ranger

Finally got around to trying out the sickle bar this afternoon. I'm really pleased with it to be honest. Took it down the overgrown bridleway past my home. Long, heavy, thick damp grass. Did two passes. One down, then one back up. Result below.
 

 
 

Heres a few photos of the show Saturday, I'll try and get more tomorrow 

Got the belts this morning and fitted the PTO to mule one. A little longer than I'd wanted, but the closest I could get.
 
  So now it was time to make a belt tensioner. I'd had a bit of a think and a root round.  I would have liked a small pulley, but I'd nothing about. I did find a nice new bearing. What it was for is any bodies guess. Might do I thought, so before long I had this knocked up.
 

 
  And it ended up here.
 

 
   Not ideal I know and a bit of a rethink will be thought.
 
  Another problem occurred when I gave it a try. The belt came off the tensioner. I think the bottom pulley may be a tad out of line.  

Got a bit more done today.
  Getting the lift right was a bit of a problem. When down, the downward curve of the lift arm fouled the guard and top pulley. Eventually I decided to disconnect the lift chain and cable tie the arm up as far as I could. I could have cut the downward curve off, but I don't want to alter things if I can help it. With the arm up I fastened the lift chain to the guard/frame.
 
  
 
   Next I had to have someway of holding the cutter bar in the vertical position. Had a root round and came up with this.
 

 

 
 Finally a couple of shots of it down and up.
 

 

 
  Next thing to do is make a handle to lift the cutter bar. Again I don't want to alter the original handle. Get that done and I can work out a belt length.

Today I made a bush up to take the place of the lifting handle for the cutter bar. I'll maybe make a handle at a later date. I wanted to work out belt lengths, mule pulley positions, adjustment etc. 
  I found a belt in my belt collection that fitted mule drive to cutter bar gearbox nicely. Fitted nicely is a bit of an understatement. Bit of a pain the rigmarole fitting it. But it went on. I'll be  getting one slightly shorter as the one on leaves little for adjustment.
  For the drive from PTO to mule drive shaft, I found one of those emergency universal fan belts. Cut down a bit that fitted and gives me an idea of belt required. I've to yet workout a tensioner for that.
  With belts fitted, pulleys lined up and taper locks tightened, I tried turning everything by hand. Was a bit stiff at first then freed up. Most likely because the bar hadn't moved for some time.
  So the moment of truth had arrived. Will it work?  Started up the tractor and running on just above idle slowly engaged the PTO. Bar was flat on the floor BTW.
  Happy to say, actually very happy, all went well and fine. As soon as I get new belts I'll give it a try on the overgrown bridleway up past my home. If all goes well, it'll be to remove for painting the mule drive.
  I just hope it will go up the ramps onto the trailer ok. It's definitely not something you can or want to remove in a hurry.
 

Many happy returns Chris,

The wheels on my rear discharge cutter deck where well worn. The plastic type with a rubber tyre. The Showman in his kindness, gave me some more wheels off another type of deck. These were of a larger diameter but fitted and have been in use.
  The only problem is the setting of the deck for mowing. I couldn't get it just right. At the back of my bench the old wheels have been residing for some time. So as it was cooler in the workshop, I decided to do something with them.
 
  First I bored them out on the lathe to 1" bore.
 

 
Next two inserts made from this piece of self lubricating nylon that's been lying about.
 

 
 

 
  A good push fit with a drop or two of super glue.
 
 

 
 And refitted.

Unloaded the bits i bought at Newby today, think i can make something up with these bits

Here's a few photos that I snapped this afternoon.














Here's the next few

Last few

First day of the Newby Hall Rally
Weather nowt special but some very nice kit on show
Here's some photos...
 

Hi all
We attended our local rally  the weather was good the exhibits were good and the company was good. hope you like .
there was a lot going on but we just sat back and enjoyed  the day answering questions about our exhibits

Not done much today, ive welded a helper sring hook on the axle bracket and bent a bit of plate for the belt tension spring 

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
 

Handy having relatives close by.

"Peckham Springs" Yorkshire style. 

After much thought and penny counting, I decided to throw caution to the wind, risk the wrath of swmbo and spend some of the kids inheritance.
 

 
   12ft x 6ft but in total 16ft 4" x 6ft 8". Had one heck of a job reversing into the yard due to the angle of drive to lane and having to reverse round the corner of the green as well.
 
  Best measure your drive Chris.

Had a nice day at Plumpton Agricultural College open day, weather was good and nice to chill out and wander round looking at stuff.
heres a couple of photos of what got my attention 

Done as much as I can without the belt, i left the length of the plate and pulley until i get it all fitted then i can cut it down to size.

If it's one aeroplane, the pilot's either had too many Desperados, or his tomtom's playing up

Check the date, you might be in a time warp, they look like Messerschmitts and Heinkels to me!
p.s. Watch out for shrapnel
p.p.s. Hope your feeling better now

Don't often see the sky like this.

Made a start on my idler today, found an old axle off a mower deck and a pulley, a couple of bits of tube and a piece of flat bar also from a deck,
ive drilled the 3/4" rod and tapped a 3/8" thread in one end to hold the pulley and drilled a 3/4" hole in the flat bar and welded them together.
the tube will be welded on to hold it central in the attach a matic hitch once i get a belt to align it up.
once i get a belt i can weld the bar for the tension spring and fit the other pulley.
heres some photos 

I had to leave for a little while and missed getting a few pictures of the build but this is what he had done when i returned.
 

 
And at half travel.
 

 
Then full height. It goes up to about 58° which should be more than steep enough.
 
 

 
A short video of it in operation.
https://youtu.be/3HaLMsurmGA