slf-uk

Chris, you have two very cool machines. It is always good to work the equipment. Iain

Great one Tom, it looks the business Iain

Mine was a 1965 Triumph Herald in Conifer green, known by my friends as the Rust Bucket. I don't have any pictures of it but this picture is from the web Iain

One of the many reasons it would be a bad idea for me to write a haynes manual is that I forgot a essential step to moving the tower, it has been bugging me ever since I posted You also have to slacken the four bolts holding the tower to the exhaust cover panel, two bolts on each side. Again the holes are slotted to allow for the adjustment. Picture of the bolts, this time from a H16 for variety Sorry Alain, I do better next time. Iain

Chris, I am sure I could do you an autographed copy for the right price I would need to buy more tractors before considering writing a manual, now that's a thought or is it just another excuse Iain

Yep had that problem. You have two adjustment points available. The holes in the hood where it attaches to the hinge are slotted and I found the best way to adjust them is to slacken the bolts, close the hood and slide it to the desired position. The hard bit is to do the bolt up with the hood closed, I usually do the outside two to hold it in position and then open the hood to get to the middle one. Picture of the hood slots on my G14 You can also move the dash tower/scuttle thing forward/back using the fixings holding it to the chassis tubes. This is best done with the battery removed as it then has very little weight. If you move the tower you need to be careful to make sure the wiring is still clear of the belts. This is a picture of the bracket (one on each side), in this case on my G10 but they are all the same. On some models the chassis tubes are covered up and if this is the case with your machine you will need to remove the covers first to get to the brackets. Hope this helps and let us know how it goes. Iain

Happy Birthday Tom, have a great day! Are you going out for a drive? Iain

Hi Simon, welcome to MOM. That is a great looking Bolens you have. Assuming the fender is made of fibreglass and it has a lever to move the belts from high to low range then I believe it is a 900. This is a picture of my 900 I am not an expert on identifying round hood Bolens so hopefully OldBuzzard or HeadExam will confirm or correct my identification. Iain

This is exactly how I got addicted to Bolens. We do have a big problem in the UK with the small number of Bolens tractors available and this forum does have a large number of guys that like other brands, especially the red brand. As such, can I suggest we keep this as a secret otherwise they will all try a Bolens, get the same addiction and we will all be chasing a very small pool of tractors. I would also hate to see the other brands of GT's being left under hedges unloved and rusting away. The pool of Bolens just got a little smaller as I have just agreed to buy another one more details to follow after I pick it up, which hopefully is Friday. Iain

I have been doing a bit on the G14 between other jobs. Tom dropped in the other day too and he got to try some of my tractors. I expect he will be buying a Bolens now after trying one, I really should have taken a picture In the end on the G14 I milled the head out to take a 1-1/2" sleeve then knocked up a sleeve on the lathe which I then put a 1" BSP thread in. Welded the bracket onto the sleeve and pressed into the head. I have reassembled the engine and plan to give it a wash before putting all the tin work on. Iain

Happy birthday Ian, have a good one mate. Iain

I have come to the conclusion that the only solution that I will be totally happy with is to replace the head and I am looking out for one at the right price. I am sure it will take a while for one to turn up so I will progress with a sleeve. I did think about making a sleeve from aluminum but had not thought about incorporating the flange, very interesting idea. I certainly had not thought about breaking into the threaded stud holes either, again very interesting. Thanks for those ideas, I will take another look tonight and see how how feasible it is. My initial reasoning for going for a steel sleeve was that it needs to be threaded for 1" BSP to take an elbow and connect to the original exhaust and (from memory) the sleeve wall can only be a maximum of 4mm thick. I am equally sure the sleeve will be loosen with heat which is why I think the flange is important. Iain

I got offered a Homelite a few years ago but walked away from it because I had recently bought a few others. I have never seen another one in the UK and I for that reason alone I should have bought it. Iain

Steel insert was my plan although I am concerned about pressing it into an already fragile alloy head and the differential expansion issues. Interesting thought about another engine point for support, thanks. It is very tight as a cover goes over the exhaust to keep some of the heat from the engine and battery area, although space for a support does exist. I'll check that one out to see if the engine has an appropriate location point. The roof damage looks to be out of reach of a ladder so it looks like I have the additional hassle of putting up a tower. Thanks Iain

The missus just sent me this picture. First time we have had a ridge tile go flying. Looks like I won't be milling tonight Iain

It could be that they are like Pandas and the conditions have to be exactly right.

That is a really useful bit of information, many thanks. I can only get to one of my H16's at the moment which is the one I thought was older. It has the later steering wheel so it is likely they are all newer ones. I love that exhaust (muffler?) you have on that 1254 I bet that sounds cool. Iain

Progress is embarrassingly slow not helped by having to use a lot of my workshop time over the last couple of days to climb onto the workshop roof to refit roof tiles that had moved in the wind, that's my excuse anyway. I have done lots of measuring of the head and my options for milling out for a sleeve are very limited however I have worked out the exact location and depth that I can safely work to. The flange that I am going to weld onto the sleeve is critical so I started my making that out of a scrap bit of 4mm plate I had kicking around. Assuming the wind does not move any more roof tiles I am hoping to do the milling on the head tonight. Iain

I have three H16's and I keep meaning to check the age of them. I have a strong feeling (not backed up by any logic) that one is 1973 and the other two 1976/7. It's great to have hydraulic lift for those heavy attachments.

Very nice, I have never seen or heard of a 1556 in this country. Iain

It's good to see it out of the workshop and running. It looks great and appears to run very well. You are genuinely famous now Tom, Norfolk's new film star Iain

Great score Tom, I bet your pleased with that. Iain

You may be familiar with this picture which often appears on forums and at one time was on Johnny Steel's (Johnny bucket fame) web site. Hopefully it will give Chris some inspiration. Iain

This project has been on hold for a couple of weeks due to work commitments but hopefully I can now do a bit more. I had some time on Sunday so I decided to remove the head and inspect it in detail. For those that aren't aware, the larger Tecumseh engines are very odd in that they have a rocket box on top of the head. The rocket box has to be removed to get to the head bolts which means that you have to remove the valve springs with the head still in place and without easy access to the valves. One day I will check to see what the engine manual says but until then I will continue with my normal way, which is to position the piston in TDC to stop the loose valve dropping too far and remove the rocker shafts. Then grab the valve stem through the manifold port and compress the spring to remove the valve caps. I have been meaning to make a valve compressor tool to make the job easier. When I removed the rocker cover I discovered why the engine had noisy tappets. It looks like the inlet rocker has broken at some point in the past and has been welded up, which means it does not have enough adjustment. The head is worse than it looks in the picture I previously posted, with the outer part being very weak. To overcome this I am thinking of milling out the inner part of the head (very carefully) and making a long sleeve to press in. To overcome the stresses from the exhaust hanging on the sleeve I was thinking of welding a bracket on the sleeve to fix onto the original bolt holes. I will need to re-tap those bolt holes first.To finish it off I will tap a one inch BSP thread into the sleeve to connect to the original exhaust pipe via a M/F elbow. This roughly follows what Stormin and Rocboni suggested. What do you think, cunning plan or bad idea? Thanks Iain

Ian, another great video and it is good to see this project progressing. It brightened up my Monday. Thanks Iain