meadowfield

Happy birthday smiler!

Happy birthday smiler!

The axle bearings from the Bolens were used plus the front axle mounting bracket which was hack sawed from the frame, cut in two, excess removed, slotted and drilled to take the bearings.  The extra holes were for possible height adjustment at a later date.  Easier to do now than later.  These were pop riveted to the box section ready for welding later.
 

 
The front axle was then given a lot of thought.  The full size is a cast, tapered in two directions, webbed unit.  Something simpler was needed.  A piece of thick walled 1" square was used with tube king pin mounts.  A test piece was cut to gauge the angle required, followed by marking, cutting, bending, filing and drilling the main components.  Small infill pieces were inserted to give the weld something to bite on.
 

 
The axle mount was made up of 3/16" plate fastened to chassis box section cross members, with 1/2" bore bushes.  The pivot is an old Austin 7 king pin.  All a bit on the beefy side but just materials to hand.
 

 
I should say that ALMOST all the materials used in the entire build were saved during the clear out at John's.  Also, as I do not have proper machining facility's, most of the work was done by hand.  Hand drill, hack saw, jig saw, files etc.  I do have a small Unimat 3 model makers lathe which was used for some of the lighter machining jobs.  Also an old Drummond round bed which is in need of work and a chuck adapter.  Guess where this came from.   I also adapted an old Picador drill press to take a larger hand drill.  This wasn't too satisfactory, side play and too fast for the larger drill bits. These were more suitable for wood, not metal.  Photo's later.
 
The next few photo's show the chassis and axle mounted on a board ready for welding.  The rear axle mounting plates drop into slots in the board.  The two dark coloured angles are temporary and just to help keep things square.
 

 
 
 

My turn to say  for delays to Thread updates. I have excuses. I had to slow this job down so I could do small short sessions when the opportunity arose.
The plan to have the Deck Shell Media Blasted was cancelled, and so I set to cleaning it back myself. It has taken several months to get the rust off and treat ready for welding the Baffle metal in place. Checking the fit and positioning-
   
The old Baffles had slots cut out to fit the Nuts for the forward Bracket Bolts. I wanted to avoid any slots that would let the Baffles fill with grass, dirt and stones again.
So I have made 1 Mushroom Head bolt Captive each side under the curved Plate. The other 2 have clearance (just).
 
The condition of the shell (underside) when most of the rust was removed is very good considering, but a lot of work to clean it all off so that the Rust converter I used converted it all.The top surfaces are fine. Combination of Etch, Weld Through and Oxide Primer being used initially-

 
Also noted that the old Baffle welds had cracked on the apex of the curves, so I incorporated 2 steel tube posts to add strength and to serve as a conduit for injecting Waxoyl into them-

 I drilled the shell 1/4" dia to allow a long bolt to hold the tube(s) in place while I tacked them. I can then Tap the holes 5/16" UNC for screw plugs.
The slots cut into the tube's bottom end will allow the stuff to flow in.
So some more tack welding to fit the bottom plates to do (I'm not good at welding yet) and finish prep underside soon  .    
 
  

Happy Birthday Chris!!! 

As requested, one or two photos of my Mitsubishi doing what it was bought for - taking fallen trees out of a 10 acre woodland at the back of the house. I initially bought a Ransomes MG 5 for the job but it couldn't cope with exposed tree roots and big stones sticking out of the ground used to knock the tracks off.
It is amazing the size of trees it can deal with, and if it struggles you just cut another bit off the tree.
The tarpaulin is covering one of three piles of logs waiting to be split and fed in to the pot bellied wood burner in the workshop.

got the t shirt there

The most common problem is incorrect positioning of one of the bushes with locating " nibs" not sitting in theit cut outs in the casings. 

Good pics!  Missing a few....
 
 

Good pics!  Missing a few....
 
 

Good pics!  Missing a few....
 
 

Good pics!  Missing a few....
 
 

My favourite photo of the show...
 

sweet!

Dearly beloved, we gathered at Johns today for the collection of the Sears Roper where it has been kept for the last few months in a nice warm workshop wrapped in blankets.
It was pulled from the brambles years ago and nursed back to life by Alan and his heeling hands and now due to lack of storage he has to pass it on reluctantly to a new owner.
A very sad day as he tried to stop me loading it into the awaiting Sprinter all without success.
Heres some photos of the proceedings.
Hankys at the ready 

Morning all, time for a long over due RJ update, and unlike my last post this one has a happy ending
 
Monday morning Nigel and I had a visit from Neil, it was good to catch up again mate, it's been a while..
Not only has Neil got a huge amount of Wheel Horse history stashed away in he's head, but he also came with gifts... 2 engines
 
Here's the top half of Neil..
 

 
 
The bottom half of Neil was busy controling the rev's of a very nice looking engine that ran as good as it looks..
The blue engine has carb and spark issues as we found out, so that's a job for another day.
 

 
 
So with a quick pulley swap the new engine went in the RJ.
 

 
 
The shade of engine red is so close to the rest of the RJ we saw no point in repainting it match 100%.. It's looks good as it is.
 

 
 
One slight problem with the new engine is the exhaust port had two studs rather than the port itself having internal threads so swapping the  exaust over wouldn't be a bolt on swap.
 

