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Mmmmmm

Our club contacted the chap on the homemade tractor and asked him if he would put on a working display of mini tractors. As far as I know he was trying to organise a club to encourage younger people to join our hobby, I didn't get a chance to have a word with him to see how he was getting on. There was a good mix of tractors working and everyone looked to be enjoying themselves. I particularly liked the Kubota B6000 with the blade on it.

I got this last week. I bought it off the second owner from the restoration, it was restored in late 2013 to an extremely high standard, one of the best i have seen, all it needs is a choke cable fitting, i was given the before pictures as well. Here are a couple of pics

If the serial number is what I read, 15900125?, then it appears to be a very early 1969 Massey Ferguson MF-7 recoil start model, but that is not, or doesn't appear to be a Tecumseh engine, it appears to be a Briggs engine, which would be a replacement. The foot rests instead of running boards in the first picture was a clue as was the absence of the round cut out for the air breather on the rear left side of the grill, only 7's did not have the round cut out. Let me know if you need parts/service/owners manuals, I have them all on pdf files. They made the MF-7 from 1968-1973 and produced 12,927 units. My serial number list breaks down numbers by recoil start, 3 speed, and hydro models, each has a different set of serial numbers.

In between decorating and allowing the paint to dry, I had a bit of time and I found a photo of a 1054 with the push/ pull levers. This is a 1254 photos with the push/ pull levers. Interestingly the dash has the wood grain effect style. I am sure mine is Matt black. I am guessing both are early examples.

On Friday I had a quick trip to see Alan, John and Chris (The Showman), stopping off on the way to drop off a Bolens to the other Chris (Bolens Chris as my lad calls him). It was fantastic to meet up with them all again. I picked up a Bolens 1054 which I am sure a number of you have seen before. A couple of pictures of the tractor after it arrived safe in Norfolk, the home of Bolens tractors in the UK It is a 1054-03 which I believe means that it was made in 1972. Iain

Yes indeed, she's not just a pretty face

God bless Wendy for the lovely pie, went down a treat . you can stick ya pancakes

Looking forward to seeing them Never met Nat. Only seen is expensive machines for sale on ebay every so often!!

Much better thanks Norman. Made up a panel for the ignition key and heater plug switch. Have to keep going back to it and starting it just to make sure it is sorted. So far so good ! If it was not for Neil Jarrett being able to supply me with parts more or less next day I would be screwed.

The Massey 8 3 speed of yours was one of 2474 ever built with recoil start. If it is original. Yours is very unusual as it seem to be a very early model. The grill is not the same as later Massey 8 grills and neither is the muffler or tank, more like the older Massey 7. If you don't mind could you post the serial number so I could see what year it was? It should have a Tecumseh HH80 or OH80 for the motor. Thanks.

erm...

BTW, the first four numbers, in this case 1590, is the model series number for the MF-7 series, the MF-10 series model number is 1446 then the unit number follows. The series number for the Massey MF-14 is 1944. When they reproduced and watermarked my list the didn't get the prefixes, lol, and I didn't supply them later. It's not hard to figure out, but each model has its own identifier and within each model number the variants,m, such as 3 speed or hydro have their own set of production numbers

is that good or bad news

It is in fact a Massey MF-7, It was built in 1973, in fact one of the last ones built, the last one off the line was 1590012928. This attached list is a reproduction of the original list that I found at Massey's Headquarters in Hesston, Kansas over 10 years ago. I went there and ask them if I could dig through their archives. I found serial numbers, production dates, price lists, and many many more things to do with Massey Ferguson push mowers, tillers, lawn tractors, and garden tractors. I don't mind sharing, but the owners/operators of more than a few forums took these as their own and reproduced and water marked them. They do the same with manuals to prevent people from selling them, but the forums neither bought the manuals or obtained permission to use the manuals, until they already had them in their reference libraries. The way I see it, if I use or take something that belongs to someone else, I should ask for permission, but as Native Americans found out all too well, that was not widely accepted policy. It still isn't in today's world of put it on Facebook, anything goes. What I am trying to convey by posting the forum copy instead of my copy is, they took it and made it theirs, so I will repost their copy and not my copy, the yellow, old, and slightly faded hand typed original. Masseyserialnumber.pdf

thanks for the info, in there at the moment is a kohler engine. however before the restoration there was a lombardini engine in there, i will try and get a better image of the numbers I have made an interesting discovery, the Mf8 on the tag looks to of been changed, not sure if it is MF8 or MF& the serial number reads 1590012581

