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Would like to wish all the forum user's a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Difficult to gauge just how wide that lip is but would it be possible to drill some fine holes to accept panel pins, or what ever they are called your side of the pond , and use them as a key for the JB weld?

Merry Christmas all!

I love research and like to understand all facets of society, so while everyone was passed out from eating too much and boring football (oblong ball) games, I spent some time on the computer. I was wondering how globalism was faring today and how it rose after WWII and started googling information. This is what I found, and by the way, some of these statistics came from leads reported in vintage Popular Mechanics magazine that led to government websites. After World War II in 1945 with international business returning to post war conditions, U.S. companies had $8.4 billion invested around the world. By 1958, this had grown to $27.4 billion and by 1967 U.S. private investment abroad has increased eightfold in 20 years since the end of World War II. This was largely accomplished because postwar Europe was very favorable to the Common Market theory and encouraged trade between nations, however European businesses were not fully prepared to function in that much larger market due to the decimation of factories and infrastructure by war damage. American businesses, by contrast, were well used to operating in continent-spanning contexts from the very same war conditions. In 1967 American firms invested $10.2 billion, or about 14% of all their capital spending on plant and equipment, in ventures outside the U.S. This rising annual amount brought total overseas investment to $64.8 billion, more than the gross national product of many a nation, and eight times the amount foreign businessmen have invested in the U.S. in the 191 years of the Republic. Americans controlled 80% of Europe’s computer business, 90% of the microcircuit industry, 40% of its auto making, and sizable shares of chemicals, farm machinery and oil by 1967. In Britain, U.S. companies owned half of all modern industry, employed one of every 17 British workers, and manufactured 10% of all British goods for home consumption or export. U.S. firms also squeezed out twice as much profit from invested capital as their British competitors. Of this amount American companies sent $225 million a year home mostly tax free and reinvested the rest for the long term abroad all tax free. In 2016 the U.S. direct investment position, or the cumulative amount was around $6.4 trillion and has been well over a trillion dollars a year for nearly 20 years, but that growth has seen a much, much smaller growth in the past 4 years and many economists believe that the global market is close to saturation. Between 2008 and 2014 alone US capital investments rose from 3 trillion yearly to over 6 trillion yearly or 100%, but from 2014 through 2016 that increased slowed to less 250 billion or less than a 2% increase. What is more disturbing is that the small or no growth could turn to a negative growth very quickly due not only by a saturated market, but also due to the attitude towards consumption and consumerism by new generations. For over 100 years the US growth has been dependent on domestic or foreign economic growth, or both, but indicators from multiple areas concerning the economic conditions in which Western society/American society has depended on (economic success) could change literally overnight. Today it feels good to be old.

Oh yes lets hope we all have a good 2018 season

And all the other shows throughout the year

Acquired this last month, some of the information crept into the Lawnbug ride on topic so I thought I had better start a new topic in the right section ... Not got too far with it yet other than a wash & brush up and new decals from Titch, and found a manual in my literature collection. Hopefully picking up an interesting addition at the weekend...

This little O&R Gen-set manufactured April 13, 1972 belongs to a friend of mine and I promised I would try to get it running for him. Removed plate on bottom of fuel tank and cleaned out a 1/4" of thick gunk from the bottom of the fuel tank. All the brass nipples on the fuel tank and carb were corroded shut with green gook. Had to use tiny drills to clean them all out. Carb jet holes also plugged up. Replaced all fuel line, fuel clunk, air cleaner, diaphragm and a few other gaskets. Filed, cleaned and reset points gap. Cleaned rust on magnets and coil, reset coil to flywheel gap. Checked for spark nice purple blue spark. Ready to try and start the engine so I needed to mix some fuel and oil. I used some old Elf HTX 909 two cycle oil SAE 50. I had this oil from a few years back when I had one of those large RC cars that had a 2 cycle spark ignition engine in it. I mixed the oil & gas at 40:1 ratio with some regular ethanol gas I had and after a few pulls on the starter rope the genset came to life. Adjusted the mixter until the engine peaked out on sound then backed the needle off a quarter turn. Engine starts easy runs good and you could see a slight blue smoke coming out of the exhaust. Generator works great, puts out 115 volts AC or DC. My troubles started when I went to mix some new gas using STIHL Hp Ultra 2 cycle oil and 89 octane ethanol free gas. I mixed it at a 32:1 ratio like recommended on this forum for the O&R engines. After draining out the old fuel and putting in the new I started the O&R engine running for not even a minute the engine appeared to be leaning out RPM went down no blue smoke and the engine appeared to be getting hot. So I started adjusting the needle mixter open I was at 4 or 5 turns and the engine was still running lean. Tried turning needle in and the engine shut off. The new clunk I put in the fuel tank has a very fine filter built into it so I don't think any trash got in to the carb that might cause it to run lean. I tried my best but could not keep the engine running with this fuel oil mix. Drained the fuel out and put the old Elf HTX oil & ethanol gas back in it and with in a few minutes the O&R engine was starting & running good again. So can someone one tell me whats going on? The STIHL HP Ultra 2 cycle oil is synthetic. Does it not work with the old style piston ringed engines? I should state that I measured the 2 cycle oil using a MixMizer that has the different oil mix ratios on it. When you fill the MixMizer up to the 32:1 line this is for one quart of gas. So to mix one gallon of fuel you have to do this four times to have the correct amount of oil to gas for a 32 to 1 mix. I also used the same MixMizer to mix the Elf HTX oil at 40:1 so I'm fairly sure there was no mistake with the oil mix of either mixes. Thinking about trying some regular 30 wt STIHL 2 cycle oil mix. Any suggestions on what going on?

