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As the day finished yesterday i had a final check that all the fabrication was done and I’m quite pleased with how they look. As the day finished today all I’ve got is a big pile of bits.

And on to plan “B”, with the help of my neighbour took a mould off the original Sububan fender and added a couple of strengthening ribs. Made one pair and fitted them to Ben to see what they looked like, I’m so pleased gonna make another pair for Bill. Even put red dye in the gel coat.

I finally got the entire engine dismantled. Some interesting observations (at least to me anyway): the engineering on these early engines is exquisite, noticeably different from the later versions this one has metal roller bearings throughout, and some of the cages look to be bronze, very nice piston has 3 large rings no rubber seals anywhere and no gaskets inside- all the machining seems to be really tighten tolerance (no feather vane gaskets and no little rubber induction case seals. The only thing that resembled a seal is some thin black coating stuff that looked like a thin layer of gasket maker where the feather vane gasket would normally go connecting rod uses a pretty cool two-piece roller bearing that is made of aluminum the points are a little different too and have a slotted piece that catches the copper tab It’s starting to clean up nicely. I can tell by the piston, cylinder and the internals that this thing hasn’t been run much, zero carbonization or anything, just a light coating of dried oil/gas varnish. I’m pretty certain I’m the first one to open this one up, didn’t see any signs of others getting into it.

Made a little progress on this just now. Juggling between some paint work and fabricating a display stand for the cut-away engine. Good news, I was able to free the piston. It’s still a little snug but I think it’s free enough that when I go to remove the cylinder head it shouldn’t snap the con rod (hopefully). Although the gear box was pretty much empty and stuck I was able to get it free. The clutch has the little cork pads and they hand seized up in the clutch housing. I was surprised to see the plastic gear. The recoil was also jammed up but I got that moving too. SO overall the vitals seem good. I’m actually starting to think this one may not have much mileage on it. ! Before I go and do something stupid I wanted to check in with the experts to see if the flywheel nut on the older models are normal thread or if by chance they might be reverse thread! These older models definitely look different inside, pretty cool (for me) since this is the first one like this I’ve had and opened up.

The UK firm of Tarpen were distributors of the Turbair sprayer with O&R power during the 1960's. The firm also produced a Mini engine setup with O&R power that could be used on some of their tools. I have two in my collection at the moment, one on a Tarpen 33 hedge trimmer, the other on a cultivator...

A scrap book of cuttings and adverts was acquired from the son of a former Tarpen employee many years ago In it is this article from Farm Implement and Machinery News 1967 In the text it mentions the machines were developed by Edward Bals and quotes "The new sprayers, to be marketed in Great Britain by the Tarpen Engineering co Ltd, 7 Coronation Road London" Second paragraph of text, second photo

Started up with just a little juggling. Though that could be put down to me. Each tractor I have has a slightly different starting technic. Anyway I'm happy with it now.

Bit like a mate of mine. Says he's got a list, but every time he gets something off, two more appear at the bottom.

Ive got a shed full of projects Alan but Pams also got a list and hers is different to mine

Clint's perfect size decal arrived to pretty much finish this one off. Clear coated the original recoil decal last weekend. Just needs some yellow touch up paint here and there. The only thing I might do is change the bar size as the one on the "clothes iron" style Comet saw looks a bit out of proportion with a longer bar. That one was restored and painted a while back so it'll be an easy swap. The longer bar shouldn't really change the look of this one.

Got it all soldered up, cracks reinforced with epoxy and cleaned up best I can. All the electrical stuff works (in theory) using a meter and a couple of smaller batteries taped together for a power source. Haven't run it to test the generator power. Had to drill a hole in the top of the tank to get the fuel line all straightened out. It's undetectable with engine on and sealed using Seal All.

Ok, got this really cool engine and I know it’s an early one. Might need David’s insights for this one. There aren’t any markings on it as far as I can tell, no model or serial numbers. This is as-received and I haven’t touched it yet but looking forward to giving it a bath. Unfortunately the engine and the gear box are both sieved up. I pulled the plug and the top of the piston looks surprisingly clean. Missing the air cleaner. Has a push-pull throttle cable and a little pulley (probably an add-on). I have no idea of the application, maybe a compressor or something. This is definitely the oldest O&R in my collection now.

They're awesome! Would look good on my RJ . Bill and Ben will look fantastic when they're finished

the recoil is silver the bird is a little golder I will be changing the one on the recoil. And that hammer has been well used got that from a guy that worked at a factory making food no real hammers just plastic. Ive had them for 20 years they have been great.

Fenders look good Chris. You'll need to slow down with Bill and Ben though, unless you have another project lined up to keep you occupied..

Very smart. Lucky to have a neighbour like that. Now how about the pair of you doing reproductions? Could be a nice little earner. Only make when ordered.

Thanks for that Chris. Well the valve clearances were ok. Also after lifting the head, I could see on inspection of the valve seats and valve heads, all was ok there. No sign of burn or damage. With the carb' being removed to check the valve clearances, I spun the engine to see how the fuel pump performed. A good spurt of fuel shot out at each revolution. So that was ok. Nailed everything back together and tried starting. Engine eventually fired up but was surging. Though on low rev's was smoother. Bit of trying different positions of the governor spring and then it hit me. Earlier I'd checked the governor arm position on the spindle. Guess what? When setting it yesterday, I'd turned the spindle the wrong way. Clockwise instead of anticlockwise. Rectified that and the surging decreased. Well it would' wouldn't it! Played around with the mixture settings, till eventually I was more or less happyish with things. Had a run around and all seemed well. Tomorrow I'll see how it starts again. I still think the original trouble was the original carb. My boo! boo! with the governor didn't help things. But as my father used to say, "The man who never made a mistake, never made anything".

Yes mate we will have a catch up in due course, stay safe !

Just before the lockdown in the UK we went on a roadtrip. The roads are usually very busy but they were empty. Two great addions to the collection Stay safe everyone

Hi all glad you liked so far here are some more this time part of my Allen collection

Something like that is well within my wheel House. I'm think'n 3/4 EMT pipe. The difficult part is finding something with the brakes for the back wheel and may already have an idea for that. Haven't looked into the fold down foot pegs but I could make those if necessary. Might have to use an old school banana seat which wouldn't look as good but... No hurry at all as there's always plenty of stuff on my plate. Just so you don't think you're wasting your time. Built these and the little Wheel Horse 2 seater cart in my avatar pic.. The Wheel Horse bike is 90% all tractor parts and looks even better now with an old school starter generator K181 engine on it instead of that modern M8. Made an article in a small tractor magazine. The back hoe attachment was completely scratch built using some plans off the innerweb. All the way down to the bucket teeth. Used it to bury all the utilities underground. Loader is a factory unit This little wooden model of a RJ-58 was made completely out of toothpicks and also made a magazine. Wheels turn, steering works, levers move, brake pedal works the brake band. The toothpick gives the scale of it.