Good pics. Like the massy............err its a pimped up bolens!!

Ransomes exhibitors now up to 36, Nat Finnbow from Suffolk is bringing his MG6 Prototype.

There are four mowers going as a job lot on ebay. If I had room I would buy them just for the buzz. May suit an enthusiast on here. Advertised on Ebay under Hayter Petrol Mowers. Regards Colin

Fitted a NOS governor today courtesy of Neil Jarrett. Engine fired up and started perfectly first go! Looks as if this has been a similar issue as the magnetos on 137 I have two faulty governors, one of which came off a good running engine. There are various parts of the governor that can be adjusted although the books tell you to leave them strictly alone you cannot tell what someone else has done in the past to make an engine run.Unfortunately there is a lack of data which would enable you to set the adjustments back to standard.

Very interesting. Look like our respective theories were on the right track. I checked through my photos of my 1254 and it's a 1254-05 making it a '72 model as you suggested. Be interesting to see if the earlier ones had the old style levers.

According to the Bolens experts the up/down controls are correct for a 1054-03. I know one of my other 1054's is a 1054-01 with in/out controls but I am unsure what version of 1054 the others are. Apparently this page was added to the operators manual to show the change in controls Iain

Just finished scanning these photos and had a quick read at the latest posts on the skimmer thread. There is only that one photo of the skimmer, the rest have been taken at different rallys and show other Ransomes MGs. From the look of some of the photos they were taken quite a while ago, in among the photos I found a brochure for the 1992 Great Dorset Steam Fair which would back this up. I did not know when I was bidding on the piece of Ransomes literature that these photos would be included, the seller just added them in. I had sort of figured that since all the other photos were likely from down round the south that the photo of the skimmer would be from the same general area. Here's the pics, anyone recognise any of the machines? Rob

A little bit more has been done over the past few weeks , mostly cleaning up various parts and painting, here are some photos. The wheels and brake/ clutch pedal after sandblasting. After a coat of etch primer A previous owner of the tractor had stripped all of the threads off of the light switch and so the nut had to be cut off. After cutting the nut off I discovered this. Luckily we managed to save the light switch by cutting new threads

Really admire the pain you go through to keep these beauties running. You don't have much luck at the moment

A mate of mine down on the Sussex Coast (no not Mr Showman) has a large collection of stationary engines, mainly generators and battery charging sets, amongst which is a little set made by W.E.Conyers Ltd. I always fancied this little set and thought if one came along I would add it to the collection, as its 6 12 or 24 volt I could use it to demonstrate the 12 volt Tarpen equipment that I have. Walking round the Sunday Sortout at Newark last November I spotted a Conyers set on the very last stall we looked at. It wasn't dear so was duly purchased and brought back to the camping field (see first photo below) A few days later I popped down to see our mate Steve who owns the other Conyers set and found that not only did my set run with a bit of tinkering (and a bit of smoke - too much oil in the petrol) but that it and Steves set are only two serial numbers apart !!

Conyers alternator coupled to a ten horsepower Tecumseh . Gen set assembled by the old Godfreys of Brenchley (Kent) company in the late 70s just before they went into liquidation - allegedly due to an ill advised venture into genset production involving Nigeria! This one is for sale. PM me if interested.

Nice little trio. They should generate some interest.

BSA powered Conyers set arrived today, its a bit sad but will be ok with some tlc... Here it is below as arrived and with its JAP powered new stablemates...