 
 
Not a problem, take a flat bit of thick-ish steel and drill three holes in the right places... A quick test fit.
 

 
 
Trim a bit of the RJ's exhaust down to size them grind the thread of it so it fit's in the flange leaving plenty of space to weld it up from the inside. (No idea why this photo won't upload the right way up!)
 

 
 
Welded up, cleaned up and trimmed to shape.
 

 

 
 
And a coat of the black stuff to make it look good.
 

 
 
Exhaust on.
 

 
 
You can remove an RJ engine without taking the hood off, but you need to remove the spark plug.
Then once the engine is back in the spark plug has to go back in using a very special tool that won't scratch the paint on the hood
 

 
 
Knowing the engine is a good, the time had come to fire the little fella up and go for a drive..
Knowing the gear shift would need a bit of adjusting to get it to shift right and even though it should of been in netural but possibly wasn't the rear wheels where jacked up before starting..
 

 
 
A running issue was soon soted by putting some petrol in the tank, so I climbed aboard and Dennis lowered the jack, and off I trundled
 

 

 
 
After so long it was nice to finally drive the RJ, but as you will hear in the video (coming soon to a YouTube page near you) the gear selector needs some adjustment so it get's all gears and the selctor bar does not rub against the reverse disc.
Also the engine governor need a tweak to stop the engine from trying to over rev..
 
So not much to do and the RJ will soon done
 
Told you this update would have a happy ending
 

good luck with the sale - whats the plan for the pennies?  whats the next project?

Some of you may know I work a long way from home, and play the part of call centre for many family tech issues, as well as remote bicycle repair man and occasional mower won't start...
 
Last weeks call was...  'dad, do you think this is fixable?'    the part in question being a 1970 lawn ranger tow hitch. I'll let you guess my reply
 

 
Apparently the trailer rolled with 400lbs of dirt in...

We are almost two years into our current house and loving the yorkshire dales. We live fairly off grid, only mains electric and rudimentary telephony.
 
I finally added a water filter to our supply the other month.
 

 
and changed the filter after 3 weeks!!!
 


 
we've been drinking this stuff   god only knows what it does to the insides of pipes, etc.
 
All has been well for a for weeks until we noticed a very wet spot outside, and the ground is cracked all around.
 
Cue, starts looking for unknown pipe...
 

 
found it!
 

 
after lots of bailing water, we find an old 1-1/14" compression joint that has corroded away.
 

 
it was late saturday afternoon, so we had no choice but to borrow a fitting from the sheep feeder up the lane - sorry sheep!
 
Another maintenance job complete
 
 
 
 

Some of you may know I work a long way from home, and play the part of call centre for many family tech issues, as well as remote bicycle repair man and occasional mower won't start...
 
Last weeks call was...  'dad, do you think this is fixable?'    the part in question being a 1970 lawn ranger tow hitch. I'll let you guess my reply
 

 
Apparently the trailer rolled with 400lbs of dirt in...

Handy having relatives close by.

We are almost two years into our current house and loving the yorkshire dales. We live fairly off grid, only mains electric and rudimentary telephony.
 
I finally added a water filter to our supply the other month.
 

 
and changed the filter after 3 weeks!!!
 


 
we've been drinking this stuff   god only knows what it does to the insides of pipes, etc.
 
All has been well for a for weeks until we noticed a very wet spot outside, and the ground is cracked all around.
 
Cue, starts looking for unknown pipe...
 

 
found it!
 

 
after lots of bailing water, we find an old 1-1/14" compression joint that has corroded away.
 

 
it was late saturday afternoon, so we had no choice but to borrow a fitting from the sheep feeder up the lane - sorry sheep!
 
Another maintenance job complete
 
 
 
 

We are almost two years into our current house and loving the yorkshire dales. We live fairly off grid, only mains electric and rudimentary telephony.
 
I finally added a water filter to our supply the other month.
 

 
and changed the filter after 3 weeks!!!
 


 
we've been drinking this stuff   god only knows what it does to the insides of pipes, etc.
 
All has been well for a for weeks until we noticed a very wet spot outside, and the ground is cracked all around.
 
Cue, starts looking for unknown pipe...
 

 
found it!
 

 
after lots of bailing water, we find an old 1-1/14" compression joint that has corroded away.
 

 
it was late saturday afternoon, so we had no choice but to borrow a fitting from the sheep feeder up the lane - sorry sheep!
 
Another maintenance job complete
 
 
 
 

Some of you may know I work a long way from home, and play the part of call centre for many family tech issues, as well as remote bicycle repair man and occasional mower won't start...
 
Last weeks call was...  'dad, do you think this is fixable?'    the part in question being a 1970 lawn ranger tow hitch. I'll let you guess my reply
 

 
Apparently the trailer rolled with 400lbs of dirt in...

Some of you may know I work a long way from home, and play the part of call centre for many family tech issues, as well as remote bicycle repair man and occasional mower won't start...
 
Last weeks call was...  'dad, do you think this is fixable?'    the part in question being a 1970 lawn ranger tow hitch. I'll let you guess my reply
 

 
Apparently the trailer rolled with 400lbs of dirt in...