Robins

Sorry for the fright Andrew You can relax, it's not your Bolens

Well if you do come back to the idea here's my super quiet stack pipe build thread. http://myoldmachine.com/topic/1258-wheelhorse-electro-with-a-stack-pipe/

I was in a similar place a while back, turned out my 'new' spark plug was duff, have you tried the old one? I had idle but wouldn't rev up, and after using a spark tester i watched the spark drop out as the revs increased. The spitting is the engine flooding and the fuel igniting in the chamber.

Here it is! the famous Wheel Horse TOWING the Bolens photo I get the impression Andrew didn't like this photo being taken Now i'll go hide

Nice to see a tractor working Looks cleaner than my 312-8 at the moment Thanks for sharing the pics. Andrew you could extend your collecting to Wheel Horses and buy my 312-8 complete with deck end of this year beginning of next when i've finished needing two tractors

Excellent Andrew Looks a fun bit of kit So is that the deck for the lawn keeper? What engine should the lawn keeper have? I can see you'll go in to restoration mode soon, which, if your speed of collecting tractors and attachments is anything to go by, you'll have these machines looking shiny by summer

Where did you get the tyres from Jack? Maybe it's worth starting a new thread for the south west show idea to gauge interest and location ideas.

I'm very envious of your lathe work Ian! Project Why Not is coming on really nicely

Nice find Be warned these tractors are addictive

Thats some very interesting stuff Andrew, I will give their website a good read. Funnily enough my Husqvarna chainsaw (2 stroke) actually seems to run nicer using old fuel but as a fresh mix with the 2 stroke oil, old mixed fuel left in the tank it does not like. But do realise this is probably an odd one out.

The magazine sounds very tempting, but also sounds like its given you the itch to extend you collection Andrew

As requested i have started this thread for my home built sheet metal folder. I could have bought a bench mounted folder, but they limit the width of steel, and the depth if making a tight box. You also can't make something like this with multiple angled bends, no cutting and welding were involved to make this panel. It's a similar design I copied from a friend, made from various thick box section and plate. the ram is one of these gear pullers, The lower 'V' block is a small section of proper press brake tooling i bought from scrap. Unfortunately I couldn't find the upper part, so that's made using a 4" bolster chisel cut down. It works well but but just not as clean a fold, so i'm still looking for an upper piece of tooling to cut down in to different width. Its very versatile making panels like these, The downside is it takes a while to make a long fold due to the winding of the mechanism involved, but if i could find an upper 'V' tooling to make a wider piece that would help, and i see they do a hydraulic operated gear puller now so may invest in one of those one day Any questions ask away. I'll try and get some pics up later of just the tool, these pics were taken intending to show the work piece not the tool Panel work shown from my thread here for ease in future reference: http://myoldmachine.com/topic/1495-transit-restoration-work/

Thanks guys I enjoyed doing the work knowing it's done right, I do really love my Transit, owned for 15 years, i get attached to my vehicles Took about a week and a half and cost less than £50 including new steel, grinding discs, welding gas, ect. The only down side is i had those two weeks set aside to start building my garage, so that's been postponed yet again! I will start a new thread on the folder for those interested then heres a link to the folder thread for ease of future reference. http://myoldmachine.com/topic/1501-home-made-metal-folder/

Four years ago exactly i restored all the bodywork on my mk5 Transit. Many probably wont see the point, but each to their own and i like my van, nothing modern even comes close to build quality, fuel economy, ease of maintenance or looks in my opinion. Every year before MOT i go under and Owatrol oil any surface rust and check everything over. This year i had a shock when i pocked a hole in the rear cross member, nothing big at first, but on starting the repair i realised it was going to be a big job. I ended up replacing the ends of the rear crossmember, both spring hangers, inner rear skirts, chassis outriggers and piece of floor. Heres a few photos for you to hopefully inspire someone. I dont like patches, they dont last, so i drilled all the spot welds out, made all the panels on my home made metal folder due to no panels being available to buy other than from Ford, and re welded as original. Original outer rear panel back on and ready for paint.

Excellent news Andrew Thought you'd gone a bit quiet on the buying front How did you get another one agreed by your wife? Sounds very interesting though. Its one of these?

Why screen wash Ian, rather than an anti freeze/coolant and water soloution? I'm thinking i may do that on my 312-8 The water in the tube ballast thing that is, i already have the wide AG's Although nothing like as grippy and cool looking as these you have Chris!

Rummaging around in my shed at my parents place I found what i was looking for A K&N air filter from my boy racer days on my Morris 1000's Even better, i found a new one i bought for my pickup but never used, thought i'd sold it on to be honest, but fits nicely on the Magnum 16 Still to test properly under load, but running nicely just racing round the garden

How about a motorised wheelbarrow?

Will do Andrew I haven't had an engine give me quite so many trials in a very long time! When an engine is sold to you and said only to be removed due to a broken starter motor and thats been replaced now, you wouldn't expect so many settings to be completely out of adjustment, i was daft really to disguard things thinking it can't be that as it apparently ran before. Lesson learned, always check anyway. I only checked most of them because im a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to the running of an engine

Is it a Rotavator?

Well I think things are sorted Engine is running so much nicer today. After a bit of messing around, much thinking, and a light bulb moment, i realised the governor was fully open at half throttle, this explains the flatness. There is no way on earth this engine ran nicely, if at all, before it was removed by the last owner. With this set right i could then tweak the fine tuning and all seems good. There was a slight odd misfire, one when increasing the revs from idle and then intermittent on full revs, but this seems to have cleared up with some driving round the garden. I will test again tomorrow from cold and make sure So then got on and put my cement mixer back together. The real test will be fitting the cutting deck or pulling a trailer load of mud around can't wait! Thanks all

A leak down tester sounds good, how do they work different in comparison to a compression tester though? I have a compression tester somewhere in my other garage but haven't thought to use it as i have nothing to compare the result to like on a 4 cylinder car.

Funnily enough i finished work with a bit of spare time today and fitted the new pipes, filter, filled up with fresh fuel, wired in the electric pump and had a test. Much better Still not perfect though, feels flat on full throttle but hoping this is now down to tuning which i will tinker with, but the popping and spluttering is gone Heres a pic I took tonight of the engine and stack fitted. Think i may check valve clearance again now ive had it running just to re-check things are perfect in their.

They're really nice! Look like they're real good grippers to Nice find.

I've had a tinker today and made some progress Tried a few things with no change, but fitted an electric Facet pump and things have improved hugely! I guess my want for a mechanical pump were the issue, also old fuel, it seems my cans have been moved in the shed (shared shed) so not sure how old the fuel is i have put in! This being the case i'm getting new fuel, pipes and replacement filter Monday and will see if i can get this running perfect Not sure what electric pumps are ment to be used but if the Facet one works i'll have to make a bracket up. Thanks all for your help, i'll let you know how the new fuel and lines go in the week. Thanks, Daniel