on the make/model of your phone). Some forums automatically strip the GPS location data from pictures when you load them but others, like this one does not. This means when you post pictures of your collection you are effectively telling the world the exact place you store them. Cut/paste the information to Google Earth or maps and you will get a detailed aerial and road view of your storage location and directions on how to get there. Depending on your appetite for risk you may like me what to strip this data out before posting. I open pictures in Paint, save as a .PNG (which does not have the ability to hold GPS data) then save back to as a JPG. I have lobbied forums where I am a member, to change the options to strip out the data and most have. I don't want to cause alarm, just provide some information that you may not be aware of, to facilitate choices. Iain