That is sort of what I was thinking, however I just thought about drilling holes to let the epoxy go into the magnesium. The panel pin (small brad nails?) idea is superb and that is exactly what I will do. Thank you so much for the suggestion. I can drill and putty, but I'm not willing to risk the possibility of starting a fire that can't be extinguished.

I'm neither a welder nor a metallurgist but I'm under the impression that magnesium (or may be not a particular alloy of) is flammable so how much heat can be applied? Also can aluminium and magnesium alloy be mixed? To explain my thoughts on magnesium being flammable, many years ago the UK made Ferguson tractors had a magnesium alloy gearbox housing and if one of those tractors was unfortunate to be in a barn fire the result would be a front and a back and a pile of gear wheels - the gearbox casing being entirely vapourised.

I would be a bit carefull there I remember heating a magnesium wheel up back in the 80s and it caught light and we could not put it out it was a bit like those lithium battery’s you get now when they ignite they just burn and burn

Very nice find in the accessories, congratulations on getting most of the kit

I often say, Alain, I'm glad I'm the age I am.

Happy Christmas all! I got a Wheelhorse shirt from my girlfriend- wahey! Hope you all had a good one.

Happy Christmas girls , hope you all got what you wished for

Westwood orange

Happy Christmas Joseph. And Dad, and Mum, and Sister.

Merry Christmas to everyone from dad and I. :-) Only one more sleep until Santa Joseph

Wishing you all a great Christmas Festive Break to all the regular forum users. Roll on RPT and TF 2018 !

Got a barrow body and tools coming tomorrow

How to alter the gear lever so that it pointed rearwards instead of to the right as it was when originally fitted to the ride on Bolens mower. The lever was fitted to the top of the box and operated horizontally back and forward but to get the arrangement I needed, ( I had turned the box 90 degrees to line up the input shaft with the engine ) resulting in the selector shaft pointing to the rear. No problem except that the right hand rear wheel and chassis frame would have restricted the lever movement plus access for my hand. The solution was to cut the lever from it's mounting plate, turn 90 degrees and refix. The idea was to drill and tap the plate, thread the shaft and weld up. Turned out that the plate was extra hard. The center punch lost the fight and I expect the drills would have too. A nut was fitted to the lever to help keep it at right angles to the plate then all welded up. Thanks again Chris. The first photo shows the original position ( taken after I had cut off and threaded ) followed by the end result. The long straight of the lever was lined up with the mounting hole in the plate so that when fitted it would be in line with the gearbox shaft. A bit of tweaking was needed later to cancel out slight eccentricity. Hope that sounds right. A photo of the lever fitted in place. A support bearing was needed in the rear cover plate through which the lever would pass. A long dig for something suitable unearthed the component shown below. Two were found, one with a 3/8 needle bearing although a plain bush would have done. No idea what they were originally for, but after trimming and drilling one it slid nicely over the not quite round and slightly dinged lever. The end of the lever was dimpled so that the bolt had something to bite into after being threaded through the bush which also has two grub screws for added security. The bolt still needs cutting down for appearance, or something better made, but works well as it is. In reverse gear as shown. Push down for neutral then the other gears. When the tractor and trailer is finished, a suitable gear will be found and probably left with speed being controlled with the throttle and centrifugal clutch.

Happy birthday doug!

Happy Birthday Doug, hope you are having a